On Sun, 23 May 2004 08:33:17 +1000, "ant" > wrote:

>
>"Tony Walton" > wrote in message
...
>> > Scones/biscuits, biscuits/cookies,
>>
>> True. The things I've seen in the US as "biscuits" are nowhere near
>> what I (in the UK) would call biscuits. Interesting, the way words
>> differ...
>
>the Americans use the word biscuits to describe things that are very like
>scones.

'Cept in my experience the best American biscuits are only like scones
inasmuch as they're savoury and some scones are savoury. I'm not very fond
of scones in general, but I adore American biscuits. Though, I'm not
very fond of poorly made or not fresh American biscuits, so perhaps I've
only ever had poorly made scones and if I had real, fresh, well-made scones
I'd feel differently about them. Hmmm something to ponder when we visit the
UK.

As far as I know, there is no real analog to the American biscuit in the
UK, and I can see why people use scones as the example for their UK
friends.

Of course, I might be being biscuit snobbish, because I'm only thinking of
the wondrous, light, fluffy, hot, fresh, buttermilk biscuits that are
ubiquitous in the Southern US but that you can obtain if you know where to
go up here in New England (not the stuff you get in a tube from Pillsbury,
which, while fresh and hot, can't touch a homemade biscuit). *drool* I
really wish I had some biscuits and sausage gravy right now. That sounds
fantastic.

--
Siobhan Perricone
"This isn't right. This isn't even wrong."
- Wolfgang Pauli, on a paper submitted by a physicist colleague