Mairi Gordon digests the history of biscuits: which involves everything from hob-nobbing with Alexander the Great to making the fortunes of sugar-daddy Alexander Grant

While the search for British identity continues, one integral feature of daily life in the UK continues to be chronically overlooked.  Hopeful candidates for UK citizenship may now have to answer questions such as what do vets do, and where is Scouse spoken (two obvious hallmarks of Britishness according to the government handbook).  Yet our country’s most beloved institution goes without mention though it’s more British than the British museum.  I am talking, of course, about the biscuit. While sceptics may doubt the potential of a ginger nut or a hob-nob, the humble biscuit might be the missing link to understanding just about everything British and good.

Of course the biscuit did not originate in Britain.  Perhaps its earliest ancestor was nibbled in Persia where inhabitants began cultivating sugar, capitalising on its many sweet uses.  With a little help from expanding trade routes and the crusades, sugar steadily made its way from Persia to the East Mediterranean to Europe.  The availability and affordability of sugar steadily increased so that by the Elizabethan age, British cookbooks were full of recipes for biscuits, cakes and pastries.  The Goode Huswife’s Jewel, published in 1596, advised women on the art of making fine cakes, warning, “do not burn them, if they be three of four days old they be better.” 

Biscuits travelled further still.  Accounts from the third crusade say that King Richard the Lionheart left for battle in 1189 with a ‘biskit of muslin’ made largely from mixed corn, barley and rye.  Biscuits remained an integral part of a sailor’s diet until canned food and bread was introduced in the 1800’s. In the year 1521, following Hernan Cortes’ conquest of the Aztecs, European explorers returned with another ingredient destined to revolutionize the fledgling biscuit industry: chocolate.  

Meanwhile European immigrants to the Americas adapted their biscuit recipes to life across the pond, laying the foundation for the centuries old rivalry between the American cracker or cookie (derived from the Dutch word koekje meaning little cake) and the British biscuit (derived from the Latin bis coctum, meaning twice baked).  Despite the rivalry between these two sweet-toothed baking giants, cookies and biscuits are inarguably the product of a shrinking world, where seas became smaller and borders much less imposing.  

With ingredients and recipes whizzing from continent to continent the biscuit gradually came to resemble the sweet treat it is today.  In 1799, Edinburgh dwelling biscuit pioneer, Alexander Grant, invented the now beloved Digestive. The name digestive was derived from the widely held belief that one ingredient, baking soda, greatly aids digestion.  This humble biscuit was described by Bill Bryson as a “British masterpiece” with the chocolate-coated variety being guzzled down at an average of 52 biscuits a second in the UK alone.  South of the border, in Yorkshire the Rich Tea Biscuit was developed, designed to appeal to the upper classes.  While it is often criticized for its bland taste, the tea biscuit remains a staple on British supermarket shelves, presumably due to the transformation that takes place when it is dunked in a cup of tea.

Of course the Rich Tea biscuit cannot perhaps compare to the luxury and complexity of the Jaffa Cake, which McVites launched on the confection market at the end of World War II.  Despite the financial austerity of post-war Britain the luxurious Jaffa Cake proved extremely popular.  An estimated three million Jaffa Cakes are produced at the McVites Manchester factory every day. This seemingly innocuous treat sparked the favourite living room debate of whether the Jaffa Cake is indeed a cake or a biscuit.  Legally, at least, they are cakes. 

The history of biscuits is hardly guilt free.  Essential ingredients came biscuits came to our shores more often through war and conquest than through good-natured curiosity and trade.  But the history of most countries is tinged with bitterness and is stale around the edges.  Biscuits should still be celebrated as the sweet and simple result of far weightier and complex forces.  In short, anyone who has even a passing interest in being British or understanding people who are, should dig out some change from under their sofa and start at the biscuit aisle.