Hacker News Reader

Comment by modernerd | Hacker News Reader

I just wish Most of America would stop calling them biscuits.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/lukebailey/scones-and-jizz

That article goes a bit overboard. Yes, we call a different thing biscuits. (I like our way, honestly, but then, I grew up with that.) What the article declares as "this is gravy, America" is what Americans call gravy. The white stuff, served atop biscuits is also gravy, usually disambiguated by calling it "country gravy". It's mostly a southern thing; my SO from New England gave it a good "WTF is that." the first time I ordered it and she saw it. (I may have ordered it specifically to see it get that reaction, but also b/c it's good.)

But even in the south, we put normal, brown gravy on, e.g., turkey. Country gravy is different and goes well with different things, like chicken-fried steak. (And now I leave you to Google what that is. ;) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_fried_steak )

And don't get me started on the places that serve abnormally shaped, completely unseasoned, deep-fried tater-tots as "hash browns". Ugh.

The white gravy is what we would call white sauce in Britain, and close to what the French would call béchamel (although woe betide you if serve béchamel in France that isn't perfectly white).

In the subcontinent gravy refers to any curry sauce, so there is at least one other well-established usage that differs from the British usage.

For me, Southern American cuisine is very distinctive and unique so I give it free reign on whatever it wants to call things. I object only to some of the silly American names like "French fries" and "Russian dressing".

The one time I tried biscuits and gravy in Texas, I was honestly pretty disgusted - the 'bisuits' were dry and bland, and the 'gravy' was... well, it was horrible. It was kind of like a really badly made bechamel - lumpy, a most unappetising colour (I'm colour blind, but I would have guessed grey), and with the strange additions of some kind of poor quality cheese, and lots and lots of sugar. Just... wrong.

I hope I just had a bad rendition, but it has put me off for life.

I’m from Texas. Good biscuits are light, fluffy and moist. Good gravy is creamy and flavorful, no sugar. You had a very bad experience.

British biscuits are closer to the original biscuits. The word biscuit means "twice cooked" (cuit is still French for cooked). This refers to the kind of biscuits that were taken on ships. They are made by first making a big cake, then chopping it up and cooking the pieces a second time to dry them out.

Such biscuits are still popular with Afrikaaners in South Africa.

Cook and cake have the same origin. Cookie just means "little cake" and therefore is completely correct in the way Americans use it. It just has a different origin to biscuit.

>Such biscuits are still popular with Afrikaaners in South Africa.

"Rusks", if anyone is curious. You dunk them into your tea or coffee to soften them before eating.

>Such biscuits are still popular with Afrikaaners in South Africa.

Also in Greece:

https://culinarybackstreets.com/cities-category/athens/2018/...

Rusk is the English word but in Afrikaans (which comes from old Dutch) it's beskuit.

In the UK, a rusk is a particular kind of biscuit. Often given to children when they're teething.

I'd almost say 'used to be' - most people don't think it's OK nowadays to give a baby/toddler what is essentially a hard lump of sugar that they suck for hours on end.

Source: I'm a parent of young kids, and know dozens of others as a result; I don't know a single person that gave their kid a rusk.

How about bickiepegs? https://www.bickiepegs.com/bickiepegs-healthcare-brands/bick...

Never evn heard of them before, despite them being based <10 miles from me!

This made me think that there are a million special purposes biscuits. One biscuit for teething children, one biscuit for stomach ache, a biscuit for graduation, and a biscuit for Lake District walks.

Well digestive biscuits are supposed to aid digestion.

Kendal mint cake is for Lake district walks, so you don't need a biscuit.

You do raise a good point about graduation though. I assume it would have to be non crumbly so you don't lose the deposit on your gown, and be able to soak up lots of alcohol.

As biscuits and tea are such an important pairing, you won't be surprised to learn that having a million special purpose biscuits, we have done it with tea, too.

English/Scottish/Irish breakfast and afternoon, innumerable single source and black tea blends, and then there's the mass market blends. PG is the number one selling UK mass market tea but was originally sold as "Digestive tea", then "Pre-Gestee", which was abbreviated by stores to PG, which stuck.

Teabags, of course, are the spawn of satan and should be avoided whenever possible. :)

Thanks for the fun and informative reply, tea person.

And we wish you'd learn that not every Latin-derived word with a long "e" spelled it "oe" or "ae". And that you'd stop insisting on "dual carriageway" as a term for roads that have only ever existed in the age of internal combustion. And that you'd learn what a jumper actually is. And how to pronounce the letter "r". And that you'd understand that if you've "lost a stone" it means a jewel fell out of your ring, not that you're on a diet. And for that matter, that you'd pick a system of weights and measures and stick to it. And that you'd clarify whether there is in fact any type of food in existence that cannot somehow be classed as "pudding".

And... well, shall we go on?

There's nothing special about dual carriageway. A carriageway is simply a way that is wide enough and smooth enough for a carriage to pass. It's still a useful distinction because cars have the same requirements, but "carway" sounds silly.

The word road comes from the word ride which is still used today to refer to bridleways in Britain (for example, in Hyde Park: the North Ride and the South Ride). Road is therefore a much more general word and is used to refer to many more things than carriageways like railway lines, tunnels and even areas of water near shores.

As for the other stuff, it's true that British and American have both diverged from a common root. The best example is with -ise or -ize endings. Neither is completely correct because some words originally had one and some had the other. The Oxford English Dictionary reflects the original endings in its spellings. But at some point Britain standardised on one and America standardised on the other. Maybe -ise looks nicer but -ize looks cooler? Who knows...

Dual carriageways don’t just carry motorised traffic. Bicycles can legally use them, even though cars will be travelling at up to 70mph. They are distinct to motorways, which also have a maximum speed of 70mph but a minimum speed (in free flowing traffic) of 50mph, making cycling illegal on them.

I've lost the stone. Can you see it? I've looked everywhere and can't find it.

Re weights an measures. We changed it so we wouldn't be doing something different to the rest of entire world.

Puddings are good, why not make everything a pudding? More seriously a pudding used to be a meat based thing (Yorkshire pudding had dripping in) that went sweet. Kind of like why mince pies don't have mince in them.

With the jumper, I assume you would like us to call it a 'sweater'? If its making you sweat, take it off!

I don't know what you're talking about with my r pronunciation. I pronounce my arghs perfectly. I assume you probably pronounce them weirdly though.

America and Britain. Two nations divided by a common language. Winston Churchill.

We are fairly inconsistent about use of metric in general use in the UK - for example: last weekend I drove 79 miles at 60 or 70mph to walk 21km and climb about 900m to go up two hills at about 930m and 940m which I feel compelled to climb as they are more than 3000ft high!

I want to make a comment about not being able to decide whether we are fully adopting European things or not, but I won't.

I think a part of it is that imperial units are human sized and quite useful. A pint of beer is the natural correct unit of measurement. A cm is just a bit too small for a guessed at measure, an inch or foot can be understood to be inaccurate generalisations. Metric equivalents not so much. Road signage is a mess though. Distance: Miles, except shorter distances: Metres. Both shortened to 'm'.

Litre, cm, metre - all are human-size units that are useful. It's easier for me to ad-hoc measure a cable in metres than in feet because the distance between my hand and my opposite shoulder across my chest is about 1 metre. Similarly, a kg of sugar weighs about the same as a litre of milk, and I've been drinking milk from litre cartons all my life. (As a kid in Ireland, there were three main sizes in the shops, 1 pint and 1 litre cartons and 2 litre bottles. 1 pint was always too small for a family of three - you'd run out before it went off.)

I think you're labouring under parochialism of measurement. Grow up under a different system and you'll see there's nothing special or advantageous about the imperial system at all.

I find the imperial system totally confusing - I'd actually prefer if we moved to metric for driving - we've used metric for petrol/diesel volumes for ages.

Hey don't get me wrong, I would rather just have one (metric) system. I grew up with metric in school etc. If I'm measuring something its metric, but if I'm eyeballing something its probably imperial.

I would guess its the origin of the units, I just find it easier to guestimate a foot rather than a metre.

I do not wish to counter with a list of Americanisms that British people find infuriating, as life is short and we might all expire before I was done.

I will note that — unlike in Europe where metrication and SI units have been legal requirements since 1973 and are in wide use outside of the scientific community — America has no agreed upon “system of weights and measures” as you put it, instead considering the adoption of any standard “voluntary”, which makes a farce of the very idea of standardi[s|z]ation[1].

https://gizmodo.com/the-white-house-says-you-can-use-the-met...

Metrication in the US and UK are very similar. The US has an actual federal law on the books declaring metric to be the official system of weights and measures nationwide.

And... we still use a mix of systems, including in "official" things like road signage. In much the same way, Brits still order beer by the pint, read their speedometers in miles per hour, etc. etc.

That's interesting, and the “official but not strongly enforced” feel in the US does sound pretty similar to the UK, just from skimming through https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_Stat....

Okay, but the Brits have systematically forgotten to pronounce the letter "H" in front of words except when it comes in front of "herbs", of all things. I dunno if we can trust you guys on matters of language!

We pronounce all of our H's including herb, hotel, hospital and any other word of French origin. It's Americans that bizarrely become French on matters of cuisine such as 'erbs and "bleu" cheese. If only the food itself was more like the French, eh?

It's important to note that when pronouncing the letter H itself it does not begin with an H. Pronouncing it like "haitch" will make you sound uneducated in Britain.

> If only the food itself was more like the French, eh?

Do you mean if the herbs and bleu cheese were more like the French? Or food in the US in general, in which case I couldn't help but disagree?

The only time most Brits drop our Hs now is when doing an impression of an American doing an impression of John Lennon.

Perhaps in parts of Yorkshire otherwise I’m really struggling to think of what words I drop the H from. Americans saying ‘erbs confused me for years.

Hey, I'm from Yorkshire and I don't pronounce any aitches, you stole the 'erb thing from us. The non aitch pronunciation thing isn't common though, unless your only experience of English is the new Dr Who.

I'm not English or American but it seems bizarre to see an American schooling the English on how Englsh should be pronounced.

Why? The modern American accent is closer to how both Americans and Brits talked before they split. Received Pronunciation is a fairly recent invention.

"modern American accent"? Which one is that?

General American.

I was just playing along with the joke in the article, pretending to be huffy that dialects exist.

From the votes it looks like I misjudged my audience--people actually are huffy that dialects exist. Who knew?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com