Biscuits, Crackers, etc.
The word biscuit means twice baked, and is a survival from the ancient mode of cooking the cakes which is now no longer in use. Plain biscuits are said to be more nutritious than bread in the proportion of five to three, and are most digestible when light and well browned in baking, so as to turn much of the starch into dextrine. Sea biscuit or ship bread is made simply of flour and water baked at a high heat. In the large cracker bakeries the dough is mixed, rolled and cut by machinery and the cakes travel on through patent ovens until baked, when they drop out into baskets. Those made by hand are, however, considered best.
The variety of biscuits and crackers in market is utterly bewildering. These are among the standards: Boston, SODA, BUTTER, OYSTER, SUGAR, FRUIT, MILK, ENGLISH ALBERT, WATER, CREAM, GINGER, LEMON, OATMEAL, CARAWAY, VANILLA, and dozens more kinds of biscuits, crackers and wafers at various prices; besides GINGER and LEMON SNAPS and JUMBLES, and even DOG BISCUIT. There is also CRACKER DUST, for frying oysters, fish, etc. Some of the above come in handsome tin packages.
Maccaroni, VERMICELLI, Spaghetti.—These are all made from the dough of the hardest and most glutenous Southern wheat, and the domestic are inferior to the Italian or French. The best will merely swell and soften after long boiling, and still retain its form. Maccaroni is in small tubes, spaghetti in small stems, and vermicelli in threads or shreds. Letters, stars, and other figures are also made from the same material or paste; all are largely used in soups. Egg noodles are ribbon maccaroni.