Vickipedia

BI’SCUITS (Fr. twice-baked), small, flat bread, rendered dry and hard by baking, in order to their long preservation. They are divided into two classes�the unfermented and the fermented. Unfermented or unleavened, B., generally known as common sea-biscuits or ship-tread, are made of wheaten-flour (retaining some of the bran) water, and common salt. The materials are kneaded together, either by manual labor�that is, by the hands and feet of the workmen�or by introducing the materials into a long trough, or box, with a central shaft, to which a series of knives is attached, and which is made to revolve rapidly by machinery. The mass of dough so obtained is then kneaded and thinned out into a sheet the proper thickness of the B., by being passed and repassed between heavy rollers. This sheet being placed below a roller with knife-edge shapes, is readily cut into hexagonal (six-sided) or round pieces of dough of the required size of the biscuits. The indentation of the slabs of dough, in the case of the hexagonal B., is not complete, so that all the B. cut out of each slab remain slightly adhering together. These slabs of B. are then introduced into an oven for about 15 minutes, and are placed in a warm room for 2 or 3 days, to become thoroughly dry. The more modern oven is open at both ends, and the B. being placed in a framework, are drawn by chains through the oven. So rapidly is this operation conducted, that about 2000 lbs. weight of B. are passed through one of these ovens every day of ten hours.

Captain�s B. are prepared from wheaten-flour, water, with common salt, and butter, with an occasional small dose of yeast to cause partial fermentation. Milk is also sometimes employed. Water or hard B. are made of flour, water, with variable quantities of butter, eggs, spices, and sugar. Soft B. contain increased quantities of butter and sugar. Yeast B. are those the dough of which is mixed with a small quantity of yeast, yielding more porous biscuits. Buttered B. are made with much butter and a little yeast. Other varieties of B. are named in the following table, which gives the materials added to the sack of flour, 280 lbs. in weight:

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Great care must be taken in the manipulative part of the process to incorporate the ingredients in a systematic manner. Thus, the butter is mixed with the flour in a dry condition, and then the water or milk added; and when eggs are used, they are thoroughly beaten up with water, and the sugar (if the latter is required) and the egg-paste added to the dough, which has been previously prepared with butter, or without butter. The various kinds of B. in the preparation of which yeast is employed, present a more spongy aspect than the unyeasted biscuits. Occasionally a little sesquicarbonate of ammonia (volatile salt) is added, to assist in raising the dough, and make a lighter biscuit. There are three principal varieties of the yeast or fermented B., and the following table gives the ingredients used in their manufacture from a sack of flour, or 280 lbs.:

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Soft or spiced B. are prepared from flour, with much sugar, a great many eggs, some butter, and a small quantity of spices and essences. The eggs tend to give a nice yellow cream-color to the B., which is occasionally imitated by the admixture of a chromate of lead (chrome yellow); but this is dangerous, and has given rise to several cases of poisoning. Several of the soft or spiced B. are referred to in the following table, a sack, or 280 lbs., being the amount of flour employed in each instance:

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The extent to which B. are now consumed may be learned from the fact, that several of the largest biscuit-manufactories each prepare and throw into market every week from 30,000 to 50,000 lbs. weight of B. of various kinds. One of the largest and most complete biscuit-manufactories in England is that of Can- at Carlisle, whose biscuits, sold in tin-boxes, are well known. Still more famous is that of Huntley and Palmer at Heading, employing over 3000 persons.