I never heard of white gravy. My mom made brown gravy, (which was essentially the dripping and scrappings, with some flour, some thickener, some fat and some seasoning and water if needed.), and milk gravy (which was mostly the same thing, but had a lot of milk added, so it wasn’t as thick, and is pretty much white in color). Brown garvy was made with turkey to put on the turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing, and milk gravy was for things like chicken fried steak.
P.S. If you ever suggested to my mom that there was something called gravy that didn’t have the drippings in it, she would look at you like your brain fell out.
Scones and biscuits can be made with baking powder or baking soda. Baking powder is baking soda with the addition of a dry acid (normally cream of tartar.) Baking soda without the addition of a dry or acid will do nothing for baked goods. You may see some recipes for biscuits or scones calling for baking soda and cream of tartar. This is the equivalent of using baking soda.
Biscuits and scones are in a category known as “quick breads.” These are breads which don’t require kneading or rising. The leaveners in these breads are usually baking soda (with an acid) or baking powder. Sometimes eggs are used to leaven quick breads. Biscuits in the US are not bread by standard definition.
I’ve had scones and biscuits on both sides of the pond. British scones are quite similar to American biscuits. They usually do contain raisins or perhaps cranberries, but (just like biscuits) can be either savory or sweet. Usually, they are very lightly sweetened and are similar in texture and flavor to US biscuits.
The scones I’ve had in the US are variable. Some are simply flattened muffins. Scones do not have the texture of muffins. Some are hard as a rock. Some are obnoxiously sweet. The closest food item I’ve had in the States that resembles the scone is the biscuit. (Incidentally, scones were originally made of oats and griddle-fried. That’s no longer the case. Most are made of flour and baked.)
Good grief! Even the Atlanta poster didn’t get it. For biscuits, just get yourself some Bisquik, if it’s available, and follow the directions for the biscuit recipe, they’re great. For gravy, forget sausage and try bacon gravy. Just fry up a pan of bacon, remove the bacon and drain off all but about three tablespoons of fat. On medium heat, sprinkle in about three tablespoons of plain flour and while it’s browning just slightly in the hot fat, add salt and pepper. Slowly add a little milk and stir constantly with an egg (or gravy)whisker. Add milk until you get a nice even consistency, not too thick or too thin. Should drip slowly from a spoon. Pour over biscuits for breakfast, along with eggs and bacon.
Wolfman, you didn’t confuse the issue at all, and your mom sounds like my kind of cook. How people can confuse biscuits with scones or muffins, and gravy with bechamel, or plain white sauce is beyond me.
Yes, regional variations exist, but gravy is always made with pan drippings from whatever meat has been cooked, be it sausage, bacon, chicken, hamburger, steak, turkey, roast beef, whatever. It can be brown or white in color, made with milk, water, or other liquid (broth) and various seasonings. The key is using the drippings from the meat. Always allow whatever little crusty bits of debris from the meat to remain in the pan when you make gravy, it adds wonderfully to the flavor and texture.
The biscuits in the states are a form of bread about the size of a smallish muffin and usually made with lots of butter, and sometimes layered (Pillsbury makes some kind of good ones). It’s like bread, but not as fluffy, denser, with less air and more butter. Really hard to describe in words
Ahh, I begin to see. Although I am absolutely positive my scone recipe does not call for cream of tartar, because I have only ever used cream of tartar in one recipe and had to borrow it from my mother-in-law. I do know, however, that if the recipe I have is a standard one, I don’t like scones (then again, I suppose it’s possible that in transcribing the recipe, the person who gave it to me left out the c.o.t. and that’s why they sucked so badly?)
OTOH, griddle-fried oat scones sound like something I really would like.
Scones and biscuits are pretty much the same thing. Except every scone recipe I’ve read uses butter and cream, and every biscuit recipe I’ve read uses shortening and milk. That’s for the home made ones, anyway.
Now, storebought scones that I’ve had in the UK aren’t quite like the ones I make myself, and aren’t quite like American biscuits, either. But then, storebought American biscuits don’t much resemble home made ones (especially the ones you get in a can in the dairy section).
Oh, and Bisquick does, indeed, make a perfectly respectable biscuit. Now, if you’ll excuse me, after reading all this I have to go make some scones.
Ack! Never ever ever use butter when making biscuits, they’ll turn hard as rocks! Use lard or solid vegetable shortening (like Crisco). And yes, Bisquik is fast and easy and makes darned good biscuits. If you don’t want to take the time to roll them out, pat the dough into round balls, place on baking sheet, and give 'em a good whack! with the heel of your hand.
The English don’t have gravy? Wow… the mind boggles. Biscuits and gravy are breakfast heaven. Oh–and it’s sausage gravy with biscuits; white gravy with chicken-fried steak.
We do, it’s just never (or very very rarely) served at the breakfast table. Gravy in England is usually served with roast meats at dinner (or toad in the hole, of course).
Okay, my scone recipe has both baking powder and cream of tartar, the biscuits just have baking powder. And the biscuits use shortening and the scones use butter. The big difference is that every scone recipe I’ve got (including the ones from the Aussie in-laws) has at least one EGG in it, making scones a bit stickier to handle. I’ve never seen a biscuit recipe with egg in it.
Why you Brits like this horrid concoction is beyond me! Looks like worms in jello-the taste-like fishy jello!Nevertheless, you Brits seem to love 'em!
I’ll grant you-your beer is pretty good, but I’ll NEVER eat haggis (or bangers)!
Biscuits here in the U.S. are often made with buttermilk, which is easily substituted by adding lemon juice or vinegar to milk (1 tablespoon of acid to 8 ounces of milk).
OK, as long as this has gone this far, I have some questions. What is toad in the hole, first of all? Why is Yorkshire pudding a dumpling? Do I want to know what black pudding is? Do you people REALLY eat eels (and how do they taste?) What in the world are kippers, and why do you eat tomatoes for breakfast? What’s the deal with all the organ meats?
(Note on all of the above: my own diet is very typically American, which is to say that I eat Mexican, Italian and Chinese food, and have had no real exposure to other regional cuisine. Plus, I am very nervous about trying new foods. So I actually am as ignorant as I sound, and I’m asking out of curiosity, not censure.)
IANABritish Citizen, I can answer a few questions:
Toad in the hole is sausage baked in Yorkshire pudding batter.
Yorkshire pudding is what we know in the States as something similar to a popover.
Black pudding is blood sausage–blood soaked into bread crumbs (or another medium like rice, but it’s most likely bread crumbs), mixed in with plenty of other stuff like onions, garlic, seasonings–it tastes somewhat liverish when I tried it, which was pretty much made-on-the-spot in culinary school.
Yes, people really eat eels, but I’ve never tried them, so someone else will have to cover that one for me.
Kippers, IIRC, are a type of preserved fish (I think?)
Tomatoes are very tasty for breakfast (and are eaten for breakfast in other areas of the US), and since it’s a fruit–who hasn’t had fruit for breakfast before?
Organ meats are absolutely delicious when cooked properly. Often, they’re high in fat, so they’ve got that going for it. I’m a big fan of sweetbreads that are done properly. Remember, the cuisine of other countries goes back much farther than our history of meatpacking practices in the United States, and eating organ meats was a way of making sure that all parts of the animal were used.
Kippers are normally smoked herring. I usually saw them served for breakfast. I love kippers.
Eels. What’s so gross about eels? I used to eat canned eels in the States all the time. Eastern Europeans eat eels, too. I don’t think it’s any weirder than eating, say, catfish.
Also never thought tomatoes for breakfast are weird. Then again, my typical breakfast consists of open-faced sandwiches with a selection of cold cuts, cheeses and tomatoes.
Black pudding, as has been covered, is similar to blutwurst or kiszka/keeshka, but not exactly the same thing. Yes, it has blood, and yes it’s delicious. There’s also something called white pudding, which is a sausage made from oatmeal (or other grain) and pork.
And while we’re at it:
Rashers and streaky rashers are similar to bacon. Streaky rashers probably resemble US bacon the most. Rashers are meatier and leaner.
Bangers are a type of sausage.
Mash is mashed potatoes.
Crisps are chips.
Chips are (steak) fries.
Oddly, I’ve never eaten jellied eels (the jelly doesn’t appeal to me very much, but the eels probably would); I’ve eaten conger eel which is rather nice; a bit like swordfish.
From what Labdad said about adding sage to the sausages, it sounds like American sausage is more highly seasoned than our standard banger; is this correct?
(Actually, the ‘bangers’ that you are most likely to be served at breakfast in a british hotel are nearly always the lowest common denominator of sausage and are a disgrace; the best kind of sausage is usually that bought from a small butcher’s shop (having been made on the premises))
