# Biscuits vs croissants **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 22, 2015, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biscuits-vs-croissants/741045 "2015-12-22T00:10:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2015, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biscuits-vs-croissants/741045/81 "2015-12-26T12:38:45Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Naah, I just have a nationalistic agenda if I don’t… well, maybe if you didn’t expend so much effort telling us that you don’t want to eat something… ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2015, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biscuits-vs-croissants/741045/82 "2015-12-26T12:47:55Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Naah, I just have a nationalistic agenda if I don’t… If you say so. I didn’t think so or say so, but I trust you to tell me about yourself, so cool. > [@](#): > > So around 8 times isn’t enough … how many times will I have to try biscuits before you’d say I was in a position to “pontificate”? 10? 12? 536? Dude, that’s a question only you can answer. How many times will you have to try them before you realize they’re not just savory scones? ---
**Author:** ![quiltguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e47774/32.png) [@quiltguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quiltguy)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2015, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biscuits-vs-croissants/741045/83 "2015-12-27T15:19:08Z")
Rack up another vote for biscuits, and with that vote goes a little story. My husband’s paternal grandparents, having become increasingly infirm, went to live with my husband’s parents. Granma was a farm wife of long standing, and was used to making baskets of biscuits every morning. Even after she became blind, she still had the wherewithal to, every morning, make TWO biscuits, for her husband of many years. A handful of this and a pinch of that, stirred up in an old coffee cup. Then lovingly baked as breakfast was made. Every time I think of that family tale, I get all misty. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2015, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biscuits-vs-croissants/741045/84 "2015-12-27T16:23:41Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > well, maybe if you didn’t expend so much effort telling us that you don’t want to eat something… I was asked by someone, as were we all. I believe it’s called “the OP”… Otherwise, I’ve just been responding. > [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > If you say so. No, **Johnny Bravo** [says so](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=18964981&postcount=65)… > [@](#): > > I didn’t think so or say so Didn’t say _you_ did. > [@](#): > > Dude, that’s a question only you can answer. How many times will you have to try them before you realize they’re not just savory scones? Given what I’ve tasted, I can say I’m _never_ going to not think that, no matter how many more i have. Unless the ones I _have_ had were just completely unlike “actual” biscuits. In which case, like I said, take it up with the Americans you’re sending my way. They must not know what a true [del]porridge[/del] biscuit is, then. Despite being Southerners (NC _is_ South enough for you, right? And Georgia?) Given other responses in this thread, I am not alone in thinking biscuits are like scones, anyway. Note - I’m _not_ presuming to tell you what foodstuff is and isn’t a biscuit, or how to make them. _That_ would be telling you about your native foodstuffs. I’m telling you what your native foodstuff, when presented to me, numerous times, by people who should know what it should be like, tasted like _to me_. So effectively you’re telling me “You’re tasting it wrong!” which is, quite frankly, pants. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2015, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biscuits-vs-croissants/741045/85 "2015-12-27T20:01:27Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Croissants, with the caveat that there are very few places outside of France or Quebec that makes them right. Most croissants in the US are anything from Pillsbury Crescent Rolls, to something that might have a little bit of crispiness on the outside. > > Good croissants are crispy all the way through. I agree completely. We get wonderful croissants at a bakery about 1/3 mile from my house. But bad croissants are…bad. Once I spent two nights in the old fancy Lord Nelson in Halifax. On the breakfast menu they had both croissants and bagels. The first morning I tried the croissants. Dreadful. Basically bread dough baked into a crescent shape. So the second morning I tried a bagel. Guess what? Basically bread dough baked into a bagel shape. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2015, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biscuits-vs-croissants/741045/86 "2015-12-27T20:15:18Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Given other responses in this thread, I am not alone in thinking biscuits are like scones, anyway. By now, a “Fair enough–maybe you know more about biscuits than I do” would have gone a long way to making you seem reasonable about this issue :). Of course biscuits are **like** scones. It’s just that they’re not “just savoury scones,” as you dismissed them earlier. That is, in the immortal words of one of the great posters on this messageboard, pants. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2015, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biscuits-vs-croissants/741045/87 "2015-12-27T20:46:00Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > By now, a “Fair enough–maybe you know more about biscuits than I do” would have gone a long way to making you seem reasonable about this issue :). It’s got fuck-all to do with knowledge and everything to do with taste. Unless,as i said, you think the people who made me biscuits were not, actually, making real biscuits… ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2015, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biscuits-vs-croissants/741045/88 "2015-12-27T21:03:49Z")
I wish we could break some bread together and get along. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2015, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biscuits-vs-croissants/741045/89 "2015-12-27T21:26:10Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > It’s got fuck-all to do with knowledge and everything to do with taste. Unless,as i said, you think the people who made me biscuits were not, actually, making real biscuits… It had nothing to do with your individual tastes and everything to do with how you phrased it. You said, “American biscuits are just savoury scones. Their role in my life is already filled - by bread.” You came off as needlessly dismissive about one of the cornerstones of southern American cuisine, both by implying that they’re nothing but a derivative (they’re related, yes, but have their own distinct history) of your own cuisine, and also by saying that “bread” already fills that role in your life. For someone whose average week involves the purchase and consumption of no less than 15 distinct types of bread with origins all over the world, this is an odd thing to say. It would be like me saying, “Cabbages are just rounded collard greens. That role in my life is already filled - by vegetables.” It’s a nonsensical statement. “Vegetables” is far too broad a descriptor, and cabbages are not rounded collard greens despite the two being closely related. Maybe just, I dunno, “I’ve had American biscuits a few times. I prefer scones.” ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2015, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biscuits-vs-croissants/741045/90 "2015-12-27T21:37:06Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > Maybe just, I dunno, “I’ve had American biscuits a few times. I prefer scones.” Exactly. Since biscuits are significantly more than “just” savoury scones (different texture, different context in cuisine, different ingredient list, different history, etc.), the statement was wrong. It wasn’t at all a statement about taste. A statement like your suggestion would have been, and wouldn’t have opened him up to derision. But it looks like he’s gotta double and triple and quadruple down, so I’ll let him continue to do that; I don’t really have anything else to say on the subject. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2015, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biscuits-vs-croissants/741045/91 "2015-12-27T23:10:19Z")
Yes, biscuits do remind me of scones. There’s just the difference in the way they are eaten. I like scones with butter, cream cheese and coffee. I take biscuits with roast beef gravy. Oh, and i’m for the more sour scone, the one with more sour cream added. ---
**Author:** ![quiltguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e47774/32.png) [@quiltguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quiltguy)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2015, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biscuits-vs-croissants/741045/92 "2015-12-27T23:22:32Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > I wish we could break some bread together and get along. Then you would be a boon companion indeed. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2015, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biscuits-vs-croissants/741045/93 "2015-12-28T00:08:43Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Exactly. Since biscuits are significantly more than “just” savoury scones (different texture, different context in cuisine, different ingredient list, different history, etc.). Their histories seem to be intertwined (from what I can find, biscuits seem to descend from Scottish scones.) The New York Times [claims the difference is some sugar and egg](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/26/dining/biscuits-and-scones-share-tender-secrets.html), but I disagree, as plenty of biscuit recipes have sugar, and some scone recipes don’t have egg (like the scones I linked to above.) Like I said, it’s a continuum. They are very closely related foodstuffs. > [@](#): > > And once you’ve mastered scones, you’ll automatically know how to make biscuits. All that separates them is two tablespoons of sugar and an egg. > > British scone purists and Southern biscuit purists (and there are plenty of each) may shriek at this. But from a baker’s perspective, “They are pretty much spot on the same,” said Heather Bertinetti, the pastry chef at the Four Seasons restaurant in New York City. ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2015, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biscuits-vs-croissants/741045/94 "2015-12-28T00:10:17Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Such sadness. Such despair. Such a gray, lifeless world you describe. > > I can’t make a croissant. I can make the fuck out of some biscuits. About once a month I make a batch of herbed cheddar buttermilk drop biscuits to eat with soup or by their lonesome. Whoever said drop biscuits tilt the scales is exactly right: they’re not splittable, but the super crustiness of them is phenomenal. And they’re really easy to make. I’ll be right over. I can’t make biscuits, even drop biscuits, to save my life. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2015, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biscuits-vs-croissants/741045/95 "2015-12-28T00:42:41Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Like I said, it’s a continuum. They are very closely related foodstuffs. Yes, of course. Pick any recipe from any culture and odds are you can find a closely related one from half a world away. Especially when we’re talking American foods, the inventions of immigrants longing for their homes. Check the Wikipedia entry for just about any food you can imagine and you’ll find a list of related foods near the bottom. Still, though, that doesn’t make them interchangeable. As for that article, it gets a ‘meh’ from me. There are dozens of different breads which only contain all-purpose flour, salt, water, and yeast. The only differences are proportion and treatment. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2015, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biscuits-vs-croissants/741045/96 "2015-12-28T00:54:21Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > Yes, of course. Pick any recipe from any culture and odds are you can find a closely related one from half a world away. Sure. Of course. But, like I said, it’s a continuum. I’d be hard-pressed to classify some quickbreads as scones or biscuits as they are so similar at the edges of the continuum. The stuff I had in Scotland I would have accepted as “biscuits” if they were served to me here in the States, they were so similar. I trust that **MrDibble** has experienced biscuits that intersect the continuum with what he has had as savory scones. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2015, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biscuits-vs-croissants/741045/97 "2015-12-28T01:20:32Z")
[Fake criossants](https://i.imgur.com/p24EzHt.jpg). Can you imagine biting into a “croissant” and finding puffy white bread inside? It happens. Anyway, biscuits make a better gravy delivery mechanism, and that’s all I care about. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2015, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biscuits-vs-croissants/741045/98 "2015-12-28T01:25:01Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > [Fake criossants](https://i.imgur.com/p24EzHt.jpg). . :eek: Egads. What is that abomination? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2015, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biscuits-vs-croissants/741045/99 "2015-12-28T01:35:10Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > :eek: Egads. What is that abomination? I found the picture on Reddit. There is apparently a segment of the population that is not aware that croissants should not look like that. I suspect they are sold alongside Hostess “donuts” and other products only marginally related to their namesake. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2015, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biscuits-vs-croissants/741045/100 "2015-12-28T01:37:11Z")
Yep, a lot of folks who think they don’t like croissants have never actually had one. Madness. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biscuits-vs-croissants/741045.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biscuits-vs-croissants/741045.md?page=6)