Our little shipmates love biscuits
but do you know why these little cookies are called biscuits?
2500 BC! The Valley of the Kings and the pharaohs of Ancient Egypt. The Egyptians are at the origin of the biscuit. In the tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh Ti of the V Dynasty, some paintings show a worker who fans the fire of an oven where cakes are being cooked.
461 to 429 BC, Greece! At the time of Pericles, the Greeks already knew how to prepare many varieties of bread. One in particular, the dipyre or loaf was cooked twice signing the birth of the biscuit.
The Middle Ages! The 5th to the 15th century. The origin of the word “biscuit” comes from the Middle Ages, where they cooked a paste and cooked it twice so that the cookie could withstand long journeys without being damaged. So they called it Bis-cuit - twice cooked!
The biscuit was mostly used by the Navy for the sailors during their long passages, since it remained edible longer than the bread. The sea biscuit, also called galette, is a kind of biscuit or dry bread. It is composed of water, leaven, and flour and cooked twice longer than normal bread.
A ship biscuit in a museum!
Exemple of "biscuit de mer »
. A ship biscuit, allegedly the oldest in the world, dating from as early as 1852, is displayed prominently at the maritime museum in Kronborg castle, Helsingør (Elsinore), Denmark. Photo by Paul Cziko.