[HPFGU-OTChatter] Answer the biscuit question already

[Amanda Lewanski]

Neil Ward wrote:

> One that always confuses me is "Graham crackers" - I can't remember if
> these are the same thing as our digestive biscuits or our cream
> crackers (square, crisp, savoury - go well with cheese?).

There's a variety of graham crackers, so called because they're all made
with graham flour (and I used to know what distinguished graham flour,
but that brain cell has apparently expired). They're not *very* sweet,
but are on the sweet side (especially cinnamon grahams), so they're
popular with moms who want to give their kids something healthy that
they'll actually eat. They are big & square, on the order of 3 inches by
5, with perforations so you can break them easily. They're crisp when
you open the package, but the packages aren't resealable so they get
uncrisp pretty fast in humid environs (which is also good on the mom
side of things--fewer crumbs). Straight graham crackers go well with
cheese. They go well with loads of stuff.

> The Pillsbury Dough Boy sells, um.... uncooked dough for croissants,
> pastries and bread rolls in twist open cardboard tubes?

Yup. And loads of new stuff like premade pie crust (actually pretty
good), premade brownies all ready to bake in little disposable pans,
etc.

> Is tollhouse a brand?

Not exactly. Tollhouse cookies are chocolate chip cookies. The name
comes from some tradition that that type of cookie was made by a lady
who ran a tollhouse someplace (probably back East), and she became known
for them, and the appellation stuck. This comes from deep in my trivia
vats and I can provide no more info, but it was from way, way before the
current proliferation of urban legends and I think it's true. Tollhouse
chips are chocolate chips.

Of course, once the name got popular someone probably used it as a brand
name, but it didn't start that way.

> Next question: What do Americans call dog biscuits?  Dog cookies?

Dog biscuits. Because they are NOT SWEET, like biscuits aren't. Dog
cookies are cute little dog- and bone-shaped things with sprinkles and
such, bought by ridiculously rich people with careers and canine child
substitutes, often attractively packaged in baskets with colored Saran
wrap and other dog yummies, available for delivery in time for that
special dog's special day!

Actually, "Milk-Bone" has made it into common parlance as a word in its
own right, no longer a brand, like jello or kleenex or band-aid. So
that's a dog biscuit synonym too. [Isn't there a word for that
occurrence, where the brand word becomes the word for the thing itself?
It can be regional, too--as for instance in Texas where a coke is any
carbonated beverage--generally when someone says they want a coke, I ask
what kind.]

Okay, I can get to bed early tonight and I'm really gonna do it this
time!

--Amanda
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