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As a child I travelled fifteen miles to a senior school which drew pupils from a wide catchment area. As we sat and consumed our packed lunches we began to notice the different names we all used for a bread roll. The name seemed to change every five miles or so. I suppose that bread is traditionally made in a local bakery and doesn't need to have a name which is understood beyond the immediate area.
What names are used in your part of the world for a bread roll - I wonder how many we can come up with!
I'll add mine to the list later
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When people I know say bread, they usually mean a loaf that
can be sliced. A roll is considered as something you eat
w/ dinner, preferably warm and buttered. Rolls are usually
made w/ yeast. We also eat biscuits, w/ any meal but
esp. breakfast. These are made from a yeastless dough that is rolled out and cut into circles.
The name sweet roll speaks for itself. Not very many people
here use the term sweet buns, though I have heard the name
cinnamon buns. If we just say, "pass the buns", that is
generally understood to be a pre-packaged, pre-sliced kind
of roll intended for making sandwiches (ex. hamburger bun).
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Pooh-Bah
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We would call a biscuit the thing that you would call a cookie.
I think an American biscuit is closer to a British scone - but I think that a scone would be thicker (?) They are sometimes plain, sometimes with raisins or sultanas, sometimes with cheese.
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stranger
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I make sandwiches on rolls, not buns, but I wonder if I've simply been using the wrong word all along!
The scones I've had are a bit harder and drier than American biscuits, but that could possibly be attributed to inadequate preparation. I've only had them in America.
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My (Norweigian) grandmother made bread loaves and buns interchangeably from the same dough; often chopped fruit was added and the results were glazed. At Easter-time we have hot cross buns. Baking soda biscuits (yeast-less) are also called popovers, aren't they?
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#3085
06/01/2000 11:42 AM
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>>Baking soda biscuits (yeast-less) are also called popovers, aren't they?<< I tried a popover recipe once, so long ago that I don't remember the ingredients. I do remember that they came out rounded like dinner rolls, and had a weird crunchy top crust. Give me nice, soft, flat biscuits any day! (with no okra in them!) 
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A bread roll in this part of the world is one that resembles a hot-dog roll and is usually eaten with soup or cheese and cold meats.
We have two new terms for other types of bread rolls. Hamburger rolls are called 'bundys' which came from the product name of a famous bakery. Baguettes or demi-baguettes are served up as sandwiches at lunchtime. Much tastier and crispier than the old bread rolls of times past!
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Pooh-Bah
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The good news it that Jackie sent me a recipe for biscuits, which I have now baked. I had suggested that she post some to me but had much more sense.
They were quite delicious and rather like ..... scones (savoury ones without sugar). So I'll send her my recipe for scones so we can have a double blind trial (well at least it feels like one). Its a shame you can't all be invited round to taste them all!
The only problem is .. our recipes use ounces or grams but not (usually) cups and I remember a friend once telling me that most people don't have kitchen scales, so it might take us a while to work out the quantities.
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#3088
06/02/2000 10:13 AM
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> The only problem is .. our recipes use ounces or grams but not (usually) cups and I remember a friend once telling me that most people don't have kitchen scales, so it might take us a while to work out the quantities. Good God, no Jo! Imperial or metric is fine. Avoirdupois perhaps - but this whole mullarkey of cups just does my head in. I've often tried to cook meals from an old cookbook from the '60s and have ruined them simply because I failed to convert the amounts prperly from cups to grams/ounces. I'm sure everyone can work it out from accepted measures, right?? ps I was looking through a Cuba guidebook yesterday and found a recipe for a local soup. It's main ingredient? Okra!. I'll pass it on anon (an' on, an' on). 
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#3089
06/02/2000 12:38 PM
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okra, schmokra
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>>but this whole mullarkey of cups just does my head in...I'm sure everyone can work it out from accepted measures, right??<< A-HEM: Cups ARE an accepted measure, here! 
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> A-HEM: Cups ARE an accepted measure, here!
Whoops! I was put straight by jmh about this earlier. Apologies....
What is a cup, anyway? The measurement, I mean.
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>>What is a cup, anyway? The measurement, I mean.
Depends. Do you want dry measure or wet measure?
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> Depends. Do you want dry measure or wet measure? Groan. This is what I was worried about. Give me ounces and pints, grams and litres anyday. 
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Rubrick,
... and then, of course, there are the ubiquitous Dixie cups.
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Pooh-Bah
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I didn't want to get into this. I have a strange feeling that a British cup is different to an American cup.
Our pint is 20 fluid ounces and a American pint is 16.
I have some American measuring cups (AA, I think) - I'll have to go and measure them. i suspect that they are 8 fluid ounces and ours are meant to be 10 fluid ounces but don't quote me.
I've never quite worked out how to measure butter in a cup - do you have to melt it first, or just squidge it in???
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Jo's right about our pints. Hers are imperial and ours are colonial. A liquid-measure cup in the US is half a pint, or 4 ounces. A dry-measure cup in the US is 16 tablespoons. A tablespoon is 15 milliliters. Which is a liquid measure. (???) I tend to squidge the butter in, Jo. I think it's time for a pint without being in my cups.
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>The good news it that Jackie sent me a recipe for biscuits, which I have now baked
What is it?. A gastronomic secret society?. I want to be included on that circle. I don’t mind if your recipes use troy ounces or avoirdupois, I want them!.
By the way, does your email software allow ‘biscuits attachments’?. If the answer is yes I want a free sample too.
Juan Maria.
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hmmmm... cookies = buscuits... hmmmm...
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>hmmmm... cookies = buscuits... hmmmm...
I'm getting your point!. I think I've got a year's supply!.
Juan Maria.
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Hi, juanmaria!
No, there is no secret gastronomic society. :-)
Jo just asked me to send her a sample of biscuits thru the
wires. Since my software does not accept biscuits, I sent
her the recipe instead. Its cookies are good, though!
She was kind enough to send me a scone recipe, which I shall
endeavor to mix up (and probably will, too!) as soon as I figure out what caster sugar is.
Jo!--that reminds me!--'Nother question: what on earth
is a crumpet??
To all: isn't it difficult, but interesting, to try and
describe something to someone with whom you have no
common frame of reference?
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#3101
06/03/2000 11:25 PM
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Pooh-Bah
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I'm happy to mail any recipes to anyone - even Juan Maria - I just thought this site should not be cluttered up with recipes! Maybe our minds are on higher things. Just send me an e-mail and I'll forward anything you like (maybe not quite anything).
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#3102
06/04/2000 12:15 AM
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On the subject of bread rolls - here is a selection from my school lunches: Round shaped rolls: Soft rolls Crusty rolls Barm cakes Tea Cakes (with or without fruit) Muffins (not like American muffins) Oven Bottoms Buns Long/Oval shaped rolls Bunnies Crumpets (sometimes called Piklets) are rather different, a flat bread like thing, with holes in the top http://www.ichef.com/ichef-recipes/Breads/18769.htmlhttp://www.family.go.com/Features/family_0000_01/dony/breakfast/0327pikletbrk.htmlThe strangest thing I found on my travels was an “English Muffin”, discovered when I was living in New York. I had never seen anything like it in England. It was a little like a double crumpet with a flat top and bottom and a holey middle. At that time I had a friend from the USA who was living in London. She was always discovering rather strange items purporting to be “American” so she told me not to worry. Recently a supplier must have discovered “English Muffins” in the USA and they are now on sale in England as “muffins”.
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I'm intrigued - what are "oven bottoms"? A well-known fast-food chain here sells a breakfast McMuffin, which fits the description you mention as "English Muffin". The other reason I don't eat it is that it looks totally unpalatable! 
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#3104
06/04/2000 12:26 PM
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Pooh-Bah
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Oven bottoms are flat(ish) round soft bread rolls with the middle indented very slightly. They use up the space in the bottom of the oven when the baker is baking the loaves, hence the name. They were originally sold cheaply, I guess, as they were more of a by-product of the baking but in my local area became very popular.
As I said at the beginning, there was never any need for the names of bread items to travel very far, so it is probably very local to my part of North Manchester.
Yes I believe that the well-known fast food chain does sell "English Muffins" and puts unpleasant things on them.
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#3105
06/06/2000 10:16 AM
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> Jo's right about our pints. Hers are imperial and ours are colonial. A liquid-measure cup in the US is half a pint, or 4 ounces. A dry-measure cup in the US is 16 tablespoons. A tablespoon is 15 milliliters. Which is a liquid measure. (???) I tend to squidge the butter in, Jo. I think it's time for a pint without being in my cups. Hmmmm....... Seems that if I go drinking in 'Fado's' I'll get short-changed on my 'pint', Anna.
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#3106
06/06/2000 10:31 AM
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> Soft rolls
Crusty rolls
Barm cakes
Tea Cakes (with or without fruit)
Muffins (not like American muffins)
Oven Bottoms
Buns
I know them all, Jo, except for the oven bottoms. Are barm cakes what we know in Ireland as 'Barm brack'? They are rich fruit cakes usually eaten at Hallowe'en and baked with a 'gold' ring in them. Delicious with butter!
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Re: Barm Cakes - They are just ordinary medium sised soft rolls. I'll have to try out Barm Brack - is the "gold ring" a bit like the cross in hot cross buns or is it marzipan? It sounds a bit like Bara Brith (I think) a rich fruit cake kind of thing. I've seen Yorkshire Brack which may (or may not be similar). Here's a link to a picture of Yorkshire Brack (its linked to an advert but I have no financial interest in the goods being sold, although it is all rather wonderful - yum) http://www.botham.co.uk/brack.htm
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> I'll have to try out Barm Brack - is the "gold ring" a bit like the cross in hot cross buns or is it marzipan?
It sounds a bit like Bara Brith (I think) a rich fruit cake kind of thing. I've seen Yorkshire Brack which may (or may not be
similar).
They are identical, Jo! I thought it was solely an Irish dish but now I see that it is quite widespread across Britain, too.
The ring is real. Most Bracks have a soft metal one (something for the kids) but there are some bakers who put real gold rings into a (small) percentage of their bracks in order to boost sales. Since everyone eats brack at Hallowe'en this is a very clever marketing ploy considering the amount of competition.
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I think you were right the first time - it probably is mainly Irish but with little enclaves around Britain that produce something similar.
The rings sound fun, like putting a silver sixpence in a Christmas Pudding.
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> The rings sound fun, like putting a silver sixpence in a Christmas Pudding.
Do people still carry on that tradition??
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Yep (not too many trips to the hospital to get foreign bodies removed, so far).
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> Yep (not too many trips to the hospital to get foreign bodies removed, so far).
Which reminds me of that dreadful old joke about the schoolboy who swallowed a sixpence - but it was alright. It was his dinner money. No, I didn't laugh this time, either.
That was a poor way to achieve membership, wasn't it kids?
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We also had little silver charms in ours: money bags, silver spoon, bachelor's button... They were notionally indicative of your year ahead. Anyone know any more?
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#3114
06/08/2000 11:45 PM
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Disclaimer, first:
I cannot abide black-eyed peas, so I have no direct experience with this custom. But, I believe, among people who like them here, that it is a tradition that whoever gets the bowlful on Jan. 1st. that contains the dime that was dropped into the pot, will have extra-good luck throughout the year.
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What, pray tell, is a bachelor's button? I have an image of some young, eligible spinster finding this thing in her Christmas cake, having to sew the button back on the owner's shirt, and then marrying him. Or am I being an incurable romantic? 
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Brewer says (in his wonderful old-fashioned prose): Buttons, similar in principle to press-studs used in dressmaking, and affixed without the need of sewing, hence the name. Also, several button-shaped flowers are so called … rustics were wont to put them in their pockets and their growth was an indication that they would find favour with their sweethearts. Maidens wore them under their aprons.
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#3117
06/10/2000 11:12 AM
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Oh, paulb, thank you!!
I always just thought bachelor's buttons were another
name for cornflowers! Never occurred to me there was a
history behind the name! They were the very first flowers
my then-husband-to-be gave me, and do you know, I treasure
the memory of them even more than I do of the 20 red roses
he gave me this year on our 20th anniversary!
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Rubrick
I was wondering why you hadn't mentioned my favourite bread. I always associate soda bread with Ireland we can get it here but it never tastes as good. I was wondering if Jackie's biscuit had its origins in soda bread. It sounds like it fulfills a similar role in the diet but soda bread has no added fat. Is "Scofa" bread the same thing?
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#3119
06/15/2000 10:18 AM
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> I was wondering why you hadn't mentioned my favourite bread. I always associate soda bread with Ireland we can get it here but it never tastes as good. I was wondering if Jackie's biscuit had its origins in soda bread. It sounds like it fulfills a similar role in the diet but soda bread has no added fat. Is "Scofa" bread the same thing? Sorry about that - it never occurred to me to mention it. Soda bread has everything - a light texture, a full taste and no fat! Though it tastes best when smothered with butter - yum! 'Scofa'? Sounds like couch potato language - i.e. 'scoffing on a sofa' Anyone want the recipe for Soda bread? Send me a private and I'll get back to you. It's very easy to make.
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