A Brief History of Dunking Biscuits

With the new series of the Great British Bake Off in full swing on the BBC there has already been controversy over whether or not it is appropriate to dunk Jaffa cakes in your tea or coffee. This led to a segment of the show giving the history of biscuit dunking, which, it turns out, is an ancient tradition. Apparently dunking, dipping or submerging a biscuit in a beverage releases more flavours by dissolving the sugar in it and also softening the texture. If you dunk a chocolate biscuit it is supposed to become even more chocolatey! But some people do not approve; in a survey 52% of people said they never dunked!

It was the Romans who started the tradition. They dunked their hard, unleavened wafers in wine in order to soften them. These wafers were known as “bis cotum” leading to the word biscuit. Modern day dunking, however, has it roots in the naval traditions of the 16^th century when a flour and water mixture known as “hard tack” was baked and used for sailors’ rations. These incredibly unappealing biscuits were also known as “tooth dullers” and “molar breakers” making the need for dunking very clear. Hard tack was routine dipped in beer or brine (!) to soften it before it was even remotely edible. The fact that the one in the picture below has survived from the 19th century proves just how tough they must have been!

By the 17^th century the basic biscuit recipe had been developed into something much nicer that tasted like sponge fingers. These were originally served at the end of the meal and dipped into wine or other alcoholic beverages. They are the ancestors of the trifle. From that time on, a number of biscuit recipes proliferated until in the Victorian period, biscuits, cake and tea were partaken mid-afternoon as the formal afternoon tea. Dunking, however, was discouraged. The Victorians disapproved of public biscuit dipping, feeling that it was something only to be done in the privacy of one’s own home.

Not everyone enjoys dunking and the choice of a dunking biscuit is still a very personal matter. So here is the all-important question. Do you dunk? And if so, what is your biscuit of choice?

HMS Victory - Pretty in Pink?

It was reported in the weekend papers that HMS Victory, Admiral Lord Nelson’s flagship, has had a historically accurate repaint and is now pink, which was the colour it was at the time of the Battle of Trafalgar. Previously the ship had been a mustard colour, which I thought was the standard Royal Navy paint colour for 18^th century warships, but apparently not. When Victory was first built in 1765 it was plain varnished timber but later in the century, captains were permitted to paint their ships whatever colour they chose.

Whilst richer captains chose more ornate and expensive colours, Thomas Hardy, captain of the Victory, could not afford to customise his ship and so opted for one of the free pigments that the Royal Navy offered.  These would typically have included black, yellow ochre and red ochre. It was only after Trafalgar that Nelson’s famous yellow and black checkerboard design became standard. Earlier ships also had lots of decoration; The Royal George, for example, had a bust of King George II on its stern, and figures of Britannia, Neptune, Ceres, Mercury and Hercules. It also had rich interior decoration with mother of pearl handles on the cabin doors.

It was whilst conservationists were working on restoring Victory that they examined all the layers of paint on the ship – 72 – and discovered it’s original pink hue. Some have called the colour smoked trout, others pale terracotta. Ships like the Hermione, pictured right, were bright blue. Personally I see nothing wrong in pink. It was good enough for Nelson. What do you think?

Scuttlebutt, anyone?

Having written lots of army heroes in previous books, I’m now thinking of turning to the Royal Navy. That means lots of new research, of course, which is fascinating. I thought you might like to share some of the gems of English that I’ve found so far. It’s amazing how much naval slang has been taken into the language. We use it without thinking about it.

An obvious one is “to press something into service”. Yes, that stems from the naval press gang, which certainly pressed men into service, for King and country.

Less obvious is a term like “scuttlebutt” which we use to mean gossip, often scurrilous gossip. The “butt” was the water butt put on deck in tropical seas so that sailors could drink in the heat. To stop them from having too much of the precious water stores, they were allowed to take the water only one mug at a time, by inserting the mug through a hole in the butt, called the “scuttle”, overseen by a marine. Of course, sailors tended to congregate there, waiting their turn and gossiping. Hence “scuttlebutt”, the original water-cooler gossip.

Another term I like is “I’ll eat my hat”. Sounds very odd when you think about it, doesn’t it? But it made sense in the Royal Navy. Sailors used to keep a spare quid of chewing tobacco in their hats. If they ran out of tobacco, and had used their spare, they used to take out the lining of their hat, well impregnated with tobacco juices, and chew that instead.

Finally, there’s “show a leg”. When the bosun’s mates went round in the morning to rouse the crew, asleep in their hammocks, the penalty for not getting out quick enough was to have your hammock strings cut so that you tumbled to the deck below. However, there were sometimes women on board, especially when ships were in port, and they slept in the hammocks, too. “Show a leg” meant just that. If a hairy leg appeared, strings could be cut. If a smoother leg appeared, the bosun’s mate let the “lady” lie.

Don’t be surprised if some of these figure in any naval story I write. I think they’re irresistible, don’t you?

Joanna
www.joannamaitland.com