SC - Rusks???

[Erika Thomenius]

Elysant1 at aol.com wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 01/05/2001 0:47:01 AM EST, troy at asan.com writes:
> 
> > They can be made from just flour and water, sometimes leavened,
> >  sometimes not, as with, say, the zweiback toasts teething children
> >  sometimes drool on lapels.
> >
> 
> There is also a commercial product called "Rusks" available in Britain - made
> primarily for babies and teething children.  "Rusks" are round "biscuits",
> about 2 or 3 inches across, about 3/4" thick and have a mild biscuity taste
> (I think they might also be available in a finger shape too).  They can be
> eaten dry, or can be softened with warm milk or water and made into a kind of
> creamy cereal.  I'm not sure if they are available in Holland and whether the
> original poster was inquiring about this commerical "Rusks" product or just
> generic rusks as Master A. mentions, but I thought I'd add this to the
> discussion.  :-)
> 
> Elysant

Good enough. I was just mentioning any and all definitions I could think
of off the top of my head. The specifics will probably have to come from
either the recipe itself or the source, outside the recipe, but I expect
that whatever specific rusks are called for, they'll turn out to be hard
biscotti-ish things. Possibly unsweetened.

For example, one of my very first forays into Roman cookery, millions of
years ago, involved some secondary or tertiary source's recipe for
"Roman Rusk", theoretically a food suitable for legionaries, which
involved whole wheat flour and honey kneaded together and baked like a
bannock. It probably came from one of those pamphlets produced by one of
the dig site museums in Britain, and I suspect that whatever this dish
was supposed to be, the author of the recipe in English thought it was
sufficiently close to rusk that the name was apt.  

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com