In the United States and Canada, a biscuit is a variety of baked bread with a firm, dry exterior and a soft, crumbly interior. Biscuits, soda breads, cornbread, and similar breads are all drop biscuits quick breads, meaning that they do not need time for the dough to rise before baking. Biscuits developed from hardtack, which was first made from only flour and water, with later first lard and then baking powder being added.
American English and British English use the same word to refer to two distinctly different modern foods. Medieval Latin item and cooking technique. As the English language developed, different baked goods ended up sharing the same name. The soft bread is called a biscuit in North America, and the hard baked goods are called biscuits in the UK. The differences in the usage of biscuit in the English speaking world are remarked on by Elizabeth David in English Bread and Yeast Cookery. It is interesting that these soft biscuits are common to Scotland and Guernsey, and that the term biscuit as applied to a soft product was retained in these places, and in America, whereas in England it has completely died out. Early European settlers in the United States brought with them a simple, easy style of cooking, most often based on ground wheat and warmed with gravy.
