scottish shortbread

 

  • [2] Shapes Shortbread is commonly formed into one of three shapes: • one large circle, which is divided into segments as soon as it is taken out of the oven (petticoat tails,
    which may have been named from the French petits cotés, a pointed biscuit eaten with wine, or petites gastelles, the old French for little cakes.

  • [16] In British English, shortbread and shortcake were synonyms for several centuries, starting in the 1400s; both referred to the crisp, crumbly cookie-type baked good, rather
    than a softer cake.

  • Shortbread or shortie is a traditional Scottish biscuit usually made from one part white sugar, two parts butter, and three to four parts plain wheat flour.

  • [19] An early variety of shortbread, using ginger, was reportedly eaten during sittings of the Parliament of Scotland, and therefore the variety was sometimes called “Parliament
    cake” or “Parlies” into the 19th century.

  • [2][need quotation to verify] Modern recipes also often deviate from the original by splitting the sugar into equal parts granulated and icing sugar and many add a portion
    of salt.

  • In Scotland, it was traditional to break a decorated shortbread cake (infar-cake or dreaming bread) over the head of a new bride on the entrance of her new house.

  • The related word “shortening” refers to any fat that may be added to produce a “short” (crumbly) texture.

  • [2] Name Shortbread is so named because of its crumbly texture (from an old meaning of the word “short”, as opposed to “long”, or stretchy).

  • [22][23] In the UK tax code, shortbread is taxed as a flour confection (baked good) rather than as a common biscuit.

  • This term may also reference the shape of a woman’s petticoat[2]); • individual round biscuits (shortbread rounds); or • a thick (¾” or 2 cm) oblong slab cut into fingers.

  • [17] The “short-cake” mentioned in Shakespeare’s play The Merry Wives of Windsor, first published in 1602, was a reference to the cookie-style of shortbread.

 

Works Cited

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3. ^
“History of Shortbread”. English Tea Store. Retrieved 10 February 2015.
4. ^ Timothy G. Roufs & Kathleen Smyth Roufs, Sweet Treats around the World: An Encyclopedia of Food and Culture (Santa Barbara, 2014), p. 290.
5. ^ ‘Petticoat’, Dictionaries
of the Scots Language
6. ^ Emma Kay, A History of British Baking: From Blood Bread to Bake-Off (Pen & Sword, 2020) p. 32.
7. ^ Hyslop, Leah. “Potted histories: shortbread”. The Telegraph. No. 6 October 2013. Retrieved 18 February 2014.
8. ^
Historic UK – heritage of Britain accommodation guide. “Scottish Shortbread”. Historic-uk.com. Retrieved 2010-11-24.
9. ^ “History of Shortbread & Shortbread Recipes”. Englishteastore.com. Retrieved 2010-11-24.
10. ^ “Dictionary of the Scots Language::
SND :: infare”.
11. ^ Jump up to:a b “Dictionary of the Scots Language:: DOST :: schort adj”.
12. ^ “Dictionary of the Scots Language:: SND :: dreamingbread”.
13. ^ McNeill, F. Marian (1929). The Scots Kitchen (2006 ed.). Blackie & Son Ltd.
pp. 193–4. ISBN 978-1-84183-070-4.
14. ^ “Dictionary of the Scots Language:: DOST :: schort breid”.
15. ^ “Of edible substances: Friable, easily crumbled.” Oxford English Dictionary.
16. ^ “Online Etymology Dictionary”. Retrieved 2007-01-25.
17. ^
Jump up to:a b c d e Mariani, John F. (2014-02-04). Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 1034. ISBN 978-1-62040-161-3.
18. ^ Clarkson, Janet (2015-04-01). “Shortcake”. The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets. Oxford
University Press. p. 1093. ISBN 978-0-19-931362-4.
19. ^ “Chef John Quigley discusses and bakes Scottish Shortbread”. Scotlandontv.tv. 2006-10-24. Retrieved 2009-05-29.
20. ^ Jamieson, John (1841). An etymological dictionary of the Scottish language
(2nd ed.). Edinburgh: Andrew Shortrede. p. 191. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
21. ^ The Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson. Oxford University Press, 2014 [1]
22. ^ Chambers, Robert (October 27, 1825). “Traditions of Edinburgh”. W. & C. Tait – via
Google Books.
23. ^ “Traditional Scottish Recipes – “Parlies””. Rampantscotland.com. Retrieved 2018-04-16.
Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kacey/2238626027/’]