Tuesday, November 15, 2011

History of Biscuit

The history of biscuits can be traced back to a recipe created by The Roman chef Apicius, in which "a thick paste of fine wheat flour was boiled and spread out on a plate, when it had dried and hardened it was cut up and then fried until crisp, then served with honey and pepper".

The word 'Biscuit' is derived from The Latin words 'Bis' (meaning 'twice') and 'Coctus' (meaning cooked or baked). The word 'Biscotti' is also the generic term for cookies in Italian. Back then, biscuits were  nleavened, hard and thin wafers which, because of their low water content, were ideal food to store.

As people started to explore the globe, biscuits became the ideal travelling food since they stayed fresh for long periods. The seafaring age, thus, witnessed the boom of biscuits when these were sealed in airtight containers to last for months at a time. Hard track biscuits (earliest version of the biscotti and present-day crackers) were part of the staple diet of English and American sailors for many centuries. In fact, the countries which led this seafaring charge, such as those in Western Europe, are the ones where biscuits are most popular even today. Biscotti is said to have been a favourite of Christopher Columbus who discovered America!

Making good biscuits is quite an art, and history bears testimony to that. During the 17th and 18th Centuries in Europe, baking was a carefully controlled profession, managed through a series of 'guilds' or professional associations. To become a baker, One had to complete years of apprenticeship - working through the ranks of apprentice, journeyman, and finally master baker. Not only this, the amount and quality of biscuits baked were also carefully monitored.
The English, Scotch and Dutch immigrants originally brought the first cookies to United States and they were called teacakes. They were often flavored with nothing more than the finest butter, sometimes with the addition of a few drops of rose water. Cookies in America were also called by such names as "jumbles", "plunkets" and "cry babies".
 
As technology improved during the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, the price of sugar and flour dropped. Chemical leavening agents, such as baking soda, became available and a profusion of cookie recipes occurred. this led to the development of manufactured cookies.

Interestingly, as time has passed and despite more varieties becoming available, the essential ingredients of biscuits haven't changed - like 'soft' wheat flour (which contains less protein than the flour used to bake bread) sugar, and fats, such as butter and oil. Today, though they are known by different names. The world over, people agree on One thing - nothing beats The biscuit!

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Simple Outline of Biscuit Manufacture


Basic ingredients for biscuit manufacturing
Flour , fat and sugar and other additives like flavours ,salts and ammonium and sodium bicarbontes.
Bakery equipments required for biscuit manufacturing
  • Mixers
  • Laminator
  • Dough Distributors
  • Gauge rolls
  • Moulder or Cutter
  • Oven
  • Packing machine
  • Sugar Grinder
  • Biscuit Grinder
Biscuit manufacturing consists of following process
  • MIXING: This is a process where all ingredients are put together in right proportion for dough formation. Generally the creaming is carried out first with soluble ingredients in the mixer for homogenous mixing and later the powder ingredient are then fed into Mixers where mixing is done and dough is prepared for molding.  Major ingredients are flour , fat ,sugar and others as per the product one would like to have.Dough temperatures play important role in biscuit manufacturing .Next important factor is mixing time . Mixing time depends upon flour characteristics.Normally mixing time is between 10- 15 min and is performed in two or thres stages with different mixing speed .
  • MOULDING: In this section we laminate the dough into sheet which then passes down to gauge rollers and sheet thickness is achieved for cutting . Here we have a cutter or a moulder as per the variety where one gets the shape and sizes of biscuits .Moulder /cutter speed again depends on different variety of biscuit.Moulders are used for short dough type of biscuit and cutters are used for sheet variety or hard dough .
  • BAKING: This is the area where we pass these moulded wet biscuit into baking oven .The biscuits are baked on desired temperatures.Various type of heating are available now days as per the convenience and cost .Different type ovens are available like direct fired , indirect fired and hybrid ovens .Heating of biscuit is done by conduction , convection and radiation inside the oven .Dampers are provided to control moisture inside the oven ssection . Different heating profiles are maintain for different varities of biscuit . Normally ovens are classified as 4 zone , 5 zone or 6zone ovens where length varies from 40 mtr to 80 mtrs . Biscuits are carried on wire mesh band in oven . Baking time are different
  • COOLING: These baked biscuits are then passed on to cooling conveyors for natural cooling prior to packing .The temperatures are brought down to room temperatures. Optimum time of cooling is considered to between 15-20 min. The length of conveyor is sometimes 300 - 400 ft . Cooling conveors can be of two deck or 3 deck type as per space availability . Natural cooling is prefered over forced cooling as it maintains the texture quality of biscuit .
  • PACKING: These biscuit are then stacked and fed into packing machine for packing. Different types of packing machine and material are available for packing of  biscuits in different packs i.e. slug packs , pouch pack or family packs etc. These packs are then put into secondary packaging like cartons to be transported to retailers.Packing material used for biscuit packaging are BOPP ,Laminates ( pearlised or metallised ) ,Pouches .