Garibaldi biscuit
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an article about the biscuit. For other uses see Garibaldi (disambiguation)
The Garibaldi biscuit consists of currants squashed between two thin, rectangular biscuits - a currant sandwich. In this respect it has elements common with its larger, flaky pastry cousin, the Eccles Cake.
Popular with British consumers as a snack for nearly 150 years, the Garibaldi biscuit is conventionally consumed with a beverage such as tea or coffee, into which it may be dunked in informal social settings.
Contents |
[edit] Appearance
When bought in supermarkets in the UK (under several brands, including own label, all remarkably similar), Garibaldi biscuits usually come in four strips of five biscuits each. They have a golden brown, glazed exterior appearance and a moderately sweet pastry, but their defining characteristic is the generous layer of squashed fruit which gives rise to the colloquial names by which dysphemically-inclined consumers know them: fly cemeteries, dead fly biscuits or squashed fly biscuits, because the squashed fruit are said to resemble dead flies.
One biscuit provides 40 calories.
[edit] History
The Garibaldi biscuit was named after Giuseppe Garibaldi, an Italian general and leader of the fight to unify Italy, who made a popular visit to England. It was first manufactured by the Bermondsey biscuit company Peek Freans in 1861 following the recruitment of one of the great biscuit makers of Scotland, John Carr.
