Here’s the necessary clarification for non-USAmericans who are confused by how confidently USAmericans are claiming these are not the same thing: American biscuits are almost identical to British scones. But not American scones. Behold the continuum:
American biscuits:
These are layered quick breads. They are almost always baked in a round shape, and when they’re not, they’re baked square; you will pretty much never see a triangular American biscuit. They’re usually made with buttermilk, which gives them a nice slightly tangy flavor. They’re not at all sweet on their own, but they’re also not particularly savory, and as a result, they’re a bit of a blank slate: they pair well with butter and jam, but alternatively, they pair equally well with a savory sausage gravy. There are recipes that are firmly on the savory side by virtue of adding cheddar cheese to the dough, but in those cases, people will usually specify “cheese biscuits” or “cheddar biscuits”. American biscuits can be a breakfast food, or a lunch food, or a dinner food, all about equally.
British scones:
These are very similar to American biscuits, but a little bit lighter, and noticeably sweeter. You can have these with butter and jam (or, more likely, clotted cream and jam), but unlike American biscuits, I’d never dream of serving them with anything savory like a sausage gravy. You will sometimes see bits of dried fruit, like currants or dried blueberries, baked into them, but this isn’t all that common, and it’s basically the extent of weird baked-in flavorings. You will sometimes see these baked into a triangle shape, but more commonly, they are round. They’re great as a breakfast food, but they’re better with an afternoon tea; you’d probably never see them as the accompaniment to a hearty, savory dinner.
American scones:
American scones are denser, sweeter, and significantly more buttery than British scones, without the more clearly defined layers that British scones have. They are almost always baked in a triangle shape, and only very rarely baked round. American scones come in a variety of flavorings – it’s not uncommon to find pumpkin spice scones, double chocolate scones, lemon strawberry scones, blueberry scones with fresh blueberries baked right in, etc. It’s also not uncommon to find them glazed, like a doughnut (but usually slightly less so). You do not typically top these with butter or jam, or indeed, with anything – they are eaten as-is, as an accompaniment to coffee or tea. They are mostly a breakfast food, though they may occasional feature at an afternoon tea, if someone even has one of those, which in the States, people mostly don’t.
American cookies:
American cookies are exclusively a sweet dessert. They are often baked soft, and best eaten warm, although they’re perfectly fine to eat cooled, and you can certainly find shelf-stable cookies in stores (which are usually hard, rather than soft, see eg. Chips Ahoy). Oatmeal raisin cookies come the closest to the place that American scones leave off, and it isn’t very close. All sorts of flavorings and mixed in bits are common, although chocolate and nuts are more popular mix-in additions than dried fruit. Glazes are fairly uncommon, but not unheard of. The archetypal accompaniment for American cookies is a glass of milk, although they’re perfectly nice to enjoy with tea or coffee. They are not, however, a breakfast food. Americans do consider shortbread and gingerbread to both be types of cookies, but if you refer to “cookies” in the abstract, those aren’t what people typically think of.
British biscuits:
British biscuits are like American cookies, but pretty much always hard and served at room temperature. I’ve even heard the opinion that a British biscuit should always be “crisp”, with softness as a sign that a biscuit isn’t fresh. Americans are familiar with this style of treat, and generally think of British biscuits as “the type of cookies that you get in a tin” – they’re very much a thing in America, but they’re considered a smaller and much less popular subset of the broader “cookie” category. Like American cookies, these are often eaten as a dessert, but they are much more commonly seen as an accompaniment to tea than the American cookie is.
Tl;dr: This is like an even more complicated version of the crisps/chips/fries thing, I’m afraid. We’re simply talking about different things.
I have several friends in the UK and somehow this distinction had entirely escaped me until now. What the hell.
Granted, I also thought scones were the hard stale things that you softened up by dipping in coffee, so what do I know.
bruh the way mulder is standing omg i’m fucking crying
Man: “21st century genetic engineering will not only eradicate the Siamese twins and the alligator skinned people, but you’re gonna be hard pressed to find a slight overbite or a not-so high cheekbone. You see, I’ve seen the future, and the future looks just like him.” [points to Mulder] “Imagine. Going through your whole life looking like that.”
You know. Some people could really stand to get more comfortable with the idea of “you shouldn’t say that because it’s mean”. Especially with really common body shaming and straight up bullying lines.
“You shouldn’t make ugly bald jokes because what if a transman on T sees it!”
“You shouldn’t make virgin jokes because what if someone who’s asexual sees it!”
How about you just don’t make them because they’re mean. How about people can be balding or a virgin for a number of reasons and also don’t deserve to be routinely made fun of. How about saying that the reason you shouldn’t make x joke because it spares x specific identity’s feelings also let’s them know that you actually have no problem saying or thinking bald people are ugly or virgins are stupid or etc but you’re just not saying it in front of them. How about you understand this kind of body shaming and bullying especially in a very public setting online are always going to have way more unintended damage to people who did nothing wrong than damage to the person you’re upset with.
Sometimes the best reason to not make a bad joke like that is because it’s fucking mean.
as a middle-aged aroace who didn’t learn these aversions i had were tied to a valid identity until i was about thirty, my heart is right there with isaac. it really is so isolating to watch everyone around you spend so much time and energy and get such fulfillment from something you fundamentally have no interest in. at the same time, i’m happy for him getting that “oh, i’m not just broken?” moment at a young age. he and many unaware little aces watching will hopefully avoid internalizing all the crap my generation did.
You know how long I’ve been looking for something like this!?
To any sketch artist out there too.
[Image ID: a black woman wearing a plaid shirt and red bandana around her head. Her braided hair is coming out of the top od her head and falling in front of her. Text says “Did you know there’s a black-owned stock photo company nappy.co that provides stereotype-free images of black people” /end]
the other day i was trying to find reference images of black people for art things but all i was finding were black-and-white images of white people! love this!!
Also! They accept submissions. If you’re a photographer and want to contribute, the button is on the bottom left of the webpage.
Good Omens 2 feels like fanfiction not because of its contents but because the author is here on tumblr posting things like “hehe not sorry >:)” and getting hate anons
ALT
