A digestive biscuit, sometimes described as a sweet-meal biscuit, is a semi-sweet biscuit that originated in Scotland, and is popular worldwide. The digestive was first developed in 1839 by two Scottish doctors to aid digestion. The term "digestive" is derived from the belief that they had antacid properties due to the use of sodium bicarbonate when they were first developed. Historically, some producers used diastatic malt extract to "digest" some of the starch that existed in flour prior to baking. First manufactured in 1892, McVitie's digestive is the best-selling biscuit in the UK. The digestive is ranked the fourth most popular biscuit for "dunking" into tea among the British public, with the chocolate digestive coming in at number one. A YouGov poll saw McVitie's chocolate digestive ranked the third most popular and seventh most famous confectionery in the UK. The UK consumption of these biscuits is truly record breaking: with 6 million consumed each day, representing 70 each second.
History
In 1839, digestives were developed in the United Kingdom by two Scottish doctors to aid digestion. Digestives featured in advertisements for the Berkshire-based biscuit company Huntley & Palmers in 1876, with a recipe being given in Cassell's "New Universal Cookery Book" of 1894. In 1851 an issue of The Lancet London's advertising section offered brown meal digestive biscuits. At the time, it was asserted grain millers knew only of bran and endosperm. After 10% of the whole grain's coarser outer-bran coat was removed, and because the innermost 70% of pure endosperm was reserved for other uses, brown meal, representing only 20% of the whole grain, remained, consisting of about 15% fine bran and 85% white flour. By 1912 it was more widely known that brown meal included the germ, which lent a characteristic sweetness. In 1889, John Montgomerie of Scotland filed a U.S. patent application, which was granted in 1890. This patent asserted a prior patent existed in England dated 1886. The U.S. patent, titled "Making Malted Bread", included instructions for the manufacture of digestive biscuits. Montgomerie claimed this saccharification process would make "nourishing food for people of weak digestion". Despite rumours that it is illegal for them to be sold under their usual name in the United States, they are, in fact, widely available in imported food sections of grocery stores and by mail order.
Ingredients
The typical digestive biscuit contains coarse brown wheat flour, sugar, malt extract, vegetable oil, wholemeal, raising agents and salt. Dried whey, oatmeal, cultured skimmed milk and emulsifiers such as DATEM may also be added in some varieties. A digestive biscuit averages around 70 calories, although this sometimes varies according to the factors involved in its production.
Consumption
Digestive biscuits are frequently eaten with tea or coffee. Sometimes, the biscuit is dunked into the tea and eaten quickly due to the biscuit's tendency to disintegrate when wet. Digestive biscuits are one of the top 10 biscuits in the United Kingdom for dunking in tea. The digestive biscuit is also used as a cracker with cheeses, and is often included in "cracker selection" packets. In the UK, McVitie's digestive is the best selling biscuit, with 80 million packs sold annually. Digestives are also popular in food preparation for making into bases for cheesecakes and similar desserts.
Chocolate digestives
Digestive biscuits are also available, coated on the underside with milk, dark or white chocolate. Originally produced by McVitie's in 1925 in the UK as the Chocolate Homewheat Digestive, other varieties include the basic biscuit with chocolate shavings throughout, or a layer of caramel, mint chocolate, orange-flavoured chocolate, or plain chocolate. American travel writerBill Bryson described the chocolate digestive as "a British masterpiece". The McVitie's chocolate digestive is the most popular biscuit in the UK to dunk into tea.
In pop culture
digestive biscuits have become known among fans of the rock group The Beatles because they were the cause of an argument between George Harrison and John Lennon during a recording session for the group's 1969 album Abbey Road. The incident was recounted by recording engineerGeoff Emerick in his book Here, There, and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles. According to Emerick, Lennon's wife Yoko Ono was in the recording studio and at one point helped herself to Harrison's box of McVitie's while the Beatles were in the control room listening to a playback of the song they'd just recorded. Harrison got angry at Ono, and his subsequent outburst caused Lennon to lose his temper in response. Chocolate digestives were the technical challenge to the bakers in. They were also the technical challenge to the bakers in.
