Foil Wrapped Biscuits and Segregation

Ever wondered why some biscuits in selection tins are wrapped in foil?  The same question applies to some chocolates in boxes of chocolates of course, but biscuits are what concern us here.

Most people presume that it is simply a presentational gimmick - a way of adding a 'premium feel' to the selection - but this comes at a material cost and seems unlikely to be enough justification in its own right.

Although some foiling of biscuits is clearly vanity, the biscuit afficionado prefers the following answer: "flavour migration".  Certainly orange creams, mint Creams and the like are more likely to be foil wrapped; and these are the biscuits that have the most intense flavours which are likely to migrate and contaminate the other biscuits in the selection.

Off topic, but it reminds me of my experience of working with a regional brewer in the UK.  Yeasts used in brewhouses are all registered and maintained in a central Yeast Bank.  Over time within the brewhouse the yeasts mutate as they are used (and if multiple yeasts are used in the same brewhouse, they breed as well) such that periodically the brewer needs to return to the Yeast Bank to refresh the yeast and ensure they are brewing the 'pure' beer for which they are famous.  The brewer I was working with had stumbled across one of their most popular brews as a result of accidental breedng and mutation of yeasts in the brewhouse, leading them to register a new yeast strain at the Yeast Bank.

So what does this tell us about Life?

• Sometimes there are practical reasons for apparent aesthetic frippery
• Allowing intermingling of cultures can create new and unexpected pleasures

Why biscuits have holes in them ...

This is a shorter and simpler blog than my earlier ‘blessays’; but I have been chastised recently for failing to maintain this blog so though I had better step up to the plate (of biscuits?).

The ‘why the holes’ question is normally correctly answered by people with baking experience – quite simply it is to avoid the formation of air pockets under the biscuit (caused by moisture in the dough evaporating during the baking process).

Now you might think this is a trivial piece of information -- but that would be to underestimate the importance of dimensional integrity when a biscuit is entering a creaming machine.

To create a standard sandwich biscuit (such as a bourbon) you need to fire the base biscuit through a cream depositing process and then match the top biscuit onto it. This happens quickly and if either biscuit part is distorted or buckled going in to the creamer … well trust me, its not a pretty sight when one of those things jams. As you are I am sure aware, commercial biscuit baking is a continuous baking process with biscuits rolling out of an oven straight into the creamer. When the creamer jams there isn't a 'buffer' option to hold up the biscuit flow, so biscuits start getting dumped to waste if the creamer stops functioning.

So what does this tell us about life?

• You have to predict stress build up and make allowances for relieving it.
  
• Make sure you remember to let off steam to ensure you maintain your form (otherwise there’s likely to be a lot of broken biscuits on the floor).