Your ViewsKeep your e-mails pouring in, it's good to know that there are lots of you out there with views and opinions. To help you work out what is what, are now little icons to help you see biscuit related themes. And now you can see at a glance which are the most contested subjects via this graph (requires Flash 6.0 plugin). Please keep your mails coming in to nicey@nicecupofteaandasitdown.com | If you like, you can use this search thingy to find stuff that matches with any of the icons you pick, or use the fantastic free text search, Yay! | Your e-Mails |
Richard Smith |
Can you settle an ongoing debate within our department, jaffa cakes - is
the orangey filling jelly or jam? We contacted McVities who confessed it
was an industrial type jam. However, we are not convinced what is an
industrial jam, we maintain it's more jelly than jam.
Great web site but strangely a lack of tea related stuff, perhaps you
could redeem yourselves by joining us in campaigning for the
reinstatement of the PGTips monkeys!
More Tea! PG Tips Pyramids of course! |
Nicey replies: Richard,
I've always thought of it as Jelly but if McVities say its jam then jam it is. I suppose it comes down to what sort of complex macro-molecules give it its jelly like texture. For Jam its pectin a polysaccharide component of plant cell walls, and for jelly its gelatin a protein found in skin, bone and cartilage. I just checked on a packet of Tesco's Jaffa cakes and the gelling agent is Pectin. So Jam it is.
Still industrial jam sounds pretty cool, a step up from recreational jam. I suppose military or weapons grade jam is the next level up.
As for tea the wife and I regularly enjoy PG. The chimps lost their way since about 1976, but as yet the motives of the plasticene birds are unclear.
I think tea is a very personal thing so I don't tend to get drawn into debates on its components or construction. |
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James Fussell |
Nicey,
I feel compelled to warn all other NCOTAASD regulars about the Sainsbury's "Be Good To Yourself" range of biscuits. I purchased some Strawberry and Cream biscuits from the range and sat down to eat one with a cuppa yesterday. They are foul. I am not sure about the rest of the range but would advise caution. Luckily I had a spare Chocolate Digestive (standard packaging) to wash away the taste. These views should be treated as subjective, I have no wish to feel the legal wrath of J. Sainsbury.
Yours in concern,
Jim.
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Nicey replies: James,
These biscuits have a very different agenda to conventional biscuits, as they are trying to be good to you by monkeying around with the basic dynamics of the biscuit recipe, altering the fat and sugar content. The Strawberries and Cream thing is meant to be a diversion away from the now compromised biscuit.
Like most things in this world that are bad for us you are better off having one or two good ones rather than a truck load of dodgy ones, as I think your example has illustrated. |
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Brian Barratt |
Hello Nicey,
During my boyhood in Newark (-on-Trent) (is there another one, then?), the ladypersons of the family used to make Grantham Gingerbread biscuits. The were delicious, all crisp on the outside and sometimes just a bit gooey on the inside, with bubbles in them. They had a Secret Ingredient, obviously. And they were yellow. That was 50-60 years ago. I was just thinking (as one does, you know) -- I haven't seen or heard of Granthem Gingerbread biscuits since then, during all the years, in four or five countries, through thick and thin. Do you/does Wifey/does anybody know them, or the recipe?
Greety things be unto you
Brian
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Nicey replies: I've not heard of them, they sound very nice indeed so it would be good if we could find them. Maybe they were in some axis of power with the nearby Lincoln biscuit, and a dispute over the secret ingredient caused them to be sidelined. Is there anybody in the East Midlands who has heard of them?? |
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Simon G |
Dear Sir,
As Mark Daszkiewicz rightly states in his previous mailing, iced gems are "amongst the worst kind of biscuit imaginable" and are best avoided for several reasons.
However, I was recently given a packet of these 'biscuits'; i didn't want to throw them away so i thought of a way to make them more palatable. I tipped them into a bowl and poured cold milk over them (i suppose you could put sugar on as well; vanilla sugar might be good) and ate them in a similar way as you would a breakfast cereal, along with a nice cup of tea.
Just thought some of your readers might want to try this if they have a packet taking up space in their cupboard. |
Nicey replies: Dear Mr G,
I think they could make a good subsitute for drawing pins. If anyone manages to nail someting to a wall using Iced Gems let us know. |
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Jon Karen |
Does any one else remember waiting for the biscuit tin to finally be empty so you can eat all the lovely multi flavoured crumbs left in the bottom?
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