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 |
Alexandra |
Dear Nicey, Wifey and the YMOS's,
As a student I always have my cupboards stocked high with biscuits of all shapes and sizes (I must confess that one of my favourites is the pink wafer, but don't let this put you off). However recently during a time of great biscuit need I went to the cupboard only to find it was bare of all biscuit related items....apart from some 2 and a half month old Merba apple pie cookies. They were left over in their foil wrapper and additionally wrapped in a plastic carrier bag. When I bought them originally I hadn't enjoyed them as I found them too hard for my liking, despite their delicious smell, but needless to say I was desperate!
Normally biscuits that have been left open for as long as this go soggy, but this biscuits benefited from a slight softening and I gobbled up the pack. I urge you to try this, don't forget about the plastic bag over the top....can you explain why this might have helped?
Alexandra
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Nicey replies: Alexandra,
Having been educated to degree level at the same august if slightly concrete obsessed establishment as yourself I have first hand experience of subsisting on a student diet. One quickly learns to adapt to ones impoverished circumstances and try new foods as well as completely revising ones whole understanding of best before dates. I well remember some friends taking their lives in their hands as they cleaned out a catering size jar of mayonnaise which had been left in a house that they had rented. By the time they became desperate enough to do this they had already lived there for the best part of a year. The same house also proved very stimulating to its largely biology student residents due to its impressive use of assorted wall paper roll ends. These were all from the 1970s school of large orange flowers on a black background wallpaper design. The large poster they had of the H Bomb detonating at Bikini Atoll often struggled to outdo the wall paper for dramatic and imposing presence. More academic stimulation could be found behind one of the wardrobes which had its own ecosystem of slugs which were living on the tender shoots of a shrub which was managing to grow through the wall.
So I can only say with respect to your biscuits that you were fortunate to find them to your liking. I would say that the plastic bag would have helped to create a constant micro-climate in which your biscuits could exchange moisture with each other and what ever atmospheric moisture diffused in. This would allow them to go stale much more gradually which is after all why you bunged them in there in the first place. |
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Penelope Reid |
Dear Nicey,
In response to your comments about the poxy resealable containers certain biscuits are bought in, I feel drawn to point out that this is a conspiracy, as it is virtually impossible to find a decent biscuit tin these days. Many moons ago when leaving home for the first time, the only item I truly longed for was a biscuit tin to call my own. A proper one, barrel shaped made out of metal (thats why its a tin) with an entirely useless swinging handle and little knob on the top. The only things we could find were Tupperware or poncey ceramic things that were in no way airtight enough for safe biscuit storage. Tupperware, admittedly functional, has none of the charm of a proper tin which can be passed around and is so vile to look at it can ruin a nice sit down. Also Tupperware is what old ladies store leftovers in and then leave in the fridge forever. The idea of using it for biscuits is frankly not honourable. My tinless life only ended when the grandparents shuffled off to enjoy biscuits and sit downs in a less earthly realm, allowing me to inherit theirs. I have heard talk of people clinging on to selection tins in order to preserve biscuits but as this involves buying dodgy selections which heavily feature the pink wafer it is not to be encouraged. How can we ensure the future of proper tins?
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