Rusk
A rusk is a hard, dry biscuit or a twice-baked bread. It is sometimes used as a baby teething food. In some cultures, rusk is made of cake, rather than bread: this is sometimes referred to as cake rusk. In the UK, the name also refers to a wheat-based food additive.
International variations
Azerbaijan
Rusk is called sukhary in Azerbaijani. It is usually made from stale bread and buns. In Baku, some bakeries use their stale buns and bread for making rusks. The price of rusk in those bakeries is usually low, as the bakeries do this to avoid wasting the leftover bread and buns.Cuba
Sponge rusk is similar to biscotti but it is made out of twice-baked yellow cake batter. The yellow cake batter is baked into a flat, rectangular cake pan. After it is baked and cooled, it is sliced into strips and baked again or toasted to make cake toast. It is usually eaten with Cuban coffee or as an accompaniment to ice cream, custard, or other dessert dishes.Denmark
Tvebak is a Danish for "Morgan rusks"France
A biscotte is a French type of rusk. They are sold packaged in supermarkets. Rusk is also commonly known as french toast.Finland
A Finnish type of rusk is called korppu, usually a dried piece of bun, flavored with cinnamon and sugar. Korppu is a common coffee bread, normally eaten after having been dipped in coffee. A sour version, called hapankorppu, is a flat rusk made from rye flour and salt, and can be eaten like crispbread.Germany
Zwieback is a form of rusk in Germany. Like the Danish and French words, the name refers to being baked or cooked twice.Greece
The term paximadi covers various forms of Greek rusk, commonly made from barley or chickpea flour, and softened with wine, water, or oil before eating. Paximadi form the basis of the Cretan snack dakos.India
In India rusk is a traditional dried bread or cake. It is also known as papay, khasta, russ or cake rusk in Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu or katti toos in Bengali. It is usually eaten at tea time with milky tea which softens the rusk. The sweet cake rusk version is made of cake whose ingredients include wheat flour, sugar, fat, leavening agent, and, optionally, eggs.Indonesia
Double baked bread in Indonesia is called "bagelen", believed to originate from Bagelen, a village in Central Java. Before the second bake, the bread is smeared with sugar and buttercream. It is usually eaten as a snack.Iran
In Iran, rusk is called nān-e sokhāri. It is made from wheat flour, sugar, skimmed milk powder, vegetable oil, gluten, malt extract, soy flour, salt, yeast, and water. It is eaten as a dunking biscuit, particularly with Persian chai. The most common brand of naan sukhaari is Vitana.Italy
In Italy, this form is called fette biscottate. It should not be confused with biscotti.Japan
In Japan, rusk is often a delicacy made from baguette, cake or croissant. It is often sweet.The Levant
In the Levant this form is called boksum in Iraq and Syria or qurshalla in Jordan. It is made from flour, eggs, oil or butter, sugar, yeast or baking powder, and sometimes a small amount of cardamon. It is topped with roasted sesame seeds, black caraway seeds, or anise, and eaten as a dunking biscuit, especially with herbal tea.Netherlands and Belgium (Flanders)
Beschuit, also known as Dutch crispbakes, are light, round, rather crumbly, rusks as eaten in the Netherlands and Belgium. When a baby is born in The Netherlands, it is customary to serve beschuit met muisjes. Beschuiten are also eaten as a breakfast food with a variety of toppings, most commonly butter and sprinkles in flavours such as chocolate or fruit, jam or cheese. A longtime Dutch favourite is to serve strawberries on beschuit, which is usually topped with some sugar or whipped cream.Beschuiten are made by first baking a flat round bread, slicing it in half, and then baking each half again, usually at a lower heat. It is almost always sold in rolls; a roll typically has 13 rusks. Etymologically, biscotto, biscuit and beschuit come from the Latin phrase bis-coctus,.
Norway
In Norway, rusk is referred to as kavring, and is similar to the Swedish skorpor. Crushed kavring, called strøkavring, is used, amongst other things, for making kjøttkaker and in the traditional dessert tilslørte bondepiker. Kavring is also broken up and can be served with regular, soured or cultured milk.Pakistan
In Pakistan it is known as russ or cake rusk. It is mostly found in large round biscuit shapes, but also comes in long rectangular shapes. It is usually eaten at breakfast with milk tea. Sometimes it is also called PapayPhilippines
The Philippine version of rusk is called biscocho. Cake rusks are called mamon tostado.Portugal
In Portuguese rusk is called tosta. "Tosta" word means a hard, biscuit-textured slice of bread - it can be sweet, but most often it is savory. It can have various shapes and thicknesses. When ground, it is called "pão ralado", literally ground bread and has various culinary uses.Russia
The Russian version is called sukhar' . They are either baked a second time from sweet challah-like bread, sliced in biscotti fashion or made of leftover stale bread, cut into small cubes and air-dried or baked at a very low temperature. The first one is like a cookie, which can be served with milk, kefir, tea, coffee or cacao. The second one is usually added to soup, clear or otherwise, softening up from absorbed liquids and accompanying it instead of bread. It became a tradition to avoid wasting leftover bread that always was a staple in Russian cuisine. There is much folklore about bread in the Russian language, paying respect to this grain food that is one of the cornerstones of Slavic nations' life and history. Rye bread rusks are the major ingredient in making of the Russian Kvass, a traditional fermented beverage.South Africa
Rusks is the anglicized term for beskuit and is a traditional Afrikaner breakfast meal or snack. They have been dried in South Africa since the late 1690s as a way of preserving bread, especially when travelling long distances without refrigeration. Their use continued through the Great Trek and the Boer Wars through to the modern day. Rusks are typically dunked in coffee or tea before being eaten.Rusks are essentially double-baked bread dough. Round balls of dough are closely packed in pans and baked like bread, after which long chunks are cut or broken off and slowly rebaked to a dry consistency. Several modern-day, mass-produced versions are available, the most famous brand being Ouma Rusks. Many bakeries, delis and home industries sell commercial rusks, sometimes made from non-traditional ingredients, such as baking powder rather than sourdough. In addition to plain and buttermilk flavours, aniseed, wholewheat, condensed milk, muesli, and lemon poppyseed variations are also available.
Sweden
Skorpor are a Swedish form of rusk. They can be flavoured with herbs, dried fruit, nuts, or spices such as anise or cardamom. Swedish bakery company Pågen makes the world's most-sold rusk brand, Krisprolls.Turkey
In Turkish, rusk is called peksimet. "Pek" word means solid, tight, durable in Turkish and "simet/simit" is Arabic word means bread/flour. Another name is galeta, a loanword from Catalan.United Kingdom
To the British, butcher rusk is a dry biscuit broken into particles, sorted by particle size and sold to butchers and others for use as a food additive in sausage manufacture. Though originally made from stale bread, now called "bread-rusk", a yeast-free variety called simply "rusk" is now more commonly used.Various rusk particle sizes are used in the food industry, where uses include:
- A carrier for flavours, colours and seasonings
- A binding agent in hamburgers, sausages, stuffings, pies, and other compound meat products
- As an ingredient for dried stuffing mixes
Farley's Rusks
In 2006, a short-lived scare was caused when some Farley's Rusks were found to contain traces of the weedkiller chlorpropham. The affected products were recalled and the contamination was traced to a batch of flour used during the manufacturing process. The level of contamination was not high enough to be considered a health risk.