In answer to Rachel, I don't think it's surprising that our baking has evolved differently here. Once you leave New England, it's a LOT hotter here than it is in most of Europe. Quick breads were a lot less of a killer proposition in the hot Southern summer than yeast breads would have been. Grains and flours were different, too, in those long-ago days. Just think of all the breads, puddings, and desserts we still make with corn meal. And spices and other prized ingredients--even white sugar--were scarce and expensive. Imagine all the homesick cooks, and not only English but German, Dutch, Irish, Spanish, Scandinavian, trying to re-create the baked goods of their Old World homes with the ingredients on hand in the New World. It's pretty natural and understandable that American cooks developed their own baked goods and the vocabulary to describe them. I have a 1930's vintage Williamsburg cook book of Colonial and 19th Century recipes adapted for modern kitchens. It seems pretty clear from that book that the English-descended cooks in Virginia didn't refer to "cookies" as either "cookies" OR "biscuits." There were light cakes, small cakes, little-cakes-cut-off (petticoat tails), or jumbles. Interesting, Anne - the earliest Fannie Farmer books (which actually didn't include the name "Fannie Farmer") refer to cookies the same way: as "small cakes." I was puzzled, looking in the index for cookies, not to find any. Then I realized they were part of the cake section. Thanks for your thoughtful, informative answer - you paint a great picture of the collision of culinary cultures here, and its resulting effect on the language of cooking. PJH

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