Digestive Biscuit - History

History

Digestives are known at least as far back as advertisements for Huntley & Palmers in 1876, with a recipe being given in Cassell's 'New Universal Cookery Book' of 1894. Even further back, one 1851 issue of The Lancet London advertised at least two sources of digestive biscuits, one such baker, William Hill, offered "brown meal digestive biscuits". At the time, it was asserted grain millers knew only of bran and endosperm. After 10% of the whole grain's coarser outer-bran coat was removed, and because the innermost 70% of pure endosperm was reserved for other uses, brown meal, representing only 20% of the whole grain, remained, and was itself composed of about 15% fine bran and 85% white flour. By 1912 it was more widely known that brown meal included the germ, which lent a characteristic sweetness.

In 1889, John Montgomerie of Scotland filed a U.S. patent application which was granted in 1890. This patent asserted a prior patent existed in England dated 1886. The U.S. patent titled Making Malted Bread included instructions for the manufacture of digestive biscuits. Montgomerie claimed this saccharification process would make "nourishing food for people of weak digestion ..."

Despite rumours that it is illegal for them to be sold under their usual name in the United States, they are in fact widely available in imported food sections of grocery stores and by mail order. In the United States, buying digestive biscuits may require a visit to an international market or be ordered from international retailers that have an Internet presence.