Rusk

Azerbaijan

Rusk is called sukhary (Azerbaijani: suxarı) in Azerbaijani. It is usually (but not always) made from a 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; once it is baked and cooled off, it is sliced into strips and baked again or toasted to make a cake toast. It is usually eaten with Cuban coffee (Cuban espresso) or as an accompaniment to ice cream, custard, or other dessert dishes.

Denmark

Tvebak is a Danish type of rusk.

France

A biscotte is a French type of rusk. They are sold packaged in supermarkets.

Finland

Dipping a Finnish cinnamon and sugar flavored korppu in coffee

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 bread.

Germany

German Zwieback

Zwieback (literally "twice baked") is a form of rusk eaten in Germany. Like the Danish and French words, the name refers to being baked or cooked twice.

Greece

The term paximadi (Greek: παξιμάδι) covers various forms of Greek rusk, made commonly from barley or chickpea flour, and softened with wine, water or oil before eating. Paximadi form the basis of the Cretan snack dakos (Greek: ντάκος).

India

Rusks from India.

In India rusk (or toast biscuit) is a traditional dried bread. It is also known as khasta (Hindi: खस्ता), russ or cake rusk in Hindi/Urdu or katti toos in Bengali. It is commonly eaten after having been dipped in coffee or tea.

Pakistan

In Pakistan, It is known as russ (Urdu: رس) or cake rusk. It is mostly found in large round biscuit shapes (russ), but also comes in long rectangular shapes (cake rusk). It is usually eaten in breakfast with milk tea. Sometimes also called Papay (Urdu: پاپے)

Iran

In Iran, rusk is called nān-e sokhāri (Persian: نان سوخاری). 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 (tea). The most common brand of naan sukhaari is Vitana.

Italy

In Italy, this form is called biscotti (twice-baked cake); it should not be confused with fette biscottate.

Croissant rusk covered with chocolate and nuts, Japan

Japan

In Japan, rusk is often a delicacy made from baguette, cake or even croissant. It is often sweet.

The Levant

In the Levant this form is called boksum (Arabic: بقصم) in Iraq and Syria or Qurshalla (Arabic:قرشلة) in Palestine and 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)

Dutch-style beschuit

Beschuit, also known as Dutch crispbakes, are light, round, rather crumbly, rusks as eaten in the Netherlands and Belgium. Particularly in the Netherlands it is customary to serve beschuit met muisjes (sprinkled with "little mice" which are anise seeds covered in white, pink or blue sugar; note that muisjes can be thought of as miniature "sugar plums") at the birth of a baby. Beschuiten are also eaten as a breakfast food with a variety of toppings, most commonly butter and sprinkles in flavours such as chocolate (chocoladehagel or chocolademuisjes) or fruit (vruchtenhagel), or cheese. A longtime Dutch tradition is to serve strawberries on beschuit usually topped with some sugar or whipped cream.

Beschuit is almost always sold in rolls; a roll typically has 13 rusks (a baker's dozen). They are made by first baking a flat round bread (beschuitbol), slicing it, and then baking each half again, possibly at a lower heat, in the oven after the main baking is over. Etymologically, biscotto (16th-century Italian), biscuit (19th century, from 16th-century bisket) and beschuit come from Latin (panis) bis+coctus, (bread, twice cooked).

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.

Philippines

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 sookhar' (Cyrillic: сухарь). They are either baked a second time from sweet challah-like bread, sliced in biscotti fashion or just 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, good 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 in order not to waste any leftover bread that always was a staple in Russian cuisine, was hard labored for, and respected for thousands of years. There is a lot of folklore and sayings about bread in Russian language, paying due respect to this grain food that is one of the cornerstones of Slavic nations' life and history.

South Africa

South African beskuit

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^[1] through to the modern day. Rusks are typically dunked in coffee or tea before being eaten.^[2]

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 also 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 (plural; singular skorpa) 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.^[3]

Turkey

In Turkish, rusk is called peksimet. "Pek" word means solid, tight, durable in Turkish and "simet/simit" is Arabic word [سميد] 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.^[4][5] 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:^[6][7]

• 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

United States

In the US, commonly available types of rusk include melba toast, which is sold packaged in grocery stores, and biscotti, which are found both at grocery stores and at coffee shops or cafes.