The Tim Tam Slam Quiz | Food & Drink

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Let's start with the basics: 'Biscuits' in the UK are what are usually called 'cookies' in the US. The source of the American word 'cookie' is 'koekje' which means 'little cake'. Which language does the word 'koekje' come from?

Answer: Dutch

A 'biscuit' in the US is a form of small quick bread similar to a Scottish scone. In some countries the terms 'biscuit' and 'cookie' are used interchangeably, although in Scotland a 'cookie' is also a form of bun. Confused? The US term 'cracker' is similar to what would considered a savoury biscuit in the UK.

2. Baked food for travellers has been around for several thousand years but what empire-building power gave biscuits their name?

Answer: Roman

Romans started making biscuits around the Third Century BC. The word biscuit comes from the Latin 'bis coctum' which means 'twice baked'. The biscuits were baked twice in order to reduce the water content and hence extend the shelf-life of the food.

3. Since tea and coffee did not make it to Europe until the seventeenth century, what flavour-enhancing drink did Roman soldiers dunk their version of biscuits in?

Answer: Wine

Romans believed that wine was a daily necessity so the wine was made available to most people in society, including slaves but not women. What the soldiers were actually supplied with was called 'posca', which was a mixture of water and sour wine. About one litre was given as part of a soldier's daily rations. It was not as acidic as vinegar and had a low level of alcohol.

The Romans found dunking their biscuits made them more palatable.

Of the other answers: milk would go off too quickly, a regular supply of sea water would be difficult if you were not beside the sea and dunking in water would not particularly enhance the flavour of the biscuit.

4. Hardtack is another form of baked biscuit that was used in sea voyages and for soldier's rations due to its long life when properly stored. Dunking was the best way to soften it and make it palatable. What invention led to the replacement of hardtack from the British Royal Navy rations in the Nineteenth Century?

Answer: Canning

Frenchman Nicolas Appert is credited with inventing 'canning' in 1795, although he used corked glass bottles. Peter Durand, a British inventor, was first to patent a method using a tin can in 1810 and canned goods became part of Royal Navy rations from 1847. The can opener, invented in 1855, increased the popularity of canning as it meant that people no longer needed a hammer and chisel to open cans.

5. What is the term for the way that liquid is drawn into the biscuit during the dunking process?

Answer: Capillary Action

Within the biscuit itself, there are air spaces and channels between the particles. Capillary action results in the liquid being drawn up through these spaces. The liquid starts to dissolve the sugar binding the biscuit and swells the starch. Left dunked too long, the biscuit is likely to fall apart. Due to their ingredients or the way they put together, some biscuits will survive the dunking process better than others.

6. According to one scientific study, the best drink to dunk your biscuit in is milk. Why?

Answer: It maximises the taste experience

The scientific study found that dunking in milk increased significantly the flavour intensity experienced when compared to the dry biscuit. This is down to the fat in milk which is good at absorbing flavour and stays in the mouth longer. Presumably hot milk is better than cold milk (since cold suppresses flavour) and largely the same effect can be achieved with a milky drink such as hot chocolate. Lemonade was found to be the worst dunking medium in this study, actually decreasing the flavour intensity experienced.

Umami, mentioned in one of the wrong answers, is one of the five basic tastes along with sweet, sour, salty and bitter. Most people probably first encounter it in breast milk. The umami additive monosodium glutamate is frequently encountered in processed foods.

7. During the American Civil War, some old hardtack was used from the Mexican-American War some 15 years earlier. It was not always that well stored, so softening and flavour-enhancing were not the only reasons for dunking. Which of the following additional reasons applied?

Answer: To float out any infesting insects

If you were hungry enough and only had hardtack to eat, you would soon find a way to eat them even if infested with insects. Heating the hardtack at a fire was another way of encouraging the insects to leave. This explains why 'worm castles' was a nickname for hardtack.

Other nicknames included 'sheet iron', 'tooth dullers' and 'dog biscuits'. Hardtack is still commonly eaten in Hawaii and Alaska.

8. And so to the Tim Tam. This antipodean icon is a chocolate biscuit made by Arnott's Biscuit Holdings, founded by Scotsman William Arnott and which is now part of the Campbell Soup Company of the US. Where is the Tim Tam manufactured?

Answer: Australia

William Arnott emigrated to Australia and opened a bakery in Newcastle, New South Wales in 1865. The Tim Tam was first available in shops during 1964 and in USA from 2008. In USA they are sometimes rebranded as 'Arnott's Original'. It is also sold in Canada, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Timor-Leste (or East Timor).

9. The idea to create the Tim Tam was first thought of in 1958. It was to be an improved version of the Penguin biscuit made by McVitie's of the UK. Coincidentally the name is shared with a 1960s American rock band. Where did the name for the biscuit come from?

Answer: The winner of the 1958 Kentucky Derby

Tim Tam was a successful American thoroughbred racehorse and was on the point of winning the United States Triple Crown at the Belmont Stakes when he fractured a sesamoid bone. He hobbled across the line in second place. That was his last race however he lived on until 1982 as a successful sire.

Tim Tam And The Turn-Ons was the 1960s American rock band who borrowed the horse's name. Kulija is the Aboriginal word for penguin.

10. Finally, we have the Tim Tam Slam, which is a form of dunking with a Tim Tam. What is unusual about the technique?

Answer: The biscuit is used like a straw

One method is to bite off diagonally opposite corners of the biscuit, dip it into your hot drink and suck up some liquid until you get some in your mouth. You then eat the biscuit before it melts, enjoying the flavour explosion which follows.

The Tim Tam Shotgun, Tim Tam Bomb and Tim Tam Explosion are alternative names.

(I wonder if that hand slamming thing is where slam dunking came from! Well ... no, that is more of a basketball thing.)

Source: Author suomy

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor WesleyCrusher before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

The Tim Tam Slam Trivia Quiz

This quiz touches on a subject close to the hearts of a few (perhaps millions of) drinkers of hot beverages ... dunking biscuits (or cookies, if you are American). Let's see what you know.

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