Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[timdream]

Hi there ,

I never know the difference between cookie, cake, biscuit, and crackers. All of them are refer as "cookie" in Chinese term, but in English, all kinds or names shown on the boxes in supermarkets. Are there any differences by definition?

Same thing happens at McDonald and KFC. They don't serve "hamburgers"; they refer their food as "sandwiches" all over the menus. What's the differences between two?

Thanks!

Tim

[Bob S.]

All are basically made from bread dough with the following differences:
Cookies are sweet and unleavened (made without yeast so they remain flat). They are typically about 4 cm across to fit in the palm of your hand but can be bigger. In British English these are called biscuits.
Crackers are typically unsweetened (or very lightly sweetened) and unleavened. They are about the size of cookies.
Cakes are very sweet and leavened so they are fluffy in texture. They are often covered in a layer of sweet icing (blended butter and sugar with flavoring). They are typically made large in size (~20-30 cm across) and served by cutting into slices. You will sometimes find it made into large rectangles and served but cutting into squares.
Biscuits are unsweetened leavened bread. The surface crust is usually lighter and flakier than a dinner roll. They are typically about 5 cm in diameter.
Additionally:
Muffins are similar to biscuits except they are made from a sweet dough similar to cake but typically do not have sweet icing as cakes do.

A hamburger is a kind of sandwich made with Hamburg-style steak (cooked ground beef). Over the years, "burger" has become a catchall word for any kind of cooked meat sandwich where the meat is still warm when it is served on a bun (a sliced bread roll) (it's not uncommon to hear people refer to different kinds of sandwiches as "fish-burgers" or "chicken-burgers").

[timdream]

[Lorikeet]

The meat in a "burger" is usually a patty-shape, and is cooked first, so every sandwich cannot be a burger.

In general, I'd also say that crackers often are salty.

[Bob S.]