Editing Digestive biscuit (section)

== History ==
[[File:Biscuit tins VA 2490.JPG|thumb|Early 20th century [[McVitie & Price]]'s Digestive tin box, located in the [[Victoria and Albert Museum]], London]]
In 1839, digestives were developed in the United Kingdom by two Scottish doctors to aid digestion.<ref name="Telegraph" /><ref>{{cite news |title=History Cook: the rise of the chocolate biscuit |url=https://www.ft.com/content/5f890020-bba6-11e8-8274-55b72926558f |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/https://www.ft.com/content/5f890020-bba6-11e8-8274-55b72926558f |archive-date=10 December 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |access-date=23 August 2021 |work=Financial Times}}</ref> In an 1851 issue of ''[[The Lancet]]'', London's advertising section offered ''brown meal'' digestive biscuits.<ref>{{cite book |editor=Thomas Wakely |title=The Lancet |trans-title=A Journal of British and Foreign medicine, Physiology, Surgery, Chemistry, Criticism, Literature, and News |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pBhAAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA24-IA2 | access-date=1 April 2011 |volume=2 |date=31 July 1851 |publisher=George Churchill |location=London |pages=24(IA2)-24(IA3)}}</ref> At the time, it was asserted that grain millers knew only of [[bran]] and [[endosperm]].<ref>{{cite book |editor=John Saunders |title=The People's journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s1QAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA42-IA1 |volume=IV |year=1848 |publisher=The People's Journal Office |location=London |page=42(IA1) |access-date=15 April 2011 |quote=Professor Johnston remarks that -- "The grain of wheat consists of two parts, with which the miller is familiar -- the inner grain and the skin that covers it. The inner grain gives the pure wheat flour; the skin when separated, forms the bran."}}</ref> 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, consisting of about 15% fine bran and 85% white flour.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Bell |editor-first=Jacob |title=The Pharmaceutical journal and Transactions |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kO0KAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA277 |volume=XVII |date=1857–1858 |publisher=John Churchill |pages=276–277 |quote=The Parisian white bread is prepared with the finest flour (1re marque), which does not contain any bran. If 100 parts wheat yield 70 parts of this flour, the remainder will consist of 10 parts bran and 20 parts coarse brown meal, this latter consisting of 3 parts fine bran and 17 parts white flour.}}</ref> By 1912, it was more widely known that brown meal included the [[Cereal germ|germ]], which lent a characteristic sweetness.<ref>{{cite book |author=Percy A. Amos |title=Processes of flour manufacture |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KXLzrbmw8u0C&pg=PA14 |year=1912 |publisher=Longman, Green, and Co. |page=14 |quote=By allowing the germ and all but the outer, coarser layers of broad bran to mix in with the flour, we get the sweet-tasting brown meal producing the brown bread so much in favour amongst sections of the community.}}</ref>

Digestives featured in [[advertising|advertisements]] for the Berkshire-based biscuit company  [[Huntley & Palmers]] in 1876, with digestives sold by [[Pharmacist|chemists]] alongside indigestion powder.<ref name="Grant">{{cite news |title=National Biscuit Day: a chequered history of McVitie's Digestives |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/food-and-drink/features/national-biscuit-day-chequered-history-mcvities-digestives/ |access-date=20 August 2022 |work=The Telegraph|quote=Huntley and Palmers, a rival bakery, launched its own digestive biscuit in 1876}}</ref> Rival biscuit company, Edinburgh-based [[McVitie's]], has Golden-baked their best-selling digestives to a secret recipe developed by Sir [[Sir Alexander Grant, 1st Baronet|Alexander Grant]] since 1892.<ref name="Grant"/> A recipe was given in Cassell's ''New Universal Cookery Book'' of 1894. 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#Hydrolysis of polysaccharides|saccharification]] process would make "nourishing food for people of weak digestion".<ref>{{US patent|423263}}</ref> Despite rumours that it is illegal for them to be sold under their usual name in the US,<ref>[[QI]], Season B, Episode 7, "Biscuits", ''In America it is illegal to call them "digestives"''</ref> they are, in fact, widely available in the imported food sections of [[grocery store]]s and by [[mail order]].<ref>Cost Plus World Market: [http://www.worldmarket.com/search.do?query=Digestive Product listing for retail and mail order availability in the United States]</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Andrew |title=The Oxford encyclopedia of food and drink in America |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |year=2013 |page=168 |isbn=978-0-19-973496-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DOJMAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA168 |access-date=28 December 2013 |quote=Digestive biscuits, semi-sweet and made with brown meal, can no longer be made under that name in the United States, but the English version is widely available.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Luther|first=Carol|title=What are Digestive Biscuits?|url=http://www.livestrong.com/article/461359-what-are-digestive-biscuits/#ixzz1bFl0icQ3|publisher=Livestrong.com|access-date=10 December 2011}}</ref>