Information has been circulating on social media about Russell Crowe and his movie the Water Diviner, and in particular his souvenir tins of the Aussie favourite Anzac biscuits. With over 1.6 million followers on Twitter, Russell has the power to promote a lot of things and fans jump on board with many of them including Australian culture. Despite their good intentions their interest often leads to cultural and social misunderstandings and perpetuated stereotypes through no fault of their own.
The Anzac biscuits in the lovely The Water Diviner tin are made in Australia by an Australian owned company Modern Baking with part of the proceeds going to the RSL who support veterans and their families since 1916. There is a story and tradition behind the tin and the biscuits inside. Some fans have even been making Anzacs and posting pictures on Russell Crowe’s Twitter account.
Being one never to miss an opportunity to research, I decided to go in search of the great Aussie myth sounding the creation and origins of the Anzac biscuit. (For those overseas fans who don’t know what ANZAC means. ANZAC stands for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. This question seems to be raised by new fans every ANZAC day when Russell makes a post).
I remember my mother making Anzac biscuits when I was
growing up with a recipe from the CWA cookbook. I loved Anzacs
because they contained one of my favourites, coconut. They are made from oats, coconut,
flour, sugar, bi carbonate of soda, butter, boiling water and the magic ingredient
golden syrup. Ingredients most Australian households would have in the pantry. The
dry ingredients are measured and mixed with the wet (bi carbonate of soda and golden syrup) plus butter then spooned into little
balls onto a greased tray and baked in the oven until golden brown. The recipe
seemed to make enough to feed an army and never spoilt. Today the
homemade Anzac biscuits are replaced with a commercially made packet (made in
Australia with part proceeds going to the RSL) and still part of the pantry.
In my research about the little Aussie biscuits we hold so
close to our hearts I found out that my interpretation of the myth was challenged. The myth I always believed was that Anzac biscuits were
made for soldiers fighting at Gallipoli with love from the women and families they left
behind in Australia. The research completed by Supski titled “ANZAC Biscuits – A Culinary Memorial”
at the Australian Research Institute of Curtin University of Technology investigates
the importance of the Anzac biscuit, the role they have linking women on the
homefront and celebrating Anzac Day. The author writes…
… ‘The biscuits have come to represent the courage of the soldiers at Gallipoli and signify the importance women played on the homefront. However, within this narrative is also a sleight of hand: Anzac biscuits link Australians to a time past, to a time that is regarded as “the birth of our nation”. In this sense, Anzac biscuits link Australians powerfully and instantly to a time and place that is regarded as the heart of Australian national identity. In the words of Graham Seal, ‘Anzac resonates of those things that most Australians have continued to hold dear about their communal sense of self’. Importantly, women are at the centre of the story of Anzac biscuits…
In a recent radio program — Radio National’s Saturday Morning Breakfast (23 April 2005) — Alan Saunders interviewed Kirsten Wehner about Anzac biscuits. Along with other writers, Wehner suggested that the recipe for Anzac biscuits was developed from a Scottish oatcake recipe. As with oatcakes, Anzac biscuits do not use eggs to bind the ingredients. However, unlike oatcakes, the originality of Anzac biscuits is the use of golden syrup. Eggs were not included because of the need to keep the biscuits fresh on the long journey. The packages sent to troops at Gallipoli and the Western Front took several months to arrive because of the slow-moving Merchant Navy ships….
The ANZAC Day webpage page explains their understanding of the origins of the Anzac biscuit … “During World War 1, the wives, mothers and girlfriends of the Australian soldiers were concerned for the nutritional value of the food being supplied to their men. Here was a problem. Any food they sent to the fighting men had to be carried in the ships of the Merchant Navy…
A body of women came up with the answer - a biscuit with
all the nutritional value possible. The basis was a Scottish recipe using
rolled oats. These oats were used extensively in Scotland, especially for a
heavy porridge that helped counteract the extremely cold climate.
At first the biscuits were called Soldiers’ Biscuits, but
after the landing on Gallipoli, they were renamed ANZAC Biscuits…
As the war drew on, many groups like the CWA (Country
Women’s Association), church groups, schools and other women’s organisations
devoted a great deal of time to the making of ANZAC biscuits. To ensure that the
biscuits remained crisp, they were packed in used tins, such as Billy Tea tins…
Other sources
dispute this claim although it is commonly accepted Anzac biscuits were not
the same biscuits made for the soldiers at Gallipoli but rather for those in World War 1 and renamed after the campaign. In an article on the Australian War Memorial webpage Anne-Marie
Conde wrote in 2008…”The biscuit that most of us know as the Anzac
biscuit is a sweet biscuit made from rolled oats and golden syrup. These must
not be confused with that staple of soldiers' and sailors' rations for
centuries, the hardtack biscuit.
To deal with these rather unpalatable objects
first, hardtack biscuits are a nutritional substitute for bread, but unlike
bread they do not go mouldy. And also unlike bread, they are very, very hard.
On Gallipoli, where the supply of fresh food and water was often difficult to
maintain, hardtack biscuits became notorious. So closely have they been
identified with the whole Gallipoli experience that they are sometimes known
Anzac tiles or Anzac wafer biscuits. Hence the confusion with the sweet biscuit…
The origin and invention of the sweet Anzac
biscuit is contested. Conventionally it is an eggless sweet biscuit made from
oats and gold syrup but these sweet biscuits are not the same rations
that were supplied to soldiers in Gallipoli…
The Unibic Anzac
Biscuits (who make the Anzac biscuits in The Water Diviner tin) official
webpage describe the history of the Anzac biscuit and the history of their
recipe… “Our recipe is based on a
competition run by The Australian Women’s Weekly more than 40 years ago that
aimed to come up with a definitive recipe for the iconic biscuit. As such ours
have the traditional taste and crunchy texture that generations of Australians
and New Zealanders have grown up with. Wholesome oats and coconut, and with a
warm sweetness from golden syrup and brown sugar”.
It is difficult
to prove the origins of the Anzac biscuit. The recipe may be different than
those biscuits sent to the front in World War 1. However, I do believe the
women of Australia sent food parcels to their loved ones on the front. The Anzac biscuit serves the same
purpose in my view for World War 1…“The biscuits have come to represent the courage of the soldiers at Gallipoli and signify the importance women played on the homefront”.
References
Anzac Day, 2014,
Anzac Biscuits. At http://anzacday.org.auConde, M. 2008. Anzac Biscuit History. The Australian War Memorial at http://awm.gov.au/anzac/biscuit
Supski, S. (date
unknown) “ANZAC Biscuits – A Culinary Memorial” Australian Research
Institute of Curtin University of Technology.
The Water
Diviner, 2014, ‘Support veterans with The
Water Diviner Anzac Biscuits’, 10 November 2014 at http://thewaterdivinerfilm.wordpress.comUnibic Anzac Biscuits, 2014, About Anzac Biscuits at http://unibivanzacbiscuits.com
(unibic ANZAC biscuits picture heraldsun.com.au)
