Dobe/Dobie/Doby biscuits

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM
Fri Oct 20 20:04:27 UTC 2006


Maybe alluding to adobe mud as well as to flour "doughboys." Or perhaps associated with Mexico for some reason (Mexican War perhaps?).

  JL
Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:
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Subject: Dobe/Dobie/Doby biscuits
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Any help on dobe/dobie/doby discuits? Just one ProQuest citation from 1885 =20
(1874)?
...
...
...
_http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/dobe_also_dobie_dob=
y_
biscuit/_=20
(http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/dobe_also_dobie_dob=
y_biscuit/)=20
...
=20
Dobe (also Dobie, Doby) Biscuit
=20
"Dobe=E2=80=9D biscuits (also =E2=80=9Cdobie=E2=80=9D or =E2=80=9Cdoby") are=
sourdough biscuits. The name=20
was used by the 1870s and is largely of historical interest today. =E2=80=
=9CDobe=E2=80=9D is=20
said to come from =E2=80=9Cabode=E2=80=9D bricks, but the word also might c=
ome from =E2=80=9C
doughboy.=E2=80=9D =20


(Historical Dictionary of American Slang, A-G)=20
dobe biscuit, n. Army, a hardtack biscuit.=20
1931 1931 R.G. Carter Border 41 [ref to ca1870]: Our supper at night=20
consisted of broiled wild turkey thighs, larded with bacon slivers, and buf=
falo=20
sweetbreads, with =E2=80=9Cdoby=E2=80=9D biscuits and coffee. =20
November 1885, United Service, =E2=80=9CScouting on the =E2=80=98Staked Plai=
ns=E2=80=99 (Llano =20
Estacado) with MacKenzie, in 1874,=E2=80=9D pg. 534:=20
...and the command had its breakfast, for which all hands were ready, so fa=
r=20
as appetite was concerned, after the morning ride,=E2=80=94albeit, the brea=
kfast was=20
composed of fried bacon, soldier coffee without milk, and doby biscuits,=20
which were discussed and enjoyed with a relish that many a millionaire migh=
t=20
envy.=20

Texas Home Cooking=20
by Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison=20
Boston: Harvard Common Press=20
1993=20
Pg. 157:=20
Cowboys loved their sourdough biscuits so much they nicknamed them =E2=80=
=9C
doughgods.=E2=80=9D When they wanted to nettle the cook, a common pastime,=20=
they might call=20
his biscuits =E2=80=9Csinkers,=E2=80=9D =E2=80=9Chot rocks,=E2=80=9D or =20=
=E2=80=9Cdobies,=E2=80=9D the latter a reference to=20
the density and weight of adobe bricks.=20

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