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Short filmTranscript
00:00Sat outside, cup of tea, and a tin of biscuits.
00:04You know, when it comes to biscuits, I see you as a custard cream.
00:07Everybody loves them.
00:09Do you know what you remind me of?
00:10A teeny, tiny little cookie.
00:13Lovely while you're there, but it doesn't last very long.
00:17Today we're at one of Europe's biggest biscuit factories.
00:21Shall we get in?
00:23Yeah.
00:26But even Cherry Kite burst my bubble today.
00:30Yay!
00:35Because I'm like a kid in a sweet shop.
00:37Everyone's going to wonder what's happened to this shop.
00:39Well, a biscuit shop.
00:41Everywhere I look in here, there's something delightful.
00:46Finding out how the most memorable treat in my mum's biscuit tin...
00:50Oh!
00:51..is made.
00:52That's so good, Doc.
00:54..and getting into some sticky situations along the way.
00:58Jenny!
00:59Jenny!
01:00Jenny, I'm losing it!
01:01LAUGHTER
01:02Get them in, love!
01:05Just get them in as best we can!
01:07Sit hard!
01:09LAUGHTER
01:10Cherry's under pressure, too.
01:15Oh, it's done!
01:16Oh!
01:17In a quest to test the best biscuit to dunk.
01:20A hundred dunks!
01:21A hundred dunks!
01:22A hundred dunks!
01:23Ah!
01:24Ah!
01:25Ah!
01:27Oh...
01:28Ah!
01:29While a less caffeinated Ruth Goodman...
01:32A mobile canteen.
01:36...discovers how a million women risked their lives
01:39brewing biscuit where it was needed most they really are the forgotten heroines of the second
01:45world did you know that 4.4 billion biscuits pass through this factory every year I mean
01:54how do they produce so many I am so glad you're asked because literally that's what
01:59we're here to tell everybody welcome to inside the factory
02:09hand-washing here we go I always feel like a surgeon doing this right here we go thank you
02:39this is the Foxes Burton's biscuit factory in Cumbraan South Wales and they've been making
02:51biscuits here since 1939 and for myself a person who absolutely loves biscuits this place is Evan
03:00on her let's get involved we're only wandering fast sorry
03:14look at these little rascals
03:20alrighty pal I recognise that
03:29as well as cookies and other classics like wagon wheels
03:35this factory produces one of the most recognisable biscuits in Britain
03:41ah the mighty jammy dodger they've been making these little beauties at this factory since the 1960s
03:55and they've been a tea time staple ever since now today I'm following production of the pack of eight
04:02so while I have a sneaky brew cherries getting the biscuit ball rolling with delivery driver marching a
04:15cac-ski hello there I've come to help oh lovely thank you so what's in here I will go to play flower
04:22plain white flour yeah for biscuits for a biscuit okay and how much is in here 26 tons a lot of biscuits a lot
04:29the factory gets through five tankers of fine white biscuit flour every day
04:37it's alright I'll work out and once it's connected to the 50 ton silo
04:44as long as a bug in a rug we can start the clock on our production
04:51I'm feeding the factory the flour
04:57as the flour flows
05:03hey pal are you alright
05:05I'm sorting the other ingredients at the weighing area
05:10where head of research and development Gemma James
05:13and shift operation manager
05:15Jamie Caswell are already
05:17hard at work
05:18hey Gemma hi Paddy
05:21how are you okay
05:21yeah good thank you
05:23you alright Jamie
05:23hiya Paddy
05:24don't leave me hanging like that
05:26now you've got a handful of powder there
05:29I have indeed
05:30I've stocked you mid scoop
05:31what are we doing here
05:32so we've got the key ingredients here going into our biscuits
05:35so we've got the bicarbonate of soda
05:37which is a raising agent
05:38it helps release the carbon dioxide
05:40so it helps with the raising of the biscuit
05:43and the finished texture
05:45so you've got the bubble structure
05:47so it's nice and light
05:48also scoops into colour coded bags
05:51is a butter alternative
05:53and table salt
05:54and what are you doing there Jamie
05:57you're measuring them all out pal
05:59sorry measuring them all out
06:00we could use up to 70 bags
06:02per day
06:03so this is a full time job for someone
06:05wow
06:06to do this all day
06:06just while we're here
06:09and we're right at the starting
06:10I want to get this out the way
06:11when it comes to dunking
06:13in a cup of tea
06:14these aren't the biscuit I go to
06:17do you dunk the old jammy biscuits
06:20yes I would
06:21and just to put it out there
06:23I prefer herbal tea to dunk
06:24hang on here Paddy
06:32hold me up
06:32hang on here Paddy
06:33did you hear what she said there
06:35that's sacrilege
06:37my word
06:39well everyone's got the different ways
06:40of dunking the biscuits and the tea
06:43but there's a real scientific approach
06:45to how long you leave them in
06:47what's the correct texture
06:48and everything else
06:49and do you know who knows the answer to that
06:51cherry
06:51cherry
06:53you know
06:54it's cherry Healy
06:54that's right Paddy
06:57can I have one cup of tea
07:00and two biscuits please
07:01any biscuit can be dunked
07:07and probably should be dunked
07:08but which dunker
07:10is the best according to science
07:13to help me put it to the test
07:15hi there can I get a tea
07:17and two biscuits please
07:18I'm meeting engineer
07:20and great British bake-off finalist
07:22Andrew Smith
07:23well hi Andrew
07:24hello Cherry
07:25why do we feel the impulse
07:27the wild impulse
07:28to dunk our biscuit in our tea
07:30well I think first and foremost
07:31it releases a load of tastes
07:33and flavours
07:33and aromas
07:34but different biscuits
07:35perform very differently
07:37not all biscuits are equal
07:38no absolutely not
07:40and there's been
07:40quite a few studies done on this
07:42and two NHS doctors
07:43put these to the test
07:44and we're going to take inspiration
07:46from them today
07:46and do some science
07:47we've come to the University of Reading
07:52to identify the ultimate dunking champion
07:56welcome to the lab Cherry
07:58very sciencey
07:59I love it already
07:59so we've got three biscuits
08:01that I've chosen
08:01we've got the traditional digestive
08:04good old classic staple
08:05second
08:06the modest rich tea biscuit
08:08it's got the word tea on it
08:09you would hope
08:10that it would do well
08:11and last but not least
08:12the oat biscuit
08:13chunky
08:14oaty
08:15texture
08:16all the biscuits might look similar
08:18but why they're made
08:19and the ingredients
08:20actually are quite different
08:22each supermarket owned brand biscuit
08:26will be dunked in a beaker
08:27of freshly prepared
08:28English breakfast tea
08:30brewed for five minutes
08:32before milk is added
08:33and tested
08:34when it's between
08:3560 and 65 degrees Celsius
08:38test number one is absorption
08:40so we're looking at how much tea the biscuits can soak up
08:44and all biscuits are porous
08:45so that means they've got all these little gaps and channels
08:48in between the crumbs of the biscuit
08:50and through capillary action
08:52that soaks up the tea into the biscuit
08:54what do you mean by capillary action?
08:57so capillary action is the tendency for a fluid to go up a channel
09:00when it's presented with it
09:01the tea wants to be in the biscuit
09:03exactly
09:04it's guiding to get in there
09:05first we weigh the three undunked biscuits
09:10chocks away
09:12and then dunk each one
09:14precisely halfway into the tea
09:16for exactly five seconds
09:18and out we come
09:20and weigh each biscuit again
09:22to reveal the percentage increase in weight
09:26of each dunked bicky
09:28so the winner of that one
09:29was the rich tea biscuit
09:31which absorbed a whopping 66% of its weight in tea
09:35so the biscuit that absorbs the most tea
09:38therefore helping the flavour compounds move around
09:40would that taste better in theory?
09:42yes absolutely
09:43it more efficiently distributes
09:45all those flavours and aromas
09:47around your mouth
09:48which is where you perceive flavour
09:49so the tea becomes almost a vehicle
09:51for the delicious flavours in the biscuit
09:53yes
09:53it's transporting us to flavour land
09:55but absorption could impact
09:59another important biscuit quality
10:01are we interviewing the biscuits for test number two?
10:04test number two, Cherry, is all about crunch
10:07are you saying this is a crunch-o-meter?
10:09it is the crunch-o-meter
10:10let's start with the digestive
10:11okay
10:12I'm adding the tea
10:14I syringe three millilitres of freshly brewed tea
10:18onto the centre of each biscuit
10:21thirsty biscuit
10:22and wait for it to absorb
10:23for four seconds
10:24quiet in the lab please
10:2657.8
10:29and then snap it in half
10:31one centimetre away
10:32from the crunch-o-meter
10:33the rich tea
10:3467.1
10:38the oaty biscuit
10:3961
10:42so the rich tea biscuit
10:43is the snappiest
10:44the crunchiest
10:45but why is that a good thing?
10:47well believe it or not
10:48the crunch actually makes a biscuit
10:50taste better because it makes our brain think
10:52it's a fresher biscuit
10:53so even though we're dunking it
10:55and reducing a bit of that crunch
10:57the louder it is
10:58the more we perceive it as fresh and delicious
11:00Andrew what is the third and final challenge
11:07that our biscuits have to face?
11:08we're going to see which one can be dunked the most
11:11before it just crumbles into the tea
11:12when I've dunked my biscuit
11:14if it falls into my tea
11:15it's like all is lost
11:16it's ruined
11:17it's the breaking point
11:18test
11:19the most dramatic of them all
11:20it's like the gladiator ring
11:22biscuits
11:26are you ready?
11:28in
11:28out
11:30I lower each of the three biscuits
11:32exactly halfway
11:34into a freshly brewed tea
11:36again
11:37out
11:38and again
11:39until
11:41oh it's gone
11:42oh
11:43seven dunks
11:44seven dunks
11:45to the digestive
11:46oh
11:49there we go
11:51there we go
11:52she's down
11:53ten dunks
11:55what is this biscuit made of?
12:01out
12:05out
12:06I'm flabbergasted
12:07in
12:08100 dunks
12:10100 dunks
12:11in
12:12keep going
12:13we've got the science out
12:15out
12:16I've gone into a really weird place
12:19out
12:22what is going on?
12:24I'm scared
12:25I'm scared
12:26do you know what?
12:30do you know what?
12:31I feel that ants and duck are going to
12:32ah
12:33ah
12:34ah
12:35ah
12:36ah
12:37we don't have to stay here forever
12:38it's finished
12:39it's finished
12:40it's finished
12:42ah
12:43135 dunks
12:45100?
12:46that number doesn't feel real
12:47but
12:48well
12:49we were there
12:50compared to seven for the digestive
12:52why did this biscuit suddenly become invincible?
12:55it's incredible right
12:56and as you look inside a rich tea biscuit
12:58it's actually very tightly packed
12:59and
13:00has these kind of layers
13:01that look a little bit more bready
13:02it's got lots of gluten in there
13:03and you saw that the way it's stretched
13:05and held together right
13:06that's all that gluten
13:08that is softening
13:09and it stays elastic
13:10and more gluten
13:11stronger structure
13:13and lighter
13:14it's the dream combination
13:15it's a structural engineering marvel
13:17so the rich tea biscuit
13:18is the overall winner
13:19but
13:20do you want
13:21a biscuit
13:22that you can dunk
13:23130 plus times?
13:24I think the perfect time
13:26is actually
13:27around one second
13:28to get that balance
13:29of aroma release
13:31but retaining crunch
13:32and that's roughly about the time it takes to say
13:34one biscuit
13:35one biscuit
13:36that's a one second dunk
13:38mmm
13:41a bit of tea
13:42a bit of biscuit
13:43aromas
13:44a little crunch
13:45and I have to say
13:47that is dunking lovely
13:49mmm
13:51and while we leave cherries scoffing the programme's profits
14:00I'm living my 1980s childhood dreams
14:04hey
14:09I'm at this yummy dodgers factory
14:12there they are
14:13never gonna give you up
14:15never gonna let you down
14:17never gonna run around
14:19and preserve you
14:21this
14:22is
14:23heaven
14:24never gonna say goodbye
14:26never gonna tell a lie
14:28lovely stock
14:30lovely stock
14:33my pre-weighed biscuit ingredients
14:35have been tipped into a mixer
14:38then a clever computer
14:40adds sugar
14:41flour
14:42and vegetable oil
14:44and after 15 minutes of mixing
14:47Gemma and I can see the results
14:50on a
14:57tipped into a
14:58tipped into a
14:59tipped into a
15:00tipped into a
15:01tipped into
15:02tipped into
15:03tipped into
15:04tipped into
15:05he'll be here in a minute
15:06oh
15:07here you go
15:08just tip it on cue
15:09A whopping 600 kilograms of dough,
15:20enough to make 93,600 biscuits...
15:24..drops...
15:26..into a dough cutter,
15:29which separates it into strips.
15:35Ah!
15:37So, here we've got the finished dough paddy.
15:41It's quite soft, isn't it?
15:42It's lovely and soft.
15:43So, in the dough, we've got the raising agent
15:46with some carbon dioxide bubbles gaffing away in there.
15:49It's quite cool. I expected it to be warm.
15:52So, ideally, we want the dough about 22, 24 degrees C at this stage.
15:56See, when it comes to biscuits, that'll do me.
15:59Just put a bit of jam in the middle of that,
16:01and I'll be happy with that.
16:03No.
16:04Jammy balls. Sounds wrong, but...
16:06It does.
16:07..it tasted nicer in me head.
16:09LAUGHTER
16:10Once this has gone up here, then what?
16:12Now we need to transform this dough into biscuits,
16:15and once it leaves here,
16:17it will head to the Rotary Moulder,
16:20and you will meet Rebecca there.
16:22So, is that meeting you done?
16:23That is, Paddy!
16:24Aw, Gemma.
16:26Lovely meeting you.
16:27Hello!
16:28Listen.
16:29Hold that.
16:30Thanks.
16:31I'll see you in a bit.
16:32See you.
16:37Our door travels along a 17-metre-long conveyor.
16:41Mm-hm.
16:42And guiding me on its onward journey is Rebecca Phillips.
16:45You all right, Rebecca?
16:47How are you?
16:49Are you OK?
16:50I'm very well, thank you, Paddy.
16:51Gemma sent me down to see you.
16:52What do you do here?
16:53I'm the factory general manager.
16:55You're the person we have to thank.
16:57Families up and down the country
17:00have been lost without you, Rebecca, let me tell you.
17:02It's our pleasure.
17:03Now, before we crack on,
17:05I'm going to ask you,
17:06what are you dipping your biscuit into?
17:08A strong cup of tea.
17:10We're going to get on.
17:12Gemma, lovely person,
17:14but, to be honest,
17:16you need to get rid of her.
17:18She dips hers in herbal tea.
17:20It's not good for the factory.
17:23While HR escorts Gemma off the premises,
17:28my chopped-up dough is heading to the moulding area,
17:33where it's getting some proper love and attention.
17:36One, two, three!
17:38One, two, three!
17:48This is what I recognise!
17:57I've noticed it's coming out of...
17:58It looks like a mould.
18:00Yes, that's correct.
18:01I presume it'd be like a cookie-cutter kind of thing
18:04that you do on.
18:05one? No, not like you do at home. The reason we use a moulding roller is because we want
18:10to be able to maintain the intricacy of the design and also the consistency of the biscuits.
18:22Our door lands on the brass roller which is imprinted with 264 biscuit shaped moulds.
18:29A forcing roller pushes the door into the moulds and a fixed knife removes any excess
18:37that can then be recycled. 2,880 intricate tops and bottoms are made every minute.
18:50Can you see the well on the base? Yes. Now that's been specifically designed so that when the
18:55closet is baked and cooled and we add the jam that the jam sits nicely in the centre of the biscuit
19:02you don't get any jam spilling over the outside. I just presumed it were a flat biscuit with jam on
19:08and then the other bit was stuck on the top but I remember when I was a kid they had like a really
19:13intricate design. Do you remember that? Yeah I do and the design has changed over the years. If you look
19:18at the base of the biscuit you can see the little hearts. Yeah. Now that was something from the
19:23original design that we wanted to keep and it's not something that the consumer would necessarily
19:28see. So obviously it's sandwiched together those hearts are never seen by the naked eye really.
19:34Yeah. So why is that still there? It's just part of our legacy.
19:39It's for the way you look at me. And why the yards? It's just a biscuit full of love.
19:47Oh I love that. I love that.
19:50And love is all that I can give to you. Love is more than just a game for two.
20:02Now even though I consider myself a biscuit expert, I had no idea they were made in such colossal amounts.
20:15Without this level of production, none of us would have the choice we had when it comes to biscuits.
20:22Let's be honest, that wasn't bear thinking about.
20:24But when did production on this scale begin?
20:34Proofs in London to find out.
20:39Nearly 170 years ago, a family of tea importers, based near here on the south bank of the Thames,
20:47decided to diversify and make biscuits.
20:51From the wharves and mills of the London docks, they had easy access to cheap imported flour and sugar.
21:00The company was called Peak Free, and using the very latest steam-powered machinery,
21:07their factories created some of the world's most famous biscuits, right here in Bermondsey,
21:13an area that became known as Biscuit Town.
21:16The food historian Mukta Das is giving me a peek inside the building that was once a giant factory.
21:26So, this biscuit factory was built in 1866, and we're standing in a room that they would have used
21:34to sort out all the broken biscuits into packets and sold at the local markets cheaply.
21:42This is quite late though, isn't it? When you think of when the Industrial Revolution starts,
21:45you know, way back in 1700, it's not until the mid-Victorian, 150 years later,
21:52that you start to get industrialised food production.
21:56We've had industrialised textiles, industrialised iron and steel, but food is really late to the party.
22:03That's right. So, it's only really in the 1860s you get a kind of level of industrialisation
22:08that created the snack biscuit.
22:12This was one of the first factories who embraced technology to such an extent that this was purpose-built,
22:19house, these huge steam-powered turbines that would turn belts and conveyors and cutting machines.
22:27Before these new-fangled machines, posh biscuits were the preserve of the wealthy.
22:32But this technology meant that fancier snack biscuits like chocolate digestives and complex
22:38sandwich biscuits like bourbons and custard creams could be produced on a huge scale,
22:45making them more accessible to all. And their first bestseller in 1861 was the groundbreaking Garibaldi.
22:55It's quite innovative as that, with fruit in the middle and then two biscuits baked together
23:00with flour from North America, fruit from the colonies. You know, this is kind of an empire-building biscuit.
23:06It reflected global Britain of its time.
23:09By the turn of the 20th century, Piek Freen was producing hundreds of millions of biscuits a year.
23:20It was an incredible industrial success story,
23:24and Mukta has found an extraordinary archive film that celebrated it.
23:28So this is Piek Freen's biscuit factory right here, but in 1906.
23:40Oh my goodness.
23:46An Edwardian inside the factory.
23:48Oh no, here we can see all the machines go.
23:59Now that is an Edwardian moustache, isn't it?
24:02Very fine.
24:03This is the cutting-edge technology, these sorts of rolling and mixing machines.
24:08This is mass production for a mass market.
24:12An oven that it just rolls through all by itself, cooking as it goes.
24:17At its peak, the factory employed 4,000 people.
24:22But like many in this early industrial era, there was little health and safety.
24:28No guards on anything, look. Belts running all over the place.
24:32Cheap as that place must have been dangerous.
24:35Oh my goodness, look at this little lad.
24:37Oh, how old must he be?
24:39In 1901, 22% of boys in England aged between 10 and 14 were working.
24:48Thankfully, that's a thing of the past.
24:51In 1933, the Children and Young Persons Act set a minimum working age of 14.
24:56And in 1972, that age was raised to 16.
25:00The packing is all female.
25:03100% female, in fact.
25:05And again, young, look.
25:11An entire community streaming out of the factory.
25:16Here comes the finished product, look.
25:18Horses and carts over the cobbles.
25:20And a couple of motorised vehicles, too.
25:24So this is right on the cusp, isn't it, when the first motor lorries are coming in to replace the horse and cart.
25:29It was a new era of the mass market, with Peek Freen exporting affordable sweet treats from Biscuit Town right across the country and around the world from the nearby London docks.
25:44The factory closed in 1989, but this remarkable film shows that it was right at the forefront of our mass-produced food revolution.
25:53This is very much like those shots we have at the end of our programmes where the lorries bringing the produce out.
26:01It's exactly the same.
26:03Just 118 years earlier.
26:05And there's no dodgy comedian from Bolton.
26:10Hey, no need, Ruth.
26:12She's always so lovely on the telly.
26:18The mass production of biscuits may not be a new thing.
26:23But here in Qumbran, they certainly seem to have perfected the art.
26:34Everywhere I look in here, there's something delightful.
26:41And quite a few of the 700-strong team have dedicated years to topping up our biscuit tins.
26:49How long have you worked here?
26:50I've been here about eight curds.
26:52The fellow's been here about three.
26:54It's 33 on you, but I've always been on this slide.
26:58Just under two hard-working hours into production, my moulded dough biscuits are being swept along another conveyor into an oven.
27:16And an epic oven it is.
27:19It's the length of eight double-decker buses.
27:21And it's where I find factory manager Rebecca.
27:25This oven's got four zones.
27:29And each zone has got a different purpose.
27:31This is between zone one and two, OK?
27:33Yeah, that door open, Rebecca.
27:35I need to see this.
27:37So as you can see, you've got some lift on the biscuits.
27:41Yeah.
27:42And this is because in that first zone, the raising agents that we've put in the product back at the mixing stage are starting to activate.
27:49That rise will drop as the biscuit continues through the baking process.
27:53We're not baking cakes, we're making biscuits, but it's essential that we get that lift to make sure we get the right texture.
28:00OK.
28:01The biscuits now pass through zones three and four, which are set to 235 degrees Celsius, reducing moisture levels to 2%.
28:15And after a total bake of eight minutes, they exit the oven.
28:19Just one look
28:21And I fell so hard
28:25Oh, oh, I need a love
28:29Oh, no.
28:31These are the colours that I remembered.
28:33Golden light brown.
28:35Oh, oh, I found out
28:39How could it be
28:42E, e, e
28:45So the project at this stage is full of it.
28:47And one of the things that's really important at this stage is that we've driven off enough moisture.
28:52Yeah.
28:53Once the biscuit shell is baked and cooled and we add the jam, the jam migrates liquid into the biscuit.
29:00So if we haven't driven off enough moisture during the baking process, we'll end up with a soggy biscuit, which is absolutely what we don't want.
29:07No one wants that.
29:08So if I take a biscuit off the line, really hot, about 90 degrees.
29:13Yeah.
29:14But you'll see that the texture at this point is still quite soft.
29:18Yeah, it is.
29:19God, yeah, it's bendy.
29:20So how will that harden up?
29:22Just as the biscuit cools.
29:24So we've got around 80 metres of cooling conveyors, and it's no different to what you would do on your wire rack at home.
29:31Can I try one of them?
29:32You certainly can.
29:33Mind your mouth.
29:34Warm, yeah.
29:39Oh.
29:40Good?
29:41Oh, that's lovely.
29:42And do you know what, with that, you've obviously got the jam element.
29:47Yeah.
29:48But that biscuit's actually delicious on its own.
29:55Off they go along the cooling conveyor, reducing temperatures from 90 to 35 degrees Celsius.
30:04It actually feels a bit cooler here as well, doesn't it?
30:07And my biscuits are ready to let loose.
30:12Oh, look at that.
30:19So this is the start of our sorting process.
30:23They've got all these biscuits coming through, but they're a mixture of tops and bottoms.
30:29The tops and bottoms are clocked by hidden sensors and funnelled into separate channels.
30:38Right, Paddy, so they've been transferred then onto what we call a V-belt.
30:41Right.
30:42A V-belt.
30:43A V-belt.
30:44Like the letter.
30:45And it's just a V-belt.
30:46Oh, I know what a V is, Rebecca.
30:49I know I'm from Bolton, but I know the alphabet.
30:52Are you sure?
30:53Well, about half of it.
30:55The V-belt moves the biscuits from flat to vertical, and as they glide along, they get checked for defects by machine operator Richard Maggs.
31:05How are you, Richard?
31:06Hi, Paddy.
31:07How are you, Paddy?
31:08How are you, Paddy?
31:09How are you, Paddy?
31:10How are you, Paddy?
31:11Yeah, I'm all in.
31:12Richard, how long have you been with us?
31:13Ten years, I've been here now.
31:14Ten years?
31:15Yeah.
31:16In a factory, that's still a starter, innit?
31:18Yeah.
31:19You're still considered, like, a new bit.
31:21A baby.
31:22A baby, always learning me.
31:24As well as removing any broken ones, Richard neatly levels the biscuits so they don't clog up the next machine.
31:31If there's any slightly stuck-up, that'll absolutely cop that process up down there.
31:36Yeah, it can do, and also, while we're here, we're looking for defect biscuits as well to take them out.
31:41Can I have a go at the old spoon?
31:43Yeah, you can have a go with patting them down, and then, if you want to...
31:46Oh, what's this one?
31:48What are you doing with that one?
31:50Just put it in, go to it, hook them up.
31:53Unfortunately, you don't win a prize, but you've got a little bit of biscuits.
31:56I'll tell you what, take that back.
31:58I'm not interested in that.
32:00I'll do the patting.
32:01Here we go.
32:05Come on.
32:07Oh, go on, Paddy.
32:10I'll sign you up there, you can have a job, yeah.
32:12I might do it again, just to show it's not beginner's luck.
32:15Yeah.
32:16Here we go.
32:18Whee!
32:19I'll tell you what, that's made my day.
32:23Smoothed and sorted, my biscuits move onwards.
32:26OK, Paddy, so what we have here is the shuffleboard.
32:29We're all going to do that.
32:30We're going to shuffle it, yeah?
32:31Did it, did it, did it, did it, did it, did it.
32:35Yeah, did it, did it, did it, did it, did it, did it, did it.
32:40Mednist.
32:42Mednist.
32:43Mednist.
32:44Mednist.
32:46Mednist.
32:48Everyone's going to wonder what's happened to this straw.
32:50Come on.
32:51And what this is doing is changing the orientation of the biscuits again.
32:56Two metal plates on the shuffleboard move the biscuits into sets of tops and bottoms.
33:03And is there a reason why it's now bottom top, bottom top?
33:07It's just getting ready to be presented to the jam.
33:10I love that, being presented to the jam.
33:12While we're here as well, Rebecca, I hope you don't mind,
33:14because I'm loving the jammy D's, but I did spot, further up there, another classic biscuit.
33:20Do you mind if I go and have a quick look at it?
33:21Absolutely.
33:22Right, alright, I won't be long.
33:26While my biscuits are organised into pairs and head towards the jam,
33:31I'm being pulled down memory lane.
33:40Oh, look at that.
33:42The wagon wheel.
33:45You've got the biscuit base, you've got the chocolate,
33:47but the star of the show is that lovely marshmallow in the middle.
33:53You would like this.
33:54Cherry.
33:56Where is she?
33:59You seen Cherry?
34:01Like that's all.
34:02Talks a lot.
34:05Give me a break, Paddy.
34:12I really needed that.
34:15But when you put marshmallows on the top, I'm sorry, it takes it to a whole new level.
34:21They are rather unusual.
34:23They're soft and squishy, yet firm.
34:26What are marshmallows anyway?
34:28In search of sweet secrets, I've come to a rather special bakery near Leeds.
34:37I'm definitely in the right place, because even the air tastes like sugar.
34:41Oona Sims is the marshmallowist.
34:48Oh my God, Oona.
34:49I have died and gone to marshmallow heaven.
34:52We really love marshmallows in this bakery.
34:54Clearly you do.
34:56What a beautiful, floofy sight.
34:59They are very soft and very floofy.
35:02There's nothing really like them.
35:04And why is it called a marshmallow?
35:07It's actually from the mallow plant.
35:10A plant?
35:12So this plant usually grows in sort of marshy areas.
35:16Marsh.
35:17You follow where we're going.
35:19That is called a marshmallow because of that plant?
35:21Yes.
35:22And it's grown all around the world.
35:23Asia, Africa, Europe, even in the UK.
35:27It grows around like salt land areas, coastal areas, marshes.
35:31Okay, how on earth do you get from that to that?
35:36So the mallow plant has actually been used for thousands of years to make some form of sweet treat.
35:42So we use the root, which we dry up.
35:44And if you steep this in water, you get a gloopy, like viscous-y texture.
35:49And in ancient Egypt, they used to incorporate this with honey.
35:53So it would be used as like a sweet treat or even to cure sore throat.
35:57The plant isn't used in modern marshmallows.
36:02So Una starts her recipe with three types of sugar.
36:06Including a very smooth liquid sugar known as invert.
36:10This stops the crystallisation of the sugar in the marshmallows.
36:15So instead of getting a grainy marshmallow, we get a really smooth marshmallow.
36:21We're making a cherry and rose flavoured marshmallow.
36:25Oh, lovely.
36:27I'm going to take this up to a very specific 112 degrees.
36:31That is when the sugar starts forming with the water of the cherry puree and starts making the perfect strands.
36:38And it contains the right amount of moisture to make the best type of marshmallows.
36:42What happens next?
36:43So this is where we're going to add our sheets of gelatin.
36:47So this is what replaces the mallow plant.
36:50They're very weird, aren't they?
36:52They're completely transparent, they're completely odourless, and they provide the stability that we want in a marshmallow.
36:57Gelatin is solid at room temperature, but turns liquid when heated in water, as the amino acid building blocks of its protein structure loosen.
37:10It's then mixed into the hot, fruity concoction.
37:14So all the strands of the amino acids, when it gets heated up, are all unwinding and loosening.
37:20And then when it forms a solid, they're all coming back together and binding up.
37:25The gelatin and its flexible amino acid must be worked into the mix while it's hot.
37:32This also fluffs it up before it cools down and sets hard.
37:38And this is where we're going to put all the air bubbles into those strands, that when they reform, they'll be bouncy and fluffy.
37:46You bring the air in, and then it gets cooler, and then you trap it.
37:51Exactly.
37:55The stand mixer works away for 10 minutes, quadrupling the volume of the marshmallow mix.
38:02It's completely changed texture, it's completely changed colour.
38:06So as those amino strands are cooling down, and they've incorporated all that air, they're building this sort of scaffolding for making the foamy marshmallow that we want, that fluffy texture.
38:16Una carefully judges the precise moment to stop mixing, before I pour out our puffed up powder pink creation to set at room temperature.
38:30I'm really surprised it doesn't get baked, or you don't put it in a fridge or freezer.
38:36Nope.
38:37You just leave it so that the gelatin can do its work, harden up, create that really solid foundation so that those air bubbles are trapped forever.
38:45Exactly.
38:46The marshmallows take 12 hours to cool and set.
38:51Then they're dusted with a confectioners mix of icing sugar and corn flour to reduce stickiness.
38:58We are going to cut them into little cubes.
39:06Is that air bubbles popping?
39:08Yeah.
39:13So then, perfect, the marshmallows.
39:16I need to have a go at this.
39:21And there we have it.
39:23There's some quite big holes here, look at that one.
39:25The gelatin has incorporated loads of air, so it's really light, and it's almost souffle-like in texture.
39:34Cool.
39:35Mmm.
39:36That is so fruity and intense, but it just disappears.
39:40The minute it hits my tongue, it melts and disappears.
39:43Yeah.
39:44It's really velvety.
39:46Do you know what?
39:47This reminds me of paddy.
39:48Big, sweet, and soft on the inside.
39:51Aw.
39:52Aw.
39:54Aw, thanks, Cherry.
39:56They do look good.
39:58But I'm all about the biscuits.
40:02And my shortcake bases are missing a very important component.
40:09Biscuits everywhere.
40:11Still not seeing any jam.
40:14So, I'm following my nose to meet up with Rebecca.
40:17I can already smell the jam.
40:23And there are my tops and bottoms on their way to meet it.
40:29Ooh, yeah.
40:31This is it now.
40:33Now it's becoming a reality.
40:35Beautiful.
40:36Well, all right.
40:37Well, tell me.
40:38I wanna jam it with you.
40:39Well, tell me.
40:40So, what we have here is the depositor.
40:41And this has got built-in cameras.
40:42Right.
40:43So, as the biscuit bases pass through, the cameras detect the biscuit, and they'll deposit the jam.
40:57Right.
40:58And temperature on depositing is absolutely critical.
41:02So, we're up in between 40 and 50 degrees.
41:05If it's too warm, it's too runny, and it won't stay inside the well.
41:09Right.
41:10And then we get the sticky bottoms, further down the process.
41:12Yeah, we all want that.
41:13Yeah, we all want that.
41:14And if the jam is too cold, it won't be as free-flowing as it needs to be.
41:18So, a change in temperature slightly either side will ruin the biscuit.
41:22Yes.
41:23Right, okay.
41:28Exactly 4.8 grams of extra-smooth, warm, raspberry-flavoured jam is placed inside the moulded well on every biscuit base.
41:40We've got some of the jam here, if you'd like to try it.
41:43I'm not really in the mood, Rebecca, if I'm being honest.
41:47Of course I want to try it.
41:48Of course I want to try it.
41:49There you go.
41:50Fill your boots.
41:51This is actual jam out in the middle of one of them little rascals.
41:57Oh.
41:59See, instantly, if I had a blindfold on and smelt that, I'd be saying it's a jammy D.
42:05Let's have a look.
42:06Oh.
42:11Oh.
42:16Oh.
42:18This is not going to come out how I mean it, but it's a very childish jam.
42:23Yeah.
42:24Do you know what I mean?
42:25Yeah, yeah, I get that.
42:26It just takes me back to my childhood.
42:27It's a nice, a lovely flavour to it.
42:29It's not grown up.
42:31Yeah.
42:32Fantastic.
42:33Oh.
42:34My word.
42:36In fact, I'd say, really, the only thing that's missing is the biscuit.
42:43Yeah, what we need to do now is to put the tops onto the bottoms.
42:48The jammies dotted onto the biscuit bases, and small vacuum cups lift and place the tops
42:55to make the perfect sandwich.
43:01OK, Paddy, so now you can see a finished biscuit.
43:04Yes.
43:05Fantastic.
43:06Look at that.
43:07Rows and rows of little jammy beauties.
43:11And my six-year-old self would never forgive me if I didn't have a sneaky taste of a warm dodger
43:26straight off the line.
43:28Hold it lightly with a dream.
43:35Feel free to try one.
43:36Oh.
43:37If you'd like.
43:38Thought you'd never ask.
43:39I'll go for that one there.
43:44Oh.
43:45Is it good?
43:49Oh.
43:51Oh.
43:52That's so good, that.
43:57That's the freshest jammy dodger you'll ever eat.
44:01Why are they called jammy dodgers?
44:04Well, Roger the Dodger, who was in the Beano magazine, do you remember?
44:07He used to read Beano whenever he did.
44:08Yes, he was always up to mischief, OK?
44:11And he's always managing to be jammy enough to get himself out of sticky situations.
44:16So, someone at the Biscuit Factory went, that's a bit of inspiration, they were like that,
44:21and they formed the biscuit on the strength of that comic.
44:23Absolutely.
44:25That's amazing.
44:26It is.
44:27You know, before when I said, taste of the jam, I said, what's missing is the biscuit.
44:30Yep.
44:31Those who've got the jam and the biscuit, what's missing now, Rebecca?
44:35Come on.
44:36Tea!
44:37Cup of tea!
44:38Of course!
44:39While we go and have a brew and enjoy these,
44:41Ruth's finding out our biscuits boosted morale during World War II.
44:45Come on, Rebecca.
44:46It doesn't go anywhere, but we'll pretend, Rebecca.
44:49We'll pretend.
44:50We'll just walk like this.
45:00In 1940, during the Second World War, Britain came under attack from German bombers,
45:06causing devastation and costing the lives of tens of thousands of people.
45:15As bombs fell across the country, the government feared that high casualty numbers on the home front would lead to a collapse of morale and widespread panic.
45:29Volunteers like air raid wardens and firefighters were drafted in, but more support was needed.
45:35Historian Lucy Noakes has studied how spirits were lifted.
45:40The whole point of air raids was to destroy morale.
45:44It's targeted to ordinary people, at home, in towns and cities.
45:48And you just think, I mean, how would you cope in those situations?
45:52Yeah, I think it was really, really difficult.
45:55But luckily there was a group of women who were ready to step up and try to help.
46:02And they did it in vans like this.
46:07A mobile canteen.
46:09The Women's Voluntary Service, or WVS.
46:16Let's have a tea, ladies.
46:17Oh, yes, please.
46:18Oh, yes, please.
46:19Thank you very much.
46:20This fits, too.
46:23The WVS, they organised blood transfusions, they helped to coordinate evacuees, they mended uniforms.
46:31But one of their most important roles was keeping up morale during air raids.
46:40Where a bomb has fallen, the mobile canteen manned by the WVS arrives with that inevitable prop to British morale.
46:47A cup of tea.
46:49And tea wasn't their only weapon.
46:52The ladies of the Women's Voluntary Service often provided biscuits.
46:56Quite the treat during rationing.
46:58Sugar was rationed from January 1940, because it was so hard to bring supplies in during the Second World War.
47:07But, although sugar was rationed, they tried really hard to keep biscuits off the ration.
47:13They decided that they would prioritise.
47:15Servicemen, servicewomen, firefighters would get biscuits.
47:19I mean, air raid wardens, the volunteers who worked during the air raid,
47:22they would get a cup of sweet tea with sugar and a couple of biscuits as a kind of thank you for putting their lives on the line through the night.
47:33By 1940, the WVS was running at least 700 canteens all over the country.
47:39And the Ministry of Information promoted the work of their brave recruits.
47:47So, this was a woman called Patience Boo Brand.
47:53Boo was her nickname, and so Patience was from a pretty posh background.
47:58You would be with a nickname like that.
48:00Yeah, you absolutely would.
48:01And you can see her here.
48:02So, she's in front of a Women's Voluntary Service tea van that was donated by the American Red Cross.
48:09And you can see her helping to dole out cups of tea to the Royal Engineers.
48:14But, because the WVS was a voluntary organisation, there was really very little in the way of, kind of, rank.
48:20Everybody mucked in, and women came from all walks of life,
48:23and it was a way for every woman to, kind of, join in and help in the war effort.
48:27Often, women volunteers like Boo were on duty during the actual raids,
48:35supporting the anti-aircraft gunners,
48:38and giving tea and biscuits to people in shelters.
48:46One of the country's most devastating raids took place on the 14th of November 1940,
48:52when hundreds of German bombers attacked the city of Coventry.
48:55568 people were killed.
49:02The time my grandparents were living there for war work,
49:06and my granddad, he spent that night of the big air raid.
49:09He was on fire-watching duty on the roof of the factory where he worked.
49:13But my grandmother would talk about the next day in particular,
49:16just the streams of people leaving Coventry, because they'd lost everything.
49:20They were leaving the city with absolutely nothing, sometimes without even shoes on their feet.
49:27You can get a sense of the devastation there.
49:30You can see how absolutely flattened.
49:33And there's the van, WVS.
49:35Yeah, there they are.
49:36The bombing of Coventry was so intense, so much was destroyed,
49:40that the local WVS couldn't cope on their own.
49:42So these mobile vans came from all over the country,
49:45and one of the volunteers with the Leicester van was a canteen worker called Mrs Janet Waits.
49:51She was dishing out tea and biscuits to the people of Coventry.
49:55In fact, they had their own role of honour, and you can see Janet Waits' name on there.
50:00Janet Waits, canteen worker.
50:03She'd been over to Coventry with other canteen workers, helping after their first blitz.
50:08She returned home to sleep and was killed when her house was destroyed by an HE.
50:14HE, high explosives, that's a massive bomb of about 50 kilograms.
50:18So this is a woman who's risked it by going into the centre of Coventry.
50:23She's been doing her bit, and then she gets home and she's killed immediately.
50:27Yeah, killed in her own bed.
50:28More than 240 members of the Women's Voluntary Service lost their lives.
50:37Their work didn't stop with the end of the really heavy air raids.
50:41By 1942, there were about 1,500, these mobile canteens.
50:46At least a million women volunteered with them,
50:49and it's said that they helped about 10,000 people every night of the blitz.
50:54They really are the forgotten heroines of the Second World War.
50:59This is where the bomb fell.
51:01The wardens are gone, and the demolition workers have taken over.
51:05But the WVS are still there.
51:07As long as men continue to work on the dusty job,
51:10the mobile canteen visits them every day.
51:13Yeah, it's not a small thing.
51:16A cup of tea and a biscuit, it makes a difference.
51:19It really does.
51:20It showed you that somebody cared, that someone was there and somebody cared.
51:23After me own morale-boosting brew and biscuit,
51:40I'm also ready for the final push.
51:53Oh!
51:54The finished biscuits are reporting for duty.
51:57Wowzers!
51:59On a pretty impressive parade ground.
52:01Look at that!
52:03This is our buffer room paddy.
52:05How does it work in here, then?
52:06OK.
52:07So, if we've got a problem downstairs, this conveyor belt actually extends out.
52:12And what that does, it gives us three and a half minutes of additional time.
52:17I can see it moving a little bit here.
52:18Yeah.
52:21A system of motors enlarges the belt concertina style,
52:26creating extra space so problems downstream could be sorted
52:31without causing a jammy traffic jam on the line.
52:35When this is out at full length,
52:38there's about 5,000 biscuits that can be in this room at any one time.
52:41So, they don't stop moving, it'll just get longer.
52:44Yeah.
52:45Will that stretch right to the end?
52:46Right to the end.
52:47So, if I ever come in this room and this is right at the end,
52:49I know it's kicking off.
52:51Yeah.
52:52It's kicking off.
52:53We've had a small issue downstairs somewhere.
52:55How many of these are going out every year?
52:57Of these biscuits, around 274 million.
53:04And from here, my little biscuit shoots off yet again.
53:10They're flying down there, aren't they?
53:13They're a bit like an air hockey table.
53:15So, it's using air to move the biscuits.
53:19The belt gently floats them onto a dual carriageway of dodgers.
53:24Then two sets of four are stacked with a cardboard base.
53:28Their floor wrapped into packs of eight, and sealed at both ends, before travelling onto packing.
53:35So, this is our hand packing station padding.
53:45Do you fancy having a boat?
53:47Do you fancy having a boat?
53:49I do.
53:50Let me speak to the experts first.
53:53Hello.
53:54What's your name?
53:55Oh, hello.
53:56Jenny.
53:57Jenny, nice to meet you, Paddy.
53:58Are you okay?
53:59How long have you been here, Jenny?
54:00Just over 34 years.
54:02Yeah, my husband worked here.
54:03That's where we met in Southampton here.
54:05Yeah.
54:06Twenty-three years ago.
54:07Happy marriage.
54:08Twenty-three years ago.
54:09Yeah.
54:10That's the good thing about the factory, isn't it?
54:11A big factory, you'll meet someone who you work with, then you end up course, and you
54:14have kids.
54:15Sometimes the kids work here.
54:16Yeah.
54:17So, I've been watching you, though, as I walk around.
54:19You're making it look very easy, but I'm sure it's not.
54:22Now, firstly, Jenny's got a very specialist glove on here.
54:28Shall I swap these round?
54:29Yes, please, if you don't mind, Paddy.
54:30Oh!
54:31There we go.
54:32There we go.
54:33Thanks, Jenny.
54:34Hey.
54:35Come on.
54:36We need to get a wriggle on here.
54:38We've got to get these bits and it's out.
54:41Right, do you want to let Paddy have a go?
54:43Yeah, I'll keep my mess up a minute.
54:45Right.
54:47Whoa!
54:48Is it three at a time?
54:49My God, come here!
54:51Jenny's putting every minute of her 34 years of experience to good use.
54:57She's like a biscuit ninja.
54:59Jenny, I'm...
55:01How are you dropping a noose so quickly?
55:04Three at a time.
55:05Six rounds of three.
55:07Yeah, but how are you keeping them...
55:09They're stacking up here.
55:11Get a hold of them.
55:13Right, hang on.
55:15Right, that's that.
55:16And they go underneath.
55:17Yeah.
55:18Yeah.
55:19Like that.
55:20Right.
55:21Here we go.
55:22What's go...
55:23What the hell?
55:24Oh, my God, I'm losing them.
55:26Jen!
55:27Jen, I'm losing it!
55:30Jenny!
55:31Have that one!
55:32The dammy dodgers!
55:33Jen!
55:34Get them in, love!
55:38Just get them in as best we can!
55:41Sit on!
55:43Right, Paddy, that's enough!
55:44Great!
55:45I'll leave you to it.
55:46You're doing a great.
55:47I'll leave you to it.
55:48You're doing a great.
55:49I'll take it back.
55:50I'll take it back.
55:51I'm sorry about that.
55:53It's all Jenny's fault.
55:56Right, good luck.
55:57Thank you very much.
55:58Flipping heck.
56:01That's cost them a few packs.
56:03Sorry, folks.
56:04Right, see you later.
56:06But Jenny quickly restores order.
56:11And when the experts are in charge,
56:1418 packets go neatly into each box.
56:18Then my biscuits are stacked onto pallets
56:24before a fleet of forklifts whisk them off to meet the lorry.
56:31So this is our dispatch area, Paddy.
56:34Look at that.
56:39There they go!
56:43How many pallets are on there?
56:4426 on a single-decker.
56:46So how many individual boxes are on them pallets?
56:49154.
56:50And dare I ask, how many is in total on the back of that then?
56:54Just over half a million Paddy.
56:56Wow.
56:57The fact is capable of producing 2.2 million jamming dodges per day.
57:02Per day.
57:03Per day.
57:04Per day.
57:05So we would send four or five vehicles every day.
57:09I'm not going to even attempt to top that up, but it's a lot.
57:14Lovely driving.
57:18Straight in.
57:19Beautiful.
57:21So that one's full up and ready to go now, Rebecca.
57:23Yeah, sure is.
57:24Right.
57:25Which one is it?
57:26Help yourself.
57:27Right.
57:28Whoa, whoa, whoa.
57:29Stand back.
57:35Safe travels.
57:40Our luck here is done.
57:42Right, Rebecca, come on.
57:43There's more tea to be drank, more biscuits to be eaten.
57:51Two hours and 34 minutes after the start of production, my jammy biscuits are leaving the factory.
57:58From South Wales, they head out all over the country.
58:06And these biscuits travel.
58:08The lucky little dodgers are enjoyed as far away as Australia.
58:12So, there you have it.
58:17Now you know exactly how these iconic biscuits are made.
58:212.2 million leave this factory every single day and I reckon half of those go to my house.
58:28Right.
58:29Where's Cherry?
58:30Well, Amanda and Alan are in sunny Corfu but it's far from a summer holiday joining their Greek job on BBC iPlayer.
58:45Next year, the holidays are well and truly over.
58:47We're starting a new series and a new term at Waterloo Road.
58:51It must be love, love, love.
58:57Nothing more, nothing less.
59:00Love is the best.
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