The great rusk debate: To dunk or not to dunk?

Most of the Food24 team was shocked when I shared my opinion that rusks should be indulged in as is. Yes, admittedly they are incredibly hard, and my teeth aren’t what they used to be, possibly because of eating rock-hard rusks all my life. But how is a soggy rusk any better? And it ruins the coffee as well – there are few things worse than gulping down a mouthful of wet crumbs.

Despite my team’s dismay, it seems I am not alone with this viewpoint. When we asked you, the Food24 readers, the responses were split more evenly than we had anticipated. While the majority (59%) said yes to dunking, 41% said no.

Out of those who said yes, 58% said they prefer to dunk in coffee while 42% said they prefer tea – again, a more even split.

We then asked what you prefer to dunk – because apparently, it’s not enough to dunk rusks; sometimes perfectly innocent biscuits get the plunge too! Here, there was a strong majority, with 65% of you saying you prefer to dunk rusks over biscuits.

Lastly, we asked whether you make a separate cup of tea or coffee solely for dunking purposes. While this may be a massive waste, in my opinion, surely this is the only way to enjoy the best of both worlds: an edible rusk and an uncontaminated cuppa? Unfortunately, only 20% of you have cottoned on to this trick. The remaining 80% either haven’t thought of this solution before or, heaven forbid, actually enjoy drinking soggy crumbs…

Missed the poll on social media? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.