Crumpet

A crumpet (Template:IPAc-en) is a small griddle bread, originating from the United Kingdom, made from an unsweetened batter of water or milk, flour, and yeast. It has since become popular in Australia, Canada,<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> New Zealand, and South Africa.

Historically, crumpets are also regionally known as "pikelets". This is limited, however, as pikelets are more widely known as a thinner, more pancake-like griddle bread;<ref name=ingram>Template:Cite book</ref> a type of the latter is referred to as a "crumpet" in Scotland.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

History and etymology

Crumpets have been variously described as originating in Wales<ref name=shulman>Template:Cite book</ref> or as part of the Anglo-Saxon diet,<ref name=hagen>Ann Hagen, A Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Food Processing and Consumption, 1992, p. 20</ref> based on proposed etymologies of the word. In either case, breads were, historically, commonly cooked on a griddle wherever bread ovens were unavailable.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Template:LangTemplate:Ref, or griddle bread, baked on an iron plate over a fire, was part of the everyday diet in Wales until the 19th century.<ref name=nq>Notes & Queries, 3rd. ser. VII (1865), 170</ref>

Small, oval pancakes baked in this manner were called picklets,<ref name=nq/> a name used for the first recognisable crumpet-type recipe, published in 1769 by Elizabeth Raffald in The Experienced English Housekeeper.<ref name=davidson>Davidson, A. The Penguin Companion to Food, 2002, p. 277</ref> This name was derived from the Welsh Template:Lang or "pitchy [i.e., dark or sticky] bread", later shortened simply to Template:Lang.<ref name=edwards>Edwards, W. P. The Science of Bakery Products, Royal Society of Chemistry, 2007, p. 198</ref><ref name=luard>Luard, E. European Peasant Cookery, Grub Street, 2004, p. 449</ref> The early 17th-century lexicographer Randle Cotgrave referred to "popelins, soft bread of fine flour, &c., fashioned like our Welsh barrapycleds".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The word spread initially to the West Midlands of England, where it became anglicised as pikelet,<ref name=wilson>Wilson, C. A. Food & drink in Britain, Barnes and Noble, 1974, p. 266</ref> and subsequently to Cheshire, Lancashire, Yorkshire, and other areas of Northern England; crumpets are still referred to as pikelets in some areas. The word crumpet itself, of unclear origin, first appears in relatively modern times; it has been suggested as referring to a crumpled or curled-up cake, based on an isolated 14th-century reference to a "crompid cake",<ref name="Ayto2012">Template:Cite book</ref> and the Old English word Template:Lang ('crumpled') being used to gloss Latin Template:Lang, possibly a type of thin bread.<ref name=hagen/>

Alternatively, crumpet may be related to the Welsh Template:Lang or Template:Lang, a type of pancake;<ref name=shulman/> Breton Template:Lang and Cornish Template:Lang for 'pancakes' are cognate with the Welsh. An etymology Template:Ety,<ref name=nq2>Notes & Queries, 16 (1850), 253</ref> has also been suggested. However, a correspondent to Manchester Notes and Queries, writing in 1883, claimed that the crampet, as it was then locally known, simply took its name from the metal ring or "cramp" used to retain the batter during cooking.<ref name="mnq">City News Notes and Queries, vol. V, (1883), 33 ("In Lancashire there are muffins, crampets, and pikelets. The crampet is so called because the batter is poured into a circular metal ring or "cramp" for baking, and the size is that of an ordinary tea-saucer".)</ref>

The early crumpets were hard pancakes cooked on a griddle, rather than the soft and spongy crumpets of the Victorian era, which were made with yeast.<ref name="Ayto2012"/> From the 19th century, a little bicarbonate of soda was also usually added to the batter.<ref name="davidson"/> In modern times, the mass production of crumpets by large commercial bakeries has eroded some regional differences. As late as the 1950s, Dorothy Hartley noted a wide degree of regional variation, identifying the small, thick, spongy type of crumpet specifically with the Midlands.<ref name=davidson/>

Characteristics

Hot crumpets

Crumpets are distinguished from similarly sized muffins by being made from a batter, rather than a dough.<ref name=braun196>Template:Cite book</ref> English crumpets are generally circular, roughly Template:Convert in diameter and Template:Convert thick. Their shape comes from being restrained in the pan or griddle by a shallow ring. They have a characteristic flat top with many small pores and a spongy texture which allows butter or other spreads to permeate.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Crumpets may be cooked until ready to eat warm from the pan, but may also be left slightly undercooked and then toasted. While premade commercial versions are available in most supermarkets, freshly home-made crumpets are less heavy and doughy in texture.<ref name=ingram144>Ingram (1999), p.144</ref> They are usually eaten with a spread of butter, or with other sweet or savoury toppings.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

While in some areas of the country the word pikelet is synonymous with the crumpet,<ref name=ingram/> in others (such as Staffordshire and Yorkshire) it refers to a different recipe. A pikelet is distinguished by containing no yeast as a raising agent and by using a thinner batter than a crumpet,<ref name=manna>Template:Cite book</ref> and as being cooked without a ring, giving a flatter result than a crumpet.<ref name="davidson"/><ref name="edwards"/><ref name=manna/> In Stoke-on-Trent, pikelets are and have historically been sold in the town's many oatcake shops.<ref name=hopkins>Template:Cite book</ref> A 1932 recipe for Staffordshire pikelets specifies that they were made with flour and buttermilk, with bicarbonate of soda as a raising agent, and suggests cooking them using bacon fat.<ref name=byron359>Template:Cite book</ref>

The term pikelet is used in Australian and New Zealand cuisine for a smaller version, served cold or just warm from the pan, of what in Scotland and North America would be called a pancake and, in England, a Scotch pancake, girdle or griddle cake, or drop scone.<ref>The Concise Household Encyclopedia (ca. 1935) Fleetway House, The Amalgamated Press, London</ref>

Scottish crumpet

A Scotch pancake (left) and folded Scottish fruit crumpet (right)

A Scottish crumpet is broadly similar to the crumpet of parts of Northern England. It is made from the same ingredients as a Scotch pancake, and is about Template:Convert diameter and Template:Convert thick. It is available plain, or as a fruit crumpet with raisins baked in, usually fried in a pan and served with a fried breakfast. It is also sometimes served with butter and jam. The ingredients include a leavening agent, usually baking powder, and different proportions of eggs, flour, and milk, which create a thin batter. Unlike a pancake, it is cooked to brown on one side only, resulting in a smooth darker side where it has been heated by the griddle, then lightly cooked on the other side which has holes where bubbles have risen to the surface during cooking.<ref>Traditional Scottish Recipes - Scottish Crumpets</ref>

Ireland

While now relatively uncommon in Ireland, crumpets were once produced by Boland's Bakery in Dublin during the 19th and much of the 20th centuries; Boland's recipe was subsequently used by a number of other bakeries. Irish crumpets differed from most British recipes by having a yeastless batter and being cooked on both sides, giving a smooth rather than spongy top.<ref name=cowan149>Cowan, C. and Sexton, R. (1997) Ireland's Traditional Foods, Teagasc, p.149</ref>

See also

• Baghrir
• Blini
• Uttappam
• Lahoh
• Apam balik
• Dorayaki
• English muffin
• List of British breads
• Tea (meal)
• Thinking man's/woman's crumpet, a slang use of the word

Notes

a.Template:Note

External links

• Template:Webarchive