English muffin
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An English muffin is a small, round, flat yeast-leavened (sometimes sourdough) bread which is commonly Template:Convert round and Template:Convert tall. It is generally split horizontally and served toasted.<ref name=david>David, Elizabeth (1977). English Bread and Yeast Cookery. London: Allen Lane. Template:ISBN</ref> They are unsweetened and frequently eaten with sweet or savoury toppings, such as butter, fruit jam, honey, eggs, sausage, bacon, or cheese. English muffins are an essential ingredient in eggs Benedict and a variety of breakfast sandwiches derived from it, such as the McMuffin.
Rather than being entirely oven-baked, they are also cooked in a griddle on the stove top and flipped from side-to-side, which results in a flattened shape rather than the rounded top seen in baked rolls or cake-type muffins.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
It is of English or European origin.
These products are called English muffins to distinguish them from the sweeter cupcake-shaped quick breads also known as muffins, although in the UK, English muffins are sometimes referred to simply as muffins<ref name="Myers 2018">Template:Cite web</ref> or breakfast muffins.<ref name="warburtons">Template:Cite web</ref> English muffins are available in a wide range of varieties, including whole wheat, multigrain, cinnamon raisin, cranberry, and apple cinnamon.
Origin
The word muffin is thought to come from the Low German Template:Lang, meaning "little cakes".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Oxford English Dictionary also suggests a possible link to Old French Template:Lang, a type of bread. Originally it meant "any of various kinds of bread or cake".<ref>"muffin, n.". OED Online. March 2022. Oxford University Press. https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/123299 (accessed 2 April 2022).</ref>
The first recorded use of the word muffin was in 1703,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and recipes for muffins appear in British cookery books as early as 1747 in Hannah Glasse's The Art of Cookery, although the product is undoubtedly older than that.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The muffins are described by Glasse as being "like a Honey-comb" inside.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In the Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson states that "[t]here has always been some confusion between muffins, crumpets, and pikelets, both in recipes and in name".<ref name=Davidson>Davidson, Alan. Oxford Companion to Food. Oxford University Press:Oxford, 1999 (p. 517)</ref> The English muffin has been described as a variant form of a crumpet, or a "cousin", with the difference being the location of the holes; in a crumpet, the holes go all the way to the top, whereas with an English muffin, the holes are inside.<ref name="Nibble1">Template:Cite web</ref>
Muffin men
The increasing popularity of flatbread muffins by the mid-18th century is attested by the existence of muffin men, a type of hawker who would travel door to door selling English muffins as a snack bread before most homes had their own ovens.<ref name=Davidson/>
The bell-ringing of muffin men became so common that by 1839 the British Parliament passed a bill<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> to prohibit it, but this was not adhered to by sellers.<ref>Mayhew, Henry (2013). London Labour and the London Poor. Volume 1. p. 202. "The prohibition has been as inoperative as that which forbade the use of a drum to the costermonger, for the muffin bell still tinkles along the streets, and is rung vigorously in the suburbs"</ref> In 1861, "goodsized" muffins from street-sellers were commonly sold for a halfpenny each; crumpets were about a penny.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Comparing the bell-ringing of muffin men to the melodic chimes from an approaching ice cream van that generates excitement in children today, Michael Paterson writes in A Brief History of Life in Victorian Britain, “the ringing of a handbell was one of the most joyous sounds in a Victorian childhood”.<ref name=“Paterson”/> The tradition of the muffin man continued until the Second World War.<ref name=“Paterson”>Template:Cite book</ref>
By country
United Kingdom
Both English muffins and sweet American-style cupcake-shaped muffins are referred to as muffins in the UK, although the terms English muffin, breakfast muffin, or toasting muffin are often used to indicate the former, and legislation refers to the latter as American muffins.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Myers 2018"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> They are usually consumed with tea or coffee, and sometimes feature in afternoon tea served in UK hotels.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> They are also consumed for breakfast in the form of American-style breakfast sandwiches.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
United States
"Mush muffins (called slipperdowns in New England) were a Colonial [American] muffin made with hominy on a hanging griddle."<ref>Mariani, John F. Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, [Lebhar-Freidman Books: New York]. 1999 (p. 211)</ref> These and other types of flatbread muffins were known to American settlers, but they declined in popularity with the advent of the quickbread muffin.
References to English muffins appear in U.S. newspapers starting in 1859,<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref><ref>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref><ref>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref> and detailed descriptions of them and recipes were published as early as 1870.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref><ref>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref>
A popular brand of English muffin in the U.S. is Thomas', which was founded in Manhattan, New York, by English immigrant Samuel Bath Thomas in 1880.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He reintroduced the flatbread muffin to the American market. Thomas called the product "toaster crumpets", and intended them as a "more elegant alternative to toast' to be served in fine hotels.<ref name="Nibble1" /> Thomas opened a second bakery around the corner from the first at 337 West 20th Street in a building that remains known as "The Muffin House".<ref>Muffin House -Daytonian</ref> Today the company is owned by Bimbo Bakeries USA, which also owns the Entenmann's, Boboli, Stroehmann, Oroweat, and Arnold brands.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 1910, Fred Wolferman of Kansas City, Missouri began making denser English muffins at his family grocery, using empty tin cans as molds.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Foster's sourdough English muffins was a popular brand of English muffin originally from San Francisco. They were a signature menu item at Foster's restaurants from the 1940s to the 1970s, and continued to be produced as a packaged brand until 2008.Template:Citation needed
Portugal
English muffins are very similar to the Portuguese Template:Lang.Template:Cn
Preparation
Bakeware
Muffin rings are metal cookware used for oven-baking or griddle-cooking flatbread muffins. They are circle-shaped objects made of thin metal. The rings are about one inch high.
A "muffineer" was originally a sugar shaker, looking like a large salt cellar with a perforated decorative top, for spreading powdered sugar on muffins and other sweet cakes. Later, in the 19th century, the term was also used to describe a silver, or silver-plated, muffin dish, with a domed lid and a compartment below for hot water, used to keep toasted English muffins warm before serving.
In popular culture
The traditional English nursery rhyme "The Muffin Man", which dates from 1820 at the latest, traces to that custom.<ref name="|Douce Adds 134(8) no. 3">Template:Cite web</ref>
A well-known reference to English muffins is in Oscar Wilde's 1895 play The Importance of Being Earnest.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>