the.com/english muffin
A crumpet's uptight cousin, built entirely to maximize butter-trapping nooks and crannies.
means A small, flat, yeasted bread roll cooked on a griddle, split horizontally and toasted so its holey interior catches melted butter.
from Despite the name, this griddle-baked bread is largely an American product — developed by British-born baker Samuel Bath Thomas, who started selling them in New York in the 1880s under the name 'toaster crumpets' before 'English muffin' stuck, likely to signal a cozy Old World pedigree. The word 'muffin' itself is older and murkier, probably descended from the German 'Muffe' or French 'moufflet' (soft bread), long before it got yoked to 'English' for marketing charm.
- origin
- invented in New York, not England
- nooks secret
- fork-split, never cut, to keep the crags
- inventor
- Samuel Bath Thomas, 1880s Chelsea Market
- texture trick
- griddled, not baked, hence the pale belly