Re: English Muffins = Perverted Crumpets ?????


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Posted by Alan Hakim on July 03, 2003 at 06:17:36 from 212.137.246.137 user awhakim.

In Reply to: Re: English Muffins = Perverted Crumpets ????? posted by Dave Thewlis on July 03, 2003 at -1:46:45:

In the UK, biscuits are nowadays almost always bought ready-made. They come in an enormous variety, both sweet and savoury, with well-known names, and in the average supermarket will occupy a complete aisle. The word is in fact French, identical to Guy's Italian biscotti and meaning cooked twice, but even the French admit that English biscuits are better than French ones, and import ours. A very small number of varieties have cookies in their name, but mostly the word is recognised as another American linguistic difference.
Crumpets are still very popular, and can be bought at bakers and supermarkets, especially in winter. They are circular, about 3½ inches diameter and ½ inch thick, made of very heavy dough with lots of holes in the top surface. They would be very indigestible if eaten raw, so you toast them and then eat hot with butter and perhaps jam.
Muffins are mentioned a lot in Dickens, but have almost died out in that form in UK. (Though Richard G seems to have found a source; I haven't seen one for many years.) Effectively they were a double-thickness crumpet and even more indigestible. However in the last few years, so-called muffins are appearing all over the place, probably in imitation of American muffins. They have nothing in common with old-fashioned muffins, but look more like a cup cake, being narrower, taller and of a much lighter dough, and are not cooked again before eating. As for English Muffins, they are an American speciality, completely unknown over here.
Scones are an essential item in the English Cream Tea. They are closely related to bread, but with baking powder rather than yeast, and slightly sweet. Typically about 2 inches diameter and an inch high. Unlike biscuits, the best scones are home-made rather than bought. Even I can make them. You don't toast them, but slice them in half horizontally, and spread the inner sides with cream and jam, usually strawberry. British Airways often serves them with cream teas on its USA routes.
Drop scones are a Scottish speciality, and hardly ever seen down here in the South of England. I believe they get their name from the fact that the mixture is dropped on to a hot metal plate that is then put in the oven. So they have a more irregular shape than scones, which are cut out from a stiff mixture and keep their circular shape in cooking.



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