Muffins, Crumpets and Pikelets - by Marion Watson

Was there ever such a confusion over the names of those three traditional tea-time dishes, Muffins, Crumpets and Pikelets? What do they have in common? Well they are all made from a yeast mixture and are baked on a griddle, sometimes called a bakestone or girdle. If you have not got one of these a heavy-based frying pan will do instead. But the names mean different things to different people. Some, especially in the north of England, call crumpets "muffins", whilst others, particularly in the Midlands call them "pikelets". My husband comes from Derbyshire and always uses that word. I am all in favour of regional words and terms for dishes, but let's see if we can sort them out in a general way. To start with muffins:

Have you seen the muffin man, the muffin man, the muffin man?
Have you seen the muffin man who lives in Drury Lane?

Thus goes the old nursery rhyme. We do not see muffin men selling their wares in the street any more, it is generally reckoned that the last ones gave up in the 1930s. However you can still buy them in baker's shops and supermarkets. These are what the Americans call English muffins and have a soft breadlike texture. After the dough has been made and left to prove it is rolled out to about 1/2 inch (1 cm) thick, cut into 3 inch (7.5 cm) rounds and, having been left to prove until double their size are cooked on both sides on a griddle. They are best eaten as fresh as possible but if toasted should not be split in two halves as this makes them tough. Instead cut open but not quite through, then close them up and toast slowly until warm right through after which slide a slice of butter into the middle and leave to melt. Modern muffins do not have large airholes like crumpets but there is evidence that in earlier times they were made from a thick yeast batter similar to that now used for crumpets and may have therefore been more like them in appearance. This may be one reason for the interchange of names. Old cookery books give many different variations on muffin recipes and to make matters even more complicated we have American muffins made from a thick batter and looking like large cup cakes. They are often flavoured with blueberries or strawberries and make appearances in Britain now.

So what about crumpets? It is possible to make them at home, although most people prefer to buy them. They are made from a thick yeast batter which is poured into rings placed on a griddle. As the mixture cooks large bubbles rise to the surface, once they have set and the base is brown they are flipped over to darken the other side. They are best eaten toasted, (experts say they should be done on the smooth side first, holey side last, then spread with butter on the holey side so that it melts down into the cavities. Soyer recommended half an ounce of butter to each crumpet! Some people like them with jam and my son-in-law eats his with a slice of cheese melted on top. But were they always like this? We have records of a "crompid cake" going back to the fourteenth century. This was cooked on a griddle (for most people that was the only facility for baking) but was quite thin and curled up at the edges, thus giving it its name from the Old English crump or "crooked". In the seventeenth century crumpets were made from buckwheat flour and the batter was poured onto a griddle and allowed to spread to a circle of about six inches. Even today in some places crumpets, the size of a dinner-plate, are made from a mixture of wholemeal and white flour. This may have led to the term "pikelet" to differentiate the smaller ones. The word may come from the Welsh bara pyglyd or "pitchy bread" because of its colour. It is only within the last hundred and fifty years that the crumpet as we know it came into being. In the days of open fires it was a pleasure to sit toasting crumpets in front of the glowing embers on a cold winter's day. Nowadays we usually have to make use of the grill instead, but they still taste good.

To confuse matters further in Australia and New Zealand the term pikelet is used for a small drop scone, what we would probably call "Scotch pancake", or "girdle scone", also cooked on a griddle, but that's another story.

Muffins, crumpets and pikelets, does it really matter what we call them as long as we continue to enjoy them?

Top of pagePrevious page