Product Code Database
An English muffin is a small, round and flat yeast-leavened (sometimes sourdough) bread which is commonly round and tall. It is generally split horizontally and served toasted.David, Elizabeth (1977). English Bread and Yeast Cookery. London: Allen Lane. In North America, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, it is 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.
These products are called English muffins to distinguish them from the sweeter cupcake-shaped also known as muffins, although in the UK, English muffins are sometimes referred to simply as muffins or breakfast muffins. English muffins are available in a wide range of varieties, including whole wheat, multigrain bread, cinnamon raisin, cranberry, and apple cinnamon.
(accessed 2 April 2022).
The first recorded use of the word muffin was in 1703, and recipes for muffins appear in British cookbooks as early as 1747 in Hannah Glasse's The Art of Cookery. The muffins are described by Glasse as being "like a Honey-comb" inside.
In the Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson states that "there has always been some confusion between muffins, , and , both in recipes and in name".Davidson, Alan. Oxford Companion to Food. Oxford University Press:Oxford, 1999 (p. 517)
The bell-ringing of muffin men became so common that by 1839 the British Parliament passed a bill to prohibit it, but this was not adhered to by sellers.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" In 1861, "goodsized" muffins from street-sellers were commonly sold for a halfpenny each; crumpets were about a penny.
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”. The tradition of the muffin man continued until the Second World War.
References to English muffins appear in U.S. newspapers starting in 1859, and detailed descriptions of them and recipes were published as early as 1870.
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. 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". Muffin House -Daytonian Today the company is owned by Bimbo Bakeries USA, which also owns the Entenmann's, Boboli, Stroehmann, Oroweat, and Arnold brands.
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.
A well-known reference to English muffins is in Oscar Wilde's 1895 play The Importance of Being Earnest.
By country
United Kingdom
Both English muffins and sweet American-style cupcake-shaped 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. They are usually consumed with tea or coffee, and sometimes feature in afternoon tea served in UK hotels. They are also consumed for breakfast in the form of American-style breakfast sandwiches.
United States
"Mush muffins (called slipperdowns in New England) were a Colonial American muffin made with hominy on a hanging griddle."Mariani, John F. Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, Lebhar-Freidman. 1999 (p. 211) These and other types of flatbread muffins were known to American settlers, but they declined in popularity with the advent of the quickbread muffin.
Portugal
English muffins are very similar to the Portuguese bolo do caco.
Preparation
Serving
In popular culture
The traditional English nursery rhyme "The Muffin Man", which dates from 1820 at the latest, traces to that custom.
See also
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