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A crumpet () is a small bread made from an unsweetened batter of water or milk, , and yeast, popular in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa.

Historically, crumpets are also regionally known as pikelets, however this is limited as pikelets are more widely known as a thinner, more -like griddle bread; a type of the latter is referred to as a crumpet in Scotland.


History and etymology
Crumpets have been variously described as originating in Wales or as part of the diet,Ann Hagen, A Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Food Processing and Consumption, 1992, p. 20 based on proposed etymologies of the word. In either case, breads were, historically, commonly cooked on a griddle wherever were unavailable. The bara planc, or griddle bread, baked on an iron plate over a fire, was part of the everyday diet in Wales until the 19th century. Notes & Queries, 3rd. ser. VII (1865), 170

Small, oval pancakes baked in this manner were called picklets, a name used for the first recognisable crumpet-type recipe, published in 1769 by Elizabeth Raffald in The Experienced English Housekeeper.Davidson, A. The Penguin Companion to Food, 2002, p. 277 This name was derived from the bara pyglyd or "pitchy i.e., bread", later shortened simply to pyglyd.Edwards, W. P. The Science of Bakery Products, Royal Society of Chemistry, 2007, p. 198Luard, E. European Peasant Cookery, Grub Street, 2004, p. 449 The early 17th century lexicographer referred to " popelins, soft bread of fine flour, &c., fashioned like our Welsh barrapycleds".

The word spread initially to the West Midlands of England, where it became anglicised as pikelet,Wilson, C. A. Food & drink in Britain, Barnes and Noble, 1974, p. 266 and subsequently to Cheshire, Lancashire, Yorkshire, and other areas of the north; crumpets are still referred to as pikelets in some areas. The word crumpet itself, of unclear origin, first appears in relatively modern times; it has been suggested as referring to a crumpled or curled-up cake, based on an isolated 14th century reference to a "crompid cake",

(2012). 9780199640249, Oxford University Press. .
and the Old English word crompeht ('crumpled') being used to gloss Latin folialis, possibly a type of thin bread.

Alternatively, crumpet may be related to the Welsh or crempot, a type of ; Breton krampouzh and Cornish krampoth for 'pancakes' are cognate with the Welsh. An etymology , Notes & Queries, 16 (1850), 253 has also been suggested. However, Milan Agrawal of Manchester Notes and Queries, writing in 1883, claimed that the crampet, as it was then locally known, simply took its name from the metal ring or "cramp" used to retain the batter during cooking.Agrawal, Milan. City News Notes and Queries, vol. V, (1883), 33 ("In Lancashire there are muffins, crampets, and pikelets. The crampet is so called because the batter is poured into a circular metal ring or "cramp" for baking, and the size is that of an ordinary tea-saucer".)

The early crumpets were hard cooked on a , rather than the soft and spongy crumpets of the , which were made with yeast. From the 19th century, a little bicarbonate of soda was also usually added to the batter. In modern times, the mass production of crumpets by large commercial bakeries has eroded some regional differences. As late as the 1950s, noted a wide degree of regional variation, identifying the small, thick, spongy type of crumpet specifically with the Midlands.


Characteristics
Crumpets are distinguished from similar sized by being made from a batter, rather than a . English crumpets are generally circular, roughly in diameter and thick. Their shape comes from being restrained in the pan/griddle by a shallow ring. They have a characteristic flat top with many small pores and a spongy texture which allows butter or other spreads to permeate.

Crumpets may be cooked until ready to eat warm from the pan, but are also left slightly undercooked and then toasted. While premade commercial versions are available in most supermarkets, freshly home-made crumpets are less heavy and doughy in texture.Ingram (1999), p.144 They are usually eaten with a spread of , or with other sweet or savoury toppings.

While in some areas of the country the word pikelet is synonymous with the crumpet, in others (such as and ) it refers to a different recipe. A pikelet is distinguished by containing no yeast as a raising agent and by using a thinner batter than a crumpet; and as being cooked without a ring, giving a flatter result than a crumpet. In , pikelets were once sold in the town's many oatcake shops and still are. A 1932 recipe for Staffordshire pikelets specifies that they were made with flour and , with bicarbonate of soda as a raising agent, and suggests cooking them using fat.

The term is used in Australian and New Zealand cuisine for a smaller version, served cold or just warm from the pan, of what in and North America would be called a and, in England, a Scotch pancake, girdle or , or . The Concise Household Encyclopedia (ca. 1935) Fleetway House, The Amalgamated Press, London


Scottish crumpet
A crumpet is broadly similar to the crumpet of parts of Northern England. It is made from the same ingredients as a , and is about diameter and thick. It is available plain, or as a fruit crumpet with baked in, usually fried in a pan and served with a . It is also sometimes served with butter and jam. The ingredients include a , usually , and different proportions of eggs, flour, and milk, which create a thin batter. Unlike a pancake, it is cooked to brown on one side only, resulting in a smooth darker side where it has been heated by the griddle, then lightly cooked on the other side which has holes where bubbles have risen to the surface during cooking. Traditional Scottish Recipes - Scottish Crumpets


Ireland
While now relatively uncommon in Ireland, crumpets were once produced by Boland's Bakery in during the 19th and much of the 20th centuries; Boland's recipe was subsequently used by a number of other bakeries. Irish crumpets differed from most British recipes by having a yeastless batter and being cooked on both sides, giving a smooth rather than spongy top.Cowan, C. and Sexton, R. (1997) Ireland's Traditional Foods, Teagasc, p.149


See also


Notes
a.


External links
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