griddle

This essentially English comfort food has been around for at least a few hundred years, though the actual timing is a little uncertain. Over that time, the crumpet has gathered to itself a whole spectrum of meanings and associations in British culture: coziness, warmth, home and hearthside, the tea table loaded down with nice things... because where crumpets are, tea is usually not far behind. Toasted on one side under the grill or in the toaster or toaster oven, slathered with butter that seeps into all those lovely little holes... a crumpet is something special.

(Harry Potter readers, take note: where the US editions of the earlier HP books say "English muffin", they really mean crumpet. The US editors, then nervous about introducing too many British cultural references, substituted the closest North American breakfast breadstuff they could find -- but the texture and flavor of the crumpet are completely different from those of the English muffin.)

The Oxford English Dictionary tells us when the word first turned up in print, as a variant of the much older phrase "crompid cake":

[1694:Westmacott] They make Cakes of it (Buck Wheat)...as they do oat-cakes, and call it Crumpit. Crumpet...A soft cake made of flour, beaten egg, milk, and barm or baking powder, mixed into batter, and baked on an iron plate...Now usually a soft, round, doughy cake made with flour and yeast, cooked on a griddle or the like and usually eaten toasted with butter. [1769:Raffald] To make tea crumpets..."

The recipe may possibly have originated in the English Midlands as a variant of the older pancakes and griddle breads that were already commonplace. (There seem to be connections with the Welsh pancake called cremog and the Breton buckwheat krampoch.)

Naturally in the UK you can buy them in stores: but storebought crumpets can't really compare with the real thing made fresh just minutes before you eat it. The problem is that at first glance, it seems like a lot of work in that you wind up needing griddles, crumpet rings and so forth. But making crumpets is nowhere near as much work as it sounds like, and really rewards the effort. What's important is to find the right recipe.... and we've got it.

Click on "read more" for the recipe and method.

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v7.01
 

     Title: Pikelets (bakestone Recipes)
Categories: Breads, Breakfast
  Servings:  8
 

      8 oz Plain or unbleached flour
      1 t  Salt
    1/2 oz Fresh yeast*
      1 t  Sugar
      5 fl Warm water
      1 t  Butter
      5 fl Warm milk
      1    Egg, beaten

 
  *Or 1 1/2 t dried yeast.  -- These are similar to crumpets -- they are
  made with a yeast batter, but cooked without rings.  -- Sift the flour and
  salt into a warm bowl.  Dissolve the yeast and the sugar in the warm
  water.  Melt the butter in the warm milk and beat in the egg.  Stir the
  yeast liquid and then the milk mixture into the flour.  Mix into a smooth
  batter and beat well. Cover and leave in a warm place for 1 to 1 1/2
  hours, until the batter is thick and bubbling.  Warm the bakestone and
  grease with a piece of lard on a fork (use a piece of fat back if you're
  short of lard).  When a drop of water sputters on the bakestone, it's hot
  enough.  Stir the batter, then use a ladle or a jug to pour it onto the
  bakestone in round "puddles|, leaving space in between so that the
  pikelets will be easy to turn.  The yeast batter will not spread as much
  as pancake batter.  Cook over a moderate heat until bubbles break the top
  surface and the underneath is pale gold.  Flip over the pikelets and cook
  the other side until honey-colored.  Keep each batch warm in a folded
  cloth in a low oven.  Serve with butter, honey or preserves, or for a
  savory dish, with cream cheese or grilled bacon, or little sausages.  To
  reheat, crisp under the grill.

 
MMMMM

About the bakestone: The bakestone is a utensil commonly used in the home baking of many traditional European cuisines, especially English and Irish traditional baking.

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v7.01

 
     Title: "English" Muffins (bakestone Recipes)
Categories: Breads, Breakfast
  Servings:  4

 
      1 lb All-purpose or bread flour
      1 t  Salt
  1 1/2 T  Dry yeast
      1 t  Sugar
      8 fl Warm milk and water
      2 oz Butter, melted

 
  (Note:  Over here, and in England, these are just called "muffins", and
  are the ones in the song about the Muffin Man who lives in Drury Lane.
  They did actually sell them door-to-door every morning in London until the
  turn of the century or thereabouts.)
  .

Boxty is yet another of the numerous Irish foodstuffs that has poetry written about it. It would have been a mainstay of the home cook's repertoire, two hundred years ago, as a convenient and enjoyable way to use the ubiquitous potato. Boxty has some similarities to other European potato cake recipes, especially latkes.

Apparently Irish men were thought to like boxty a lot, since the most famous of the boxty poems says:

Boxty on the griddle,
boxty in the pan,
if you can't make boxty,
you'll never get a man.

(Your mileage may vary.)

Here's the recipe...