I *can *cook holes in guinea fowl metaphorically.
Ah thats a lovely thought, that the SD is bringing families together. Any other families out there want to join in? Crumpets are great as a family tea time treat (I feel like a crumpet advert here, and in fact apart from one the other day I havent eaten one for about 10years).
Yes, I think you are right, though I am no expert on the technicalities of making them. But it is mainly because they are cooked from the bottom up from a batter mixture. Its all in the air.
O really?!! Prove it!!
WhyNot: that’s the most technical deconstruction of a crumpet I’ve ever come across - I’m impressed. I’ll never look at a crumpet in the same way again.
Maybe it’s a Yorkshire thing? Of course it’s possible my dad is talking rubbish!
If you like that sort of thing, you must check out the television show Good Eats. I have no idea where it’s available in the UK, but the host, Alton Brown, is all about technical deconstruction (and construction) of food and cooking techniques. He’s my secret TV boyfriend.
WotNot, I used your method with the next two crumpets and some KerryGold Aged Cheddar. I think I heart you.
And I think we’re having salads for dinner tonight. I’ve exceed my naughty food limit for the day!
Maybe! I’ve never been to Yorkshire so I’m not sure, but in our local Morrisons and Sainsburys we have pikelets and crumpets (they sit next to each other on the shelf!).
You could do a blind testing with him to see if he can taste the difference!
For those of you wanting to try this at home, here’s a recipe from Australia (i.e. all in metric):
1.5c milk
1.5 tsp sugar
7g dried yeast
375g plain flour
pinch salt
0.5 tsp baking soda
Heat milk until just warm, remove from heat, and stir in sugar and yeast, stand for 10 minutes. Sift flour and salt and make well in centre. Gradually add milk and beat until completely smooth. Cover and leave for an hour in a warmplace until full of bubbles.
Mix bicarb with 200ml water, and beat into batter. Heat frying pan over medium heat and brush with melted butter. Lightly grease 4 metal rings and place in pan. Spoon batter into the rings, and cook over a very low heat for 5 minutes or until the surface is full of bubbles and a skin forms. Loosen rings and turn over to cook the other side. Remove and eat with lot of butter…and golden syrup if you can get it.
For those eating store-bought ones, do you like me, have to toast them twice so they are properly crunchy on the outside?
I am also a yorkshireman. And my parents always called 'em pikelets.
the same here they have allways been known as pikelets in my mothers humble abode
Of course you do – I’m eminently heartable.
More crumpety goodness: dip your crumpets in beaten egg, and fry them. Tasty.
I don’t think your boyfriend’s made it over here, unless he’s hiding on one of the cable channels with the high numbers. We do have Heston Blumenthal, who has a similar analytical bent.
We gots our biscuits, butter, and honey. Not ta mention the English Muffin, likewise with jam.
Not unlike a crumpet.
A bagele, or a pecan sandy is also nice.
Pecan Sandies are the American crumpetological.
I’d just end up eating them!
Ah. It looks like it is a Yorkshire thing then.
Yorkshire speaking.
It’s a generational thing, anyone over 50 will call crumpets pikelets.
I know that in Leeds, you can buy both crumpets and pikelets, however, (and this could just be some sort of bias) I suspect those sawn off interlopers that others call pikelets are scottish in origin - its just the sort of thing that they would do.
Crumets are called pikelets around here - the retail outlets seem incapable of doing this, and bit by bit, in the face of globalisation, another bit of regional character is lost.
I thought this was going to be a complaint about something else, like “I am going to bring crumpets and a can of whoopass and I’m all out of crumpets!” or however that saying goes.
I actually tried crumpets many years ago when I saw them in stores. They were good but I didn’t like that they had to be kept cold, most bread products seem to lose something when kept cold and the packages were too big for one person. Why do they have to be kept in the refrigerated section, no preservatives or some other reason?
In their partially cooked (pre-toasting) supermarket form, they are much more moist than any other bread product I can think of. Ideally, they should be eaten on the day you buy them. I even go so far as to quickly scan them for little green spots while I’m standing there in the store - I’ve been caught before, regardless of the supposed expiry date. They have a much shorter shelf life than bread.
I can’t imagine – they’re never refrigerated in UK shops, just kept on the shelves with the other baked goods.
I don’t bother refrigerating them at home, either: they mostly keep quite happily for two to three days in the bread bin.