Crumpet#The English crumpet

Crumpets have been variously described as originating in Wales{{cite book|last=Shulman|first=Martha|title=Great Breads|publisher=Houghton Mifflin|date=1995|page=240}} or as part of the Anglo-Saxon 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 bread ovens were unavailable.{{Cite web |last=Crumpet Analyst |first=Milan A |title=Crumpet Man, the history of crumpets |url=https://crumpetman.com/crumpet-history |access-date=2025-03-07 |website=crumpetman.com}} The {{lang|cy|bara planc}}{{ref|notea|a}}, 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 Welsh {{Lang|cy|bara pyglyd}} or "pitchy [i.e., dark or sticky] bread", later shortened simply to {{Lang|cy|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 Randle Cotgrave referred to "popelins, soft bread of fine flour, &c., fashioned like our Welsh barrapycleds".{{cite book |last=Darlington |first=Thomas |title=The Folk-speech of South Cheshire |date=1887 |publisher=Trübner and Co.; English Dialect Society |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/folkspeechsouth00darlgoog/page/n315 297] |url=https://archive.org/details/folkspeechsouth00darlgoog |quote=pikelet|oclc=3352236}}

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",{{cite book|author=John Ayto|title=The Diner's Dictionary: Word Origins of Food and Drink|url=https://archive.org/details/dinersdictionary0000ayto|url-access=registration|date=18 October 2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-964024-9|pages=[https://archive.org/details/dinersdictionary0000ayto/page/106 106]–107}} and the Old English word {{Lang|ang|crompeht}} ('crumpled') being used to gloss Latin {{Lang|la|folialis}}, possibly a type of thin bread.

Alternatively, crumpet may be related to the Welsh {{lang|cy|crempog}} or {{lang|cy|crempot}}, a type of pancake; Breton {{lang|br|krampouzh}} and Cornish {{lang|kw|krampoth}} for 'pancakes' are cognate with the Welsh. An etymology {{ety|fr|crompâte|a paste of fine flour, slightly baked}},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 pancakes cooked on a griddle, rather than the soft and spongy crumpets of the Victorian era, 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, Dorothy Hartley noted a wide degree of regional variation, identifying the small, thick, spongy type of crumpet specifically with the Midlands.

File:Crumpets, hot.jpg

Crumpets are distinguished from similar sized muffins by being made from a batter, rather than a dough.{{cite book|last=Braun|first=Emil|title=The Baker's Book: A Practical Hand Book of the Baking Industry in All Countries, vol 1|year=1901|page=196}} English crumpets are generally circular, roughly {{convert|8|cm|in|0}} in diameter and {{convert|2|cm|in|frac=4}} 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.{{Cite web |date=2025-01-11 |title=Crumpet {{!}} British, Toasted, Teatime {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/crumpet |access-date=2025-03-07 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}

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 butter, or with other sweet or savoury toppings.{{Cite web |title=Our Most Popular Crumpet Topping Ideas {{!}} Recipes |url=https://www.warburtons.co.uk/recipe-category/crumpets/ |access-date=2025-03-07 |website=Warburtons |language=en-GB}}

While in some areas of the country the word pikelet is synonymous with the crumpet, in others (such as Staffordshire and Yorkshire) 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;{{cite book|last=Banfield|first=Walter|title=Manna: A Comprehensive Treatise on Bread Manufacture|publisher=Maclaren & Sons|date=1947|page=444}} and as being cooked without a ring, giving a flatter result than a crumpet. In Stoke-on-Trent, pikelets were once sold in the town's many oatcake shops and still are.{{cite book|last=Hopkins|first=Harry|title=England is Rich|publisher=G.G. Harrap|date=1957|page=100}} A 1932 recipe for Staffordshire pikelets specifies that they were made with flour and buttermilk, with bicarbonate of soda as a raising agent, and suggests cooking them using bacon fat.{{cite book|last=Byron|first=May|title=Pot-luck|publisher=Hodder & Staughton|date=1932|page=359}}

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

Image:Pancake and crumpet.jpg

A Scottish crumpet is broadly similar to the crumpet of parts of Northern England. It is made from the same ingredients as a Scotch pancake, and is about {{convert|18|cm|0}} diameter and {{convert|8|mm|1}} thick. It is available plain, or as a fruit crumpet with raisins baked in, usually fried in a pan and served with a fried breakfast. It is also sometimes served with butter and jam. The ingredients include a leavening agent, usually baking powder, 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.[http://www.rampantscotland.com/recipes/blrecipe_crumpets.htm Traditional Scottish Recipes - Scottish Crumpets]

While now relatively uncommon in Ireland, crumpets were once produced by Boland's Bakery in Dublin 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

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• Baghrir
• Blini
• Uttappam
• Lahoh
• Apam balik
• English muffin
• List of British breads
• Tea (meal)
• Thinking man's/woman's crumpet, a slang use of the word

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:a.{{note|notea||Planc is a borrowing of English 'plank' as in a board or plank. The Welsh word is also used of a griddle, therefore bara planc is 'griddle bread' and not 'plank bread'.}}

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