English muffins -- what do the English call them?

So they were just called muffins in the U.K., except that they aren't around anymore, and therefore aren't called much of anything at all?

Which leaves the "what do you call muffins" question still open.

We also call American muffins "muffins".

Do you know what's really bizarre? The way the hash browns you get here are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from the hash browns you get in America, despite being sold on a vague basis of American exoticism.

*Original British billion = a million million but now everyone understands 'billion' to mean a thousand million.

So, just to be clear on everything, there's never any confusion about muffin types? As in, someone says, "Would you like a muffin?" and you say "Sure," and then they bring you the opposite kind of muffin as you expected, and you say, "I'm sorry, I'll pass on that, I thought you meant the other kind of muffin." (Or would you just say, "What sort of muffin?" and they'd say "the flat bready kind" or "the bake-y cupcake-y kind?")

DV, explain yr rogue hash browns!

Now that that's settled: biscuits. Do you have biscuits in the southern-U.S. sense, the lardy doughy kind that get smothered in "country" gravy? And if so, what do you call those?

american biscuits - savory scones good with grits and gravy

I thought that in Spanish, limes = limas and lemons = limones... ?

*ponders where her English/Spanish dictionary is*

*leaves post be*

I can't think of any more at the moment. I understand Nick D is au fait with 'roll and tattie scone'.

Chorley cakes are still chorley cakes in chorley. Lancashire cheese is still lancashire cheese on the markets in Lancashire..etc., etc.

But the meaning would be more like "salvaged bread," because it developed as a way to use stale bread.

And in the U.S. we call American cheese "American cheese," or "American-style processed cheese food product." I sincerely hope this product is not available in other countries; so many people hate America for so many other reasons.

Worst reasoning ever?

And if yo' mama or grandmama knows how to make biscuits, they ain't heavy. If you go to "soul food" restaurants in NYC catering to the Vice magazine crowd, they probably weigh a ton. Or a tonne. No comparison.

In France, all toast is french toast,
all kisses are ...
all letters are...

from a piece describing the English to American "translation" of the Harry Potter books: (http://www.worldwidewords.org/topicalwords/tw-cru1.htm)

Mr Gleick’s greatest castigation was reserved for crumpet, which the translators of the first book reportedly changed to English muffin. There are two things wrong with this: one culinary, one cultural.
It is true that English muffins and crumpets are related things, though neither should be (or could be) confused with an American muffin, which to British eyes and taste buds is a sweet-tasting cake. Both muffins and crumpets are flat discs about three inches across and an inch or so deep, cooked in a pan or on a griddle, in the process generating deep dimples on one side to soak up the butter, which must be applied liberally once the cake has been toasted. The difference between them lies in the composition of the mixture used, which makes muffins feel and taste rather more like bread; in addition, muffins are baked on both sides, so they must be cut in two before they can be toasted.
It’s the cultural associations—immediately recognisable to most English readers—that matter most. Toasting crumpets for tea in front of an open fire on winter days in the company of parents or friends is an old image of comfortable, unthreatening middle-class English life of an older period. It’s associated especially with boarding school, and features in school stories going back more than a century, of which the Harry Potter books are just the most recent. You can’t expect an American youngster to appreciate all these subtleties, but to remove the potential of doing so is a pity.
Crumpets have been known for several centuries, though the origin of the name is obscure. It is first recorded in the modern spelling and sense in the eighteenth century, though earlier there was something called a crompid cake, where crompid means curved up or bent into a curve, which is what usually happens to thin cakes baked on a griddle; the word may be linked to crumb, crimp and other words from a common Germanic origin.
In the 1930s, the word became British English slang for a woman regarded as an object of sexual desire. No doubt men remembered their schooldays and associated female pulchritude with something tasty. (In the 1960s the British broadcaster Joan Bakewell was infamously described, in a quote attributed to the late Frank Muir, as “the thinking man’s crumpet”.) It was earlier a slang term for the head, and also served for a while as a term of endearment (as in P G Wodehouse’s Eggs, Beans and Crumpets).

sorry for shunning this thread this long time. hash browns are potato-y things with a crispy outside and a kind of fluffy inside. I think they might be somewhat reconsituted. they are not home fries. they seem to have them in Scotland too, as I was served some in the Albion Hotel on saturday morning.

Not sure what American scones are.

http://www.tongarashi.com/flamingo/potter/crumpet.jpg

Note the holes. I don't know what other people do with them, but as I kid I'd have them drenched with butter and maple syrup. British people probably just use them to soak up tea or something boring like that.

-- dave225 (adspac...), March 4th, 2004

This is basically right. E. M. is almost like a crumpet
an am. bisc. is almost like a scone
Am. scones are usually too much like a wad of baked dough, it's true

Alastair???

and no, an english muffin is absolutely nothing whatsoever like a crumpet

http://www.kiddstoys.co.uk/muffin22.jpg

Me: Erm.

Dude (points to UNOPENED box of thin mints on my desk): Can I have some thin mints?

Me: No. Those are for my girlfriend.

Dude: What else ya got?

Me (eyeing precious peanut butter patties protectively): Um, I guess you can have one of these chocolate-covered shortbread ones.

Dude: Oh, those are big. I'll just take three here.

TAKES THREE COOKIES

GODDAMNIT

In Scotland, scone is pronounced so that it rhymes with Ron.

Whatever happened to that Cozen guy, he was cool.

do you really want to know?

haha

Friday I heard a commercial in which the cockney sounding Geico gecko says something about an english muffin, which caused me to turn to the person next to me and ask "what do the english call "english muffins"? Thx, ILE!

Cozen fought the law, and the law won.

happy birthday cozen

it really was his birthday a few days ago.

Ha! I don't remember this thread and certainly never saw the most recent revive. Anyway, yes, I fought the law and law won. Now I'm mostly miserable but rich.

[ban me]: Now that that's settled: biscuits. Do you have biscuits in the southern-U.S. sense, the lardy doughy kind that get smothered in "country" gravy? And if so, what do you call those?

Are these similar to faggots, or is that another thing?

Hello, Cozen! Do you still look like Bernard Sumner?

"[ban me]"? Ha! I was quoting n4bisco%%/N1tsuh.

x-post

What?! No. Photo Booth-ed a few seconds ago:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2047/2218609209_777c0221a0_o.jpg

Anyway this isn't about me, it's about faggots.

Aren't faggots like meatballs?

The biscuits refered to above are like most similar in texture and weight etc. to scones, I guess. I have tried to explain the idea of gravy covered scone like things to my husband and it blows his mind but that's the best example I could come up with.

This is an American biscuit, with gravy being ladled on:

http://images.jupiterimages.com/common/detail/87/03/23030387.jpg

They are buttery and usually have a soft, doughy center. You can add sausage gravy as seen above and have them for breakfast; you can also eat them alongside entrees, possibly buttering them or spreading a little honey in the center.

Those look quite delicious.

Popeyes® Chicken and Biscuits

I miss

You

they don't call them anything. they eat them. (har har)

isn't it sad that after SEVEN years I came up with the same crap joke (before clicking on the thread)?

is this where we start the - "that's not gravy" discussion? it's more of bechamel kind of affair.

I want to know, why does Trader Joe's call their English muffins British muffins?

Actually no, Porkpie -- I think technically the distinction would be that white/country gravy starts from the sausage's own fat/drippings (plus flour, cream) rather than butter, like bechamel.

Sometimes they don't even use any dairy! But the most common approach = brown some sausage, whisk flour into the fat/drippings, splash in milk/cream

It's the dairy that throws me, that just can't be gravy, it's effectively a roux based sauce. To me gravy is meat juices plus booze/stock, and you skim away the fat.

so there we are, back to what the english call english muffins.....

I get a nice heart-attacky gravy using half lowfat milk, half water. The secret is browning your flour in the pig fat to a deep dark roux, skating right up to the edge of burning it. Generously salted and a HUGE amount of black pepper.

Ha, Porkpie, this must be some UK thing, because so far as the US (and France!) go:

(a) you can use a roux to make a gravy!
(b) the fact that the dairy throws you is dealt with honestly and straightforwardly by noting, often, that it is a "cream gravy"

exactly, flour is the last thing I'll put into gravy, I don't want my meat flavour....masked or clouded, just put in some booze, burn off the alcohol and reduce to give a lovely gravy.

But are you saying you don't believe anything involving flour is really a gravy?

The main result of this discussion so far is HOT DAMN do I want some chicken-fried steak

Lovely runny not-at-all-lumpy-and-therefore-distinctly-ungravylike gravy?

I've never put flour in anything I'd call gravy, no. This may not be an English thing please note - it may just be a me thing.

That's weird, there's flour or some kind of thickener in ALL gravies here, I think? I mean whether you use flour or Wondra or cornstarch or what have you, there's SOMEthing.

here's what Delia has to say:
. Basically there are two ways to make gravy – the first is by 'de-glazing', which involves spooning off most of the fat from the juices, then scraping the sides and base of the roasting tin to release all the lovely caramelised bits. Wine or stock (or both) is added, and the whole thing is allowed to bubble and reduce to produce a small amount of concentrated but thin gravy. Or, for a slightly thicker gravy for a larger number of people, again most of the fat is spooned off, but then flour is stirred into the juices before the liquid. Either way, the essential point (as with any cooking skill) is to preserve and enhance the flavour. It is best to use a stock that matches the meat, that is a beef stock to make gravy for beef, and so on. If you are pressed for time, ready-made stocks are available, but equally a vegetable stock made from potatoes or other vegetables is perfectly all right.

obv, I'm all about the former

fry the flour in the skimmed fat from the meat
add the meat juice + booze if you want
reduce

jus ≠ gravy

Oh true, when Americans are making gravy it's probably for like 18 people at Thanksgiving or something, maybe it's to stretch the pan drippings further.

haha xpost

Porkpie says thickened gravy is kinda more of "a bechamel affair"
I'd say the thin gravy is kinda more of a jus affair

It's all gravy, though!

Let's get it crunk, we gon' have fun
Up on in this gravyrie
We got ya open, gravy boatin'
So you gots to thicken me
Don't need au juseration, holleratin'
In this Thanksgiving
Let's get it bechmelatin', while you're waiting
I just love gravy

Now that that's settled: biscuits. Do you have biscuits in the southern-U.S. sense, the lardy doughy kind that get smothered in "country" gravy? And if so, what do you call those?

AFAIK we don't even really have these in Canada (except maybe if you went to some Southern-themed restaurant). I didn't know about them until a few months ago.

(It's pretty interesting that as soon as you get to Buffalo, you start to find black-eyed peas and collard greens in the frozen food section and you can get these bastard-child 'biscuits' in pubs. I like it since black-eyed peas and okra and shit are important in South Indian food too.)

Ha, Dan, the J is for "Jus" -- a middle name inspired by her godfather, Oran Jones

Sundar, they're a southern thing even in the U.S., and not something you can just grab anywhere up north; they're also super-delicious and not that hard to make, and I wish them upon everyone I like

I mean, you can grab like Pillsbury pre-made biscuit dough anyplace in the U.S., to eat like rolls or spread with butter or honey or jam -- I mean the biscuits-and-gravy combo doesn't get served all that commonly as you move out of the south and great plains

Yeah, that's what I gathered. (The southern part. It was someone from NC who explained them to me. I'll give them more of a chance before I weigh in on the "delicious" part.)

I don't know, biscuits and gravy is a pretty common diner food up here, although it's more omnipresent and probably better in the south for sure.

xpost - They're a bit of a comfort-bomb celebration of fat + flour, admittedly, but that's a lot of the charm: it's not just southern but kind of a midwest pioneer thing, like it's January in Nebraska and there's a little lard and flour in the pantry and pa has to walk four miles to work at the next farm.

They have them on McDonald's breakfast menus up through Missouri and over the Plains -- or at least they used to. It seems like they're a full-on staple in the south/plains, and kind of one item among many everywhere else.

My mom pretty much always kept Thomas's English Muffins in the house and I probably had one at least a few times a week for years

Now they taste really bland and starchy to me as do most white-flour products.

ditto. not that they taste that bad to me now, but i look at them in the store and think "eh, why bother, i'll just buy some wheat bread that i can use for sandwiches too."

Oh my GOD I fucking love biscuits, buttered or with gravy! I like Jack in the Box's breakfast biscuits the best of any burger joint food item.

English muffin + fried egg = easy, cheap, filling breakfast, and hardly any dishes to wash from it. (This is pretty much how I determine what I'll cook 80% of the time).

someone post the image of giada's boobs

I've always made gravy with pan drippings with flour mixed in, then with stock added. When it thickens up I add white wine (if chicken) or maybe worcestershire sauce amd red wine.

Never ever heard of putting cream or milk into a gravy before though (as opposed to white/bechamel/mustard type sauces).

I think I prefer making gravy from bacon drippings over sausage drippings, because they're making sausage leaner these days and you have to augment the drippings with butter. And then you're just getting close to bechamel. No problem rendering enough fat out of bacon.

Porkpie otm about gravy, altough I gave made chicken gravy with milk in ( no flour though) which is surprisingly good. However, having gracy does not preclude the making of a white sauce or bread sauce with the meat fat, to which family the sausage gravy surely belongs. I like to make biscuits and gravy at home but I prefer to make a purer british style gravy to do so. It is hard to get as much flavour into a white sauce.

Maybe it'll help if you guys think of the flour as "tipping" the gravy