May 1, 2020 • 41 mins
These (supposedly) single-serving quickbreads – and their yeast-risen cousins, English muffins – are relatively new inventions. Anney and Lauren explore the nooks and crannies of muffins.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hello, and welcome to Savor production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we're
talking about muffins. Yes, muffins surprisingly fun. A fun episode
it is, oh and not just because muffin is such
a wonderfully silly sounding word. It really is. Um. And
(00:28):
this is sort of inspired by I guess everyone's making
banana bread right now. I haven't seen this, but I
hear the jokes about how a lot of people's social
media feeds it's just pictures of banana bread. And to me,
it totally makes sense why you would be doing that. Um,
you got bananas around and they're getting a little a
(00:50):
little ripe. Um, but I guess an extra time on
your hands right now so you notice them going ripe
and don't just notice them like three days later, and welp, welp,
that would have been good banana bread exactly. I know
Christie Teagan made some minute the Instagram sensation. I love
(01:12):
banana bread. Um. She would make it like pretty rarely,
so it was really exciting. It was a really exciting thing.
I don't have any I don't have any bananas, but
if I encounter some I might make some bana bread.
Uh yeah, I feel I feel bad buying bananas and
(01:32):
you can see our banana episode for more on that.
But you can make a quick bread with I mean
basically any kind of ripe fruit, very similar to I
really like a pair bread. You get some overripe pears,
because pairs also have that thing where you know, like
they go so overripe so quickly. Um, So it's great
for that. But yeah, I had a big banana bread
(01:54):
phase a few years back, and I I have to
say I can make an excellent one. Oh don't don't
tap me with that, Lauren, Oh my gosh. I like
to think that you could like chart out your life
like an epochs like the banana bread's age totally crowd age.
(02:17):
Yeah yeah, it's not like my blue period. It's like
my banana bread period. I love it. Um And my
mom did make banana bread muffins, um yeah, which I
liked because there's something about it just being sort of contained,
nice little bite, just ready for you really have single
(02:40):
serving is nice. Yeah, And I don't really have muffins
too much anymore. When I was a kid, I loved
blueberry muffins and when I first started this job as
an intern, I would occasionally bring in stuff from home
because I lived by myself and I don't want to
eat like muffins an entire rite shirt, right, So I
(03:01):
have this chocolate chip muffin recipe. It is so good.
It is the best. It involves sour cream. Oh yeah,
I made it once, and then I remember, like a
week later, Tyler, friend and coworker of ours, kind of
shyly asked if I could uncle something more. Yes. Absolutely, yes,
(03:26):
that's very sweet. Yes, um, And I want to thank
this episode so much for reminding me about the apple muffin.
The apple muffin, What about the apple muffins? Oh my god.
So this is one of my favorite things ever. I
have like folder of like nuclear option videos of I'm
(03:48):
having a bad day, this video will cheer me up.
This is a video from a legislative debate out of
New York States government about it was actually about yogurt
and making yogurt the state sack. But in it they
they actually getting this huge debate about it, and the
apple muffin comes up because the apple muffin is New
(04:09):
York state muffin. Oh okay, yakay, sure, that. I mean,
that makes sense New York, the big Apple Apple muffins. Yes,
I think since nineteen seven, I've done a lot of
research into this because I love this clip so much
and that they are arguing about what constitutes a snack,
well what about gluten? Like they get really into it,
(04:30):
and the guy who's proposing it it was like the
idea of a bunch of fourth graders, you know. So,
but he's up there fighting for the yogurt and he
brings up he brings up the apple muffin and he
starts for laughing and he just can't get through so funny.
Oh that is delightful. His that's no, I'm I'm super
into that. That sounds great. Yes, we'll definitely have to
(04:52):
watch that clip after this, and I highly recommend any listeners.
It was on The Daily Show, That's where I encountered it,
but you can find it. It's it lives online forever. Um. Well,
I guess speaking of legislation, Um, apparently February is National
Muffin Day February. M hmm, okay, don't know why, Sure, sure, sure,
(05:17):
And then you can see our our cupcake episode for
because I feel like here in the United states, there
are specially cupcakes without frosting, and we'll talk more about
that in a minute. And also topping the muffin to
you the Signfeld episode. Thanks also to this for reminding
(05:37):
me of that, which is where Elaine gets in this
business where she's just just selling the muffin tops, just
the tops, right. Yeah, Yeah, we're going to talk more
about that as well later on. Yes, you got a
lot of a lot to look for too. But in
the meantime, okay, let's get to our question. Muffins. What
(06:00):
are they? Well? Um, as with so many foods that
we talk about, muffin can mean a lot of things,
but generally what humans mean English speaking humans at any rate,
by by the word muffin, is a sweetened quick bread
baked in a single serving unit about the size of
a fist, in specialized muffin cups or or muffin tins.
(06:22):
And I will note here that fists and muffins may
both vary pretty widely in size, so fist sized, your
mileage may vary. Um, But at any rate, uh, quick
bread is a key term here, um, And that's a
that's a category of baked goods that are chemically leavened,
so you don't have to muss around with yeast, and
you can go from like raw ingredients to hot and
(06:45):
tasty food in like less than half an hour. And
you don't even have to to whip the heck out
of eggs or or butter and sugar in order to
do it. Which whipping the heck out of eggs or
butter and sugar, those are two ways of creating high
rising structure within other baked goods. Many breads use yeast,
many cakes use the eggs and or creamed butter and
(07:05):
sugar combination. At any rate, you don't have to do
any of that for a quick bread huzzah. We talked
a bit about chemical leveners in our pancakes episode, and
these are things what produce bubbles of gas when exposed
to either something acidic or to heat. Baking soda. Sodium
bicarbonate is one. It's it's a compound that reacts with
(07:27):
acids to produce carbon dioxide, and a cream of tartar
produces carbon dioxide bubbles when heated, and baking powder is
a combination of baking soda and cream of tartar, so
it's double acting. You might have seen that word on
baking powder packaging. Um. So making quick breads is simple
with the use of chemical leveners because you just mix
(07:47):
your your your dry ingredients in one bowl, your flour,
your leveners, any mixings you're using, and your your wet
ingredients in another bowl. Your your milk, your oil or
melted butter, and sugar. I know sugar is dry, it's
it's weird, it's an amorphous solid. Just just roll with
it being in the wet category. Um. And then you
stir the wet and the dry together until they're just
(08:07):
barely combined, and then toss the batter in the oven.
I mean you put it in a pan of your
choosing first. I would I wouldn't just like throw it
in there. Jackson Pollock No, um, but yeah, when you're
doing this combination, you don't want to overstir or let
it sit very long. Once the wet and dryer combined,
like a little stirring in time will let the baking
(08:29):
soda and whatever acid is in the recipe go to
work creating bubbles. But too much stirring your time and
those bubbles will deflate, um and give you a sunken muffin.
Nobody I've done that before. Yeah yeah, um that this
method of batter creation um is named for muffins. It's
(08:51):
the muffin method, I know. And uh yeah, doing this
correctly that the result will be a moy tender baked
good that rose just so fast and so effectively that
it may have spilled out over the top of its
container in the oven, creating a pretty domed top. Yeah yeah,
(09:11):
we used to call them sombrero hat muffins. Sombrero hat muffins.
That's really weird but sweet. Why. I think I made
it up when I was a kid because they looked
to me, they looked like sombrero heads. Okay, yeah, oh gosh,
um like like that terminology. Many muffin flavors are sweet, uh,
(09:37):
either a dried or fresh fruit involved, um, nuts, chocolate
stuff like that added in. But muffins can be savory
as well, with cheese or herbs or hot peppers or
like onions and garlic. Wheat flour or similarly, behaving of
flowers are common, but corn meal can also be used
where combination um. Most corn breads are, by the way,
also quick breads. English muffins, meanwhile, are another thing. Entirely. Um.
(10:02):
Those are savory yeast raised flatbreads that are cooked UM
in a in a stovetop pan or on a griddle
using UM using a tall sided metal ring to keep
the dough in place. That the ring like forces the
dough to rise as it cooks instead of spreading out
like a pancake wood. Um. That's helping create structure within
the setting dough, like those nooks and crannies. Right. So yeah. Yeah. Also,
(10:27):
the dusting of corn meal that often comes on the
outside of English muffins helps like mitigate the direct heat
of the cooking surface um and prevents too crusty of
a crust from forming. Yeah. Well here's the frightening question. Yeah,
but about the nutrition. Uh, look, y'all muffins are out
(10:50):
of control um, like like store bought muffins, like oversized,
super sweet, wildly rich. Um. They can run you a
quarter of your daily caloric intake and all or more
of your recommended intake of sugar with very little protein
on the balance. UM. And I know that they can
seem like a sensible snack or like grab and go
(11:12):
breakfast sort of situation, but to be honest, you're usually
better off just getting a donut at that rate, um,
because a donut will probably have a little bit more
fat and probably way less sugar. Um, so it'll fill
you up and keep you going longer than a muffin.
I remember very vividly I was stuck in LaGuardia, as
(11:36):
often happens in LaGuardia back when we had to travel,
oh yep, and I was just desperately looking around for
something to eat. And so I got in this huge
line for Dunkin Donuts and I got all the way
to the front, and then I saw the muffin I
had wanted. I was finally able to read the calorie count,
(11:57):
and I got up to the register and she said,
what we have? And I said never mind. It was
like outrageous. I knew it was gonna be high, but whoa.
But you were just like, nope, nope, because it wasn't
even that big. And I thought, oh, sure, no, yeah, no,
that stuff it gets wild. Yeah, I know it's a
(12:20):
gag in Max Smart. I haven't seen that movie no
long time, but I remember there was a muffin a
joke about how how how many galleries surprisingly are in
even the smallest ones, And then here's this quote that
I love from Jeremy Glass over at thrill List. With
an average muffin packing more than four calories and a
mind melting forty of sugar and one serving, eating a
(12:41):
muffin for breakfast is exactly the same as taking out
your heart, putting it on a serving dish, and then
covering your heart with killer bees whose own hearts are
filled with spite. The muffin as a whole isn't a
bad thing. Convenient, delicious, easy to snack on when you're
rushing for the train. But let's be honest about it,
it's nothing more than a frosting cupcake mass cureating as
a sensible adult breakfast choice, I love killer bees in
(13:06):
their hearts. Right. Oh gosh, that's a that's a gorgeous
quote from from Jeremy. He also does some food writing
over at a house stuff works dot com. So uh so, good,
good good writer, good human um And yeah, I mean,
you know, of course, if you if you make muffins
at home like you can, you can make all kinds
(13:29):
of substitutions and additions to get more protein and less
sugar in their um. You know, yogurt or apple sauce
and places some of the oil whole wheat flour or
nut flour, and places some of the white flour added
seeds or nuts or fresh fruit, just a little bit
less sugar in general. U it's yeah, yeah, I mean
(13:50):
it's a treat. Enjoy it. If you have that muffin craving.
I encourage you to indulge it because it's important to
indulge cravings because it's nice. Um. But you know, just
be be aware of serving sizes. I know, I used
to make a pretty good zucchini carrot apple. It doesn't
(14:11):
sound very good, but actually that's great. Yeah. So yeah,
you can expand your muffin horizons. I don't think I
ever would have considered that as a muffin until I
was like, well, zucchini bread is a thing. Why isn't
there zucchini muffin? And there you go. Oh yeah, yeah.
The rest is history. We do have some numbers for you.
(14:34):
The number one selling brand of English muffins is Thomas's
English Muffins. That probably is not a surprise, accounting for
an annual five hundred million dollars according to the New
York Times and estimated seven people. No. The recipe for
these English muffins. One of them, Chris Botcella, ended up
(14:55):
in court after he left the company for rival Hostess
Brands in twenty ten. Oh dang, oh yeah, this was
such a great read. The court documents refer to the
recipe books as code books, and the d and the
detail how the recipe was split into several pieces to
prevent it from leaking out. Wow, they wore crux to
(15:17):
the recipe. They totally did, apparently to industry consultants spent
years attempting to nail down this recipe, but found they
could not consistently produce the quote nooks and crannies, so
very fun English muffin intrigue. Yeah. Yeah, and there there
(15:40):
is a lot written. I mean, like you can pretty
easily find a good, like scientific guide to how to
make regular muffins like tasty and and good and how
that works. Um, but but there is like it's a
lot more complicated when you get into the English muffin situation.
So now I'm taking it as like a baking challenge.
(16:02):
I don't particularly like English muffins. I mean, I mean,
I don't hate them like they're shine, but I'm like,
at that point, there's a lot of other bread products
I would rather be consuming UM. But but I'm like
that the challenge. Oh I need some baking rings. I
actually have nose. Yeah okay, well, well maybe with our
(16:27):
powers combined, maybe maybe. Um. In terms of non English muffins,
as of packaged muffins made up about six of the
global muffins market, as opposed to m artisanal or store
baked muffins. Yeah, yeah, yes, there is a muffins market. Yes.
(16:48):
People in the food research industry referred to it as such.
I love that, delightful and furthermore as um. The muffins
market is estimated to be worth seven point eight billion
dollars worldwide. Wow, and it's it's on the rise, like
it's predicted to reach nine point three billion dollars. Wow.
(17:13):
I don't and I don't know, Like I guess outside
of when I was a poor college student living partially
out of like whatever my school vending machines had to offer,
I don't really think of um packaged muffins being a
food group, but they certainly are. We need to I've
(17:35):
actually been thinking seriously about this for a while. We
need to reinvent the food pyramid. Yeah. In terms of quarantine,
and maybe I think mine is like hot sauce wine.
That's it. I would love to have like a muffin section.
(17:59):
Oh uh yeah, my my quarantine food pyramid is definitely
like the base is just like bread and peanut butter. Uh.
It's a delicious, delicious space. And coffee. It's all floating
on a river of coffee, like the river sticks. It's
(18:19):
just you're right right. Coffee is a huge part of it.
And then box wine somewhere. Yeah. Yeah, like like floating
clouds of of like balloons, like hot air balloons. I
like this. I've been looking for art projects. Maybe y'all
take this up. You work on the science of the
(18:39):
English muffet. Okay, I'll make a ridiculous food chart of
the pyramid chart, perfect salave air. All right. We do
have a lot of history for you, we do. But
first we've got a quick break for a word from
our sponsors, and we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you.
(19:07):
So as you might imagine, tracking down the history of
any type of bread product is tricky for a lot
of reasons. But food historians think that the muffin got
started with the English, perhaps in the seventeen ish century.
The term originally referred to small yeast risen things that
were more bread like than crumpets were, yeah, crumpets being
(19:31):
a little bit more pancake like. Right. The word muffin
first appeared in the written record in the eighteenth century. Uh.
These things were also commonly called gems, which I love. Um.
To make them, people traditionally used muffin rings on a griddle.
Yeah yeah, like today's English muffins. Um. And And these
(19:52):
muffins were also likely less sweet than modern muffins, as
sugar was still pretty expensive. From um from a cookbook
called The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy from
seven um. There was this warning about this style of muffin.
It said, don't touch them with a knife, either to
spread or cut them open. If you do, they will
(20:14):
be heavy as lead. Oh, very very strongly worded. I
I love it. Yeah you you You were to open
them with a fork and only a fork. Yes, don't
you dare? Don't you dare? Meanwhile, the the word muffin
in English um possibly no one's entirely sure, possibly came
(20:35):
from either a German word for a small cake um
mouf or muff being muffin in the plural or or
muffin in the plural, I'm not entirely sure, in the
pronunciation there, or from an old French word for soft
or tender um mufflet, muffle, I'm not sure. I don't
know French um uh. Also a side note here, an
(20:57):
etymology side note. Um. I had to pull myself a
a from an extremely tempting rabbit hole about the etymology
of ragamuffin, which seems to be entirely separate, and I
love it. Oh gosh, I am gonna treat myself to
that rabbit hole later on, and I am so excited.
(21:17):
Were's such nerds and I love it. It was originally yeah,
well it was well, it was originally a word for
for the devil um oh wow, yeah, and like probably
Cockney based, but no one's entirely sure anyway, So I'm
(21:38):
I'm psycked that you bring up the devil. I I
see why you're so excited. I might go on the
same man. I'll send you a link perfect, I'll post
it for y'all to rabbit holes were all um Muffins
were a really popular item during the early nineteenth century
(21:59):
for those could afford a servant. It was kind of
a luxury to have the servants wake up for you
and make this food so it would be ready when
you were up for breakfast. Ah. Yes, it's still still
these these made in a in a ring on a
grittle or stovetop exactly. Yeah. But if you didn't have
a servant, there was an alternative, the muffin man. The
(22:20):
muffin man. Do you know the muffin During teatime, muffin
men would go through the streets ringing their bells to
alert people that they were around. They were selling muffins,
sort of like a very early precursor to the ice
cream truck. I guess uh. They were so rampant that
in the UK in the eighteen forties, Parliament passed the
(22:41):
law banning the bells, but it was largely ignored because
of course it was uh muffin man. Nursery rhyme originated
sometime in the eighteen twenties um and related to that
nursery rhyme. I basically cannot hear the word muffin without
thinking about Shrek and what an absolute jewel of a
(23:02):
human John Lithgow is. Yeah, I actually meet too. Every
time I think of muffin, Shrek is the first thing.
I think almost it's up there for sure. If if
you guys do not remember, um what I'm talking about,
there's there's a great John Letgau is playing the villain
of the piece, and there's this moment where he's kind
(23:23):
of interrogating, um, the gingerbread man, and yeah, and he
just leans in real close and he's just like, do
you know the muffin man. Yes, it's excellent, muffin man,
the muffin Man. It's beautiful. It's I'm doing a very
bad John Letgau right now, but I think it was
perfectly serviceable. Oh thank you, thank you. Uh. At any rate,
(23:49):
muffins as we know them could not happen until the
invention of modern chemical leveners. A little bit before all
of this that we're talking about, like around the sixteen
through the early eighteen hundreds, Um, there were some chemical
leveners in use. Like fancy bakers could use a heartshorn
to give their goods lift. Um. That's baker's ammonia a
k A ammonium carbonate a k A. Smelling salts. It's
(24:12):
a stuff plus heat levener um, but it produces ammonia
along with the carbon dioxide, so it's not ideal um.
And yes it is what people used as smelling salts
in the Victorian era. UM. Poor bakers around the same
time frame might have used pearl ash a k A
potash um, which was made from wood fire ashes and
(24:34):
is basically lie um. It's a it's a stuffed plus
acid levener, but it also leaves a bit of a
chemical aftertaste. The scene would start changing in the seventeen nineties.
That's when French chemist Nicolas LeBlanc um isolated baking soda.
Around the same time, UM, cream of tartar was known
UM and used, but it was this expensive byproduct of
(24:55):
the wine industry, and researchers did know that the two
could be combined in to a double acting sort of thing.
But yeah, altogether like out super pricy um. Both both
ingredients were super pricy um. But then kind of quickly
a couple of things happened. Around the eighteen fifties. Researchers
worked out how to industrially produce baking soda, and an
(25:17):
American chemist combined that new cheaper product with a cream
of tartar substitute mono calcium phosphate to create the first
baking powder that could be produced relatively inexpensively and at scale.
Um so, yeah, the Industrial Revolution gave us muffins. Well,
thanks for that, I guess, among other things. After moving
(25:44):
from England to the US and eighty Samuel Bath Thomas
created the first nooks and crannies English muffin, allegedly based
on a half remembered recipe for his mother's tea cakes.
He used a griddle to achieve the exterior crunchiness, and
he called them toaster crumpets m Later that year he
opened a bakery in New York City, and it didn't
(26:06):
take on for English muffins to catch on at hotels
and restaurants as a fancier option to toast. By eight four,
people were calling them English muffins. Recipes for quick bread
muffins were common in late nineteenth century American cookbooks. By
this time, two additional industrial things had happened. Home kitchens
(26:28):
were more likely to have ovens um and sugar was
much less expensive. Also around the same time, um, the
oven ready muffin tin was invented. In nineteen twenty, Fred
Wolferman started making English muffins, and yes that Wolferman, uh
I actually had to look this up, but everyone else
seemed to know who he was. But it's another brand
(26:49):
of English muffin is very popular today. Yes. Pinning down
the history of banana bread specifically is also tricky, but
essentially it was probably a recipe provided by a big
company or corporation to promote either the use of baking
soda and or flower and or the banana sometime between
(27:10):
the thirties and the fifties. I know we discussed it
in our banana episode, but a lot of these pamphlets
came out from people trying to, you know, get people
excited about buying and using their whatever they're trying to sell.
So that's probably the case with banana bread. Yeah, and
there's a lot of marketing around bananas at the time. Yes. Yes.
(27:32):
The American concept of breakfast, let's talk about that for
a second, right, Yeah, it transformed in the nineteen seventies
as more women entered the workforce. Since few people were
around and had the time to make and cook breakfast
at home even eat it, probably the focus shifted to convenience,
(27:53):
grab and go items rosen popularity, and companies began introducing
products like Sarah Lee's frozen muffins and this led into
like kind of a muffin craze um in the eighties
and uh in the nineties, And this may have started
with a Canadian chain called Marvelous Muffins in ninety nine
(28:18):
out of Toronto. That's muffins with three m's. I've never
heard of that and I love it me neither. This
is new to me but very exciting. Um uh so
the founders apparently started this chain up after experimenting with
these large premium muffins and other shops. They found great success.
People were like driving in for miles away going like
(28:41):
going like big muffins with stuff in them. Oh my goodness.
Um Duncan Donuts added muffins to their lineup. By eight
muffin shops began opening across the US and Canada with
these ever fancier, larger, more cupcakey muffins for sale. UM
Muffins got in on the like mall chain craze early
(29:03):
in h one and apparently this is a huge um
like nostalgia factor thing for Canadians. Again, I don't know
about it right in if this is a thing from
your childhood or whenever that that you that you remember, um,
at their peak in the mid nineteen eighties, there were
over a hundred and thirty Muffins locations. Oh wow, oh gosh. Um.
(29:27):
In April of nine, eight six, the Orlando Sentinel ran
a piece called popularity of Muffins on the Rise, and
it was it was reporting on recent franchises like um,
All My Muffins, which was one out of Beverly Hills.
And then they reported that the total sales of muffins
(29:48):
in the country was reaching towards a hundred million dollars
per year. I love that the muffins sounds so menacing.
Muffins on the rise. Um. By by the early nineties,
at least UM, it was a truth universally acknowledged UM
(30:10):
that muffin tops are the most important part of the
muffin um. The l A Times ran an article in
two in which the author claims to have invented a
new baked good based on this fact, muffies. If I
may quote for you who eats muffin bottoms, just about
everybody prefers the tops, which is why I invented muffies.
(30:32):
They're baked on a baking sheet instead of a muffin
tin and have no bottoms. You've got to appreciate the
innovation muffies. Gosh, and this brings us to the Muffin
Tops episode of Seinfeld which came out in and seeing
that episode, Um oh, I'm so happy I get to
(30:54):
use my Seinfeld knowledge and that episode they disagree. They
think you have to make the whole muffin right or
else it's not as good. So it's like, you just
make the top. It doesn't work. Yeah, yeah, so so
you have to cut off the stem right right, And
then they're like trying to donate the stems, and the
(31:15):
people working at food Pigs or whatever, like who just
who took the tops? What kind of sickle was just
giving us the bottom? And yes they're they're They're slogan
is top of the muffin to you? Yeah. I I
did not remember anything about this, but I came across
(31:36):
it in my research and when I when I realized
that it was the thing at the top that you said,
the top of the muffin to you was a Seinfeld reference,
I was like, oh, man, I did not beat Antie
to a Seinfeld reference. Impossible, impossible. I should have known better.
I should have known. But but of course, um, like
all trends, the muffin trend could not last. Low fat
(32:00):
and then low carb trends made it pretty difficult, and
yogurt and cupcakes would become the kind of it shops.
Yeah and they. Seinfeld did an episode about the yogurt
trend as well, but I think they were the show
was over by the time the cupcake trend happened. So
that was the sex and the City thing, right, Oh yeah,
(32:22):
oh yeah, that's sex in the city factor was huge
in the cupcake trend. Yes, anyway, all right away from Seinfeld.
Facts from now Thomas's English muffins I Love this were
imported to Britain for the first time in the nineties nineties,
where they are called American muffins. Please write in and
(32:43):
confirm that that's what I read. That is so good.
That is so good. A decade earlier is actually when
the company came up with the nooks and cranny slogan.
So even though it sounds old timing and like it's
been around forever, was actually in the eighties that they
can okay, h yeah um and somehow yeah, Like like
(33:08):
we said earlier, the muffins market is still a growing
sales category. UM. A lot of a lot of manufacturers
these days are apparently using UM food science and some
new like plant based protein ingredients to UM to try
to make them a little bit healthier, to sort of
fit them back into that grab and go niche that
they lost hold of as a as health trends changed. Right.
(33:32):
I wonder, I feel like there must be a muff
and I'm not considering I just can't imagine the muffin unconsidered. Gosh,
that is a good title for something unconsidered. Oh, tell
tell me more about this unconsidered muffin the ear that
you're contemplating. Oh, I just feel like there's no way
(33:55):
the muffin market could be that big unless I'm not
considering a muffin. I mean, I mean blueberry and chocolate separately.
Blueberry muffins and chocolate chip muffins are are both pretty popular.
And I feel like, I mean, like when you think
about like like Hostess or like Little Debbies or something
like that, definitely have little packaged like mini muffins stuff
(34:17):
like that. Another Steinfeld reference. Oh yeah, three for the trifecta.
Oh gosh, I mean, I don't know. I wonder I
could Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts. How popular that muffin options are.
(34:38):
They're they're still they're still out there. It's true, it's true.
And yeah, and and internationally too. So who knows corn
muffins corn muffins. I don't know. Oh yeah, that's true,
that's true. See that I'm just not piecing together the
tapestry that is the muffin bit. Yeah. Those Sam's Club
(35:02):
muffins that like are as big as your head. Uh,
I mean just size. Size alone means that they're a
major factor in the market. I'm sure. Yeah, they must
make up for like one of those counts are a
hundred regular muffins. You're right, all right, it's coming together. Well,
(35:22):
that is about what we have to say about the
muffin Um. We do have a little bit more for you,
but first we've got one more quick break for a
word from our sponsor. And we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes,
(35:43):
thank you. And we're back with listeners. Listener muffins. Oh
oh yeah, gosh, this is so hard to do via skype.
It is, It's all right, but we're making it work.
We're trying. Emma wrote, I just finished listening to your
(36:09):
Easter Egg episode and I thought I would give you
an insight on how we do Easter in Australia, or
at least how I do Eastern Australia. For the last
forty years, I've spent every Easter on the banks of
the Gulpa Creek in southern New South Wales. For the
last thirty of those years, I've been in charge of
organizing an Easter egg hunt for all the children that
(36:29):
camp with us. This can vary from ten children to
upwards of fifty. Now in the Northern Hemisphere Easter falls
in the lush berth of spring, but down here we
are mid autumn, on top of which the Australian bush
is not soft and gentle like a cultivated garden or park.
It is jarring and dry and dusty. I have attached
photos of the hunts over the years. I also have
(36:52):
to ensure the eggs are hidden early enough that the
sun doesn't melt them, but late enough that the parents
who were partying the night before get the sleep in
that they need. Also, if I leave it too late,
the ants can become an issue. Regardless of the problems,
by mid afternoon on Easter Sunday, we have the appropriate
number of kids crashing from a sugar high with sore dummies.
Another difference from the Northern Hemisphere is that we have
(37:14):
replaced the Easter bunny with a local marsupial, the bilbie,
so we'll have an Easter bilbie. Oh my gosh. This
year we were also gifted with three hours o TV
of it on the making of Easter chocolate from the
harvesting of sugarcane in Queensland to the eventual sale of
Cadbury Easter bunnies in the supermarket. This year we had
(37:37):
to stay at home and everyone was very sad, but
we still managed to eat our body weight and cheap chocolate,
so not a total loss. The Easter bilbie, that's Easter bilby.
I I need to look up pictures of this because
that sounds real adorable. Sabine wrote, I am a huge
fan of Savers since well ever, but I was truly shocked,
(37:59):
yes shocked, that you never had white asparagus. As you mentioned,
we Germans eat mostly the white, thick one, although the
green is getting kind of known in the last years,
but never really made it in the kitchens of the Germans.
Of course, we know a lot of ways to prepare
the white gold, as it is sometimes called. Most of
the time a true German will eat it with fresh potatoes,
thin slices of cooked and or air dried ham, and sauce,
(38:22):
hollandaise or even more traditional melted butter. The peel is
used to make a soup out of it. Um. Most
of the times you don't buy asparrius in a grocery store,
but either in one of the stalls in the streets
which appear out of nowhere in April to sell local
grown asparagus and later strawberries, or you buy it directly
at the producer's farm, who mostly will also have said
ham and potatoes. To buy asparagus from another part of Germany,
(38:45):
let alone other parts of the world is frowned upon. Yes,
we Germans love our asparagus how much. Well in times
of Corona, when the borders are closed, the asparagus farmers
were alarmed. If the borders are remaining closed, the workers
who help of a staying who are from Eastern Europe
are not allowed to come in, the vegetable will rot
on the fields and Germans will not have their traditional
(39:06):
spring vegetable. To avert this crisis, the German government not
only allowed the harvest workers to come by a special permit,
but flew them in, I kid you not, instead of
let them travel by road and train. One would hope
that the workers will be paid better this year, but
I wouldn't count on it. And another personal story about asparagus.
One of the first dates I had with a former
(39:28):
boyfriend who was American was an asparagus dinner I wanted
to cook. Since he lived next to a farm, I
told him to bring a bundle of asparagus. He came
late because he had to run around to find proper
green asparagus, which he proudly presented to be saying it
was the only bundle he could find in the whole city.
He was so proud of it, and I looked at him,
asking what the hell should I do with these green,
(39:50):
thin excuses of spears. Well that was over twenty years ago.
The former boyfriend is my husband now and we live
happily ever after eating white a sparagus. Since that's so great,
that's that's a great first date story. Oh that is
very very sweet. Oh my gosh, that's wonderful. I'm determined
(40:12):
we'll try this one day, Lauren. One day, I think
we will I think we're going to get to do it.
I'm sorry. I want this experience. I want. I want
to go to Germany and I want this experience of
of getting it from a fresh farm stand and not
being sure how to cook it. I am very excited
for that experience as well. So thanks to both of
(40:37):
them for writing in. If you would like to write
to us, If you have banana, bread or muffin projects
in the works and want to share us, you can
email us. Our email address is hello at savor pod
dot com. We're also on social media. You can find
us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at savor pod, and
we do hope to hear from you. Savor is a
(40:57):
production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my
heart Radio, you can visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as
always to our superproducers Styllan Fagin and Andrew Howard. Thanks
to you for listening, and we hope that lots more
good things are coming your way.
Hello, and welcome to Savor production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we're
talking about muffins. Yes, muffins surprisingly fun. A fun episode
it is, oh and not just because muffin is such
a wonderfully silly sounding word. It really is. Um. And
(00:28):
this is sort of inspired by I guess everyone's making
banana bread right now. I haven't seen this, but I
hear the jokes about how a lot of people's social
media feeds it's just pictures of banana bread. And to me,
it totally makes sense why you would be doing that. Um,
you got bananas around and they're getting a little a
(00:50):
little ripe. Um, but I guess an extra time on
your hands right now so you notice them going ripe
and don't just notice them like three days later, and welp, welp,
that would have been good banana bread exactly. I know
Christie Teagan made some minute the Instagram sensation. I love
(01:12):
banana bread. Um. She would make it like pretty rarely,
so it was really exciting. It was a really exciting thing.
I don't have any I don't have any bananas, but
if I encounter some I might make some bana bread.
Uh yeah, I feel I feel bad buying bananas and
(01:32):
you can see our banana episode for more on that.
But you can make a quick bread with I mean
basically any kind of ripe fruit, very similar to I
really like a pair bread. You get some overripe pears,
because pairs also have that thing where you know, like
they go so overripe so quickly. Um, So it's great
for that. But yeah, I had a big banana bread
(01:54):
phase a few years back, and I I have to
say I can make an excellent one. Oh don't don't
tap me with that, Lauren, Oh my gosh. I like
to think that you could like chart out your life
like an epochs like the banana bread's age totally crowd age.
(02:17):
Yeah yeah, it's not like my blue period. It's like
my banana bread period. I love it. Um And my
mom did make banana bread muffins, um yeah, which I
liked because there's something about it just being sort of contained,
nice little bite, just ready for you really have single
(02:40):
serving is nice. Yeah, And I don't really have muffins
too much anymore. When I was a kid, I loved
blueberry muffins and when I first started this job as
an intern, I would occasionally bring in stuff from home
because I lived by myself and I don't want to
eat like muffins an entire rite shirt, right, So I
(03:01):
have this chocolate chip muffin recipe. It is so good.
It is the best. It involves sour cream. Oh yeah,
I made it once, and then I remember, like a
week later, Tyler, friend and coworker of ours, kind of
shyly asked if I could uncle something more. Yes. Absolutely, yes,
(03:26):
that's very sweet. Yes, um, And I want to thank
this episode so much for reminding me about the apple muffin.
The apple muffin, What about the apple muffins? Oh my god.
So this is one of my favorite things ever. I
have like folder of like nuclear option videos of I'm
(03:48):
having a bad day, this video will cheer me up.
This is a video from a legislative debate out of
New York States government about it was actually about yogurt
and making yogurt the state sack. But in it they
they actually getting this huge debate about it, and the
apple muffin comes up because the apple muffin is New
(04:09):
York state muffin. Oh okay, yakay, sure, that. I mean,
that makes sense New York, the big Apple Apple muffins. Yes,
I think since nineteen seven, I've done a lot of
research into this because I love this clip so much
and that they are arguing about what constitutes a snack,
well what about gluten? Like they get really into it,
(04:30):
and the guy who's proposing it it was like the
idea of a bunch of fourth graders, you know. So,
but he's up there fighting for the yogurt and he
brings up he brings up the apple muffin and he
starts for laughing and he just can't get through so funny.
Oh that is delightful. His that's no, I'm I'm super
into that. That sounds great. Yes, we'll definitely have to
(04:52):
watch that clip after this, and I highly recommend any listeners.
It was on The Daily Show, That's where I encountered it,
but you can find it. It's it lives online forever. Um. Well,
I guess speaking of legislation, Um, apparently February is National
Muffin Day February. M hmm, okay, don't know why, Sure, sure, sure,
(05:17):
And then you can see our our cupcake episode for
because I feel like here in the United states, there
are specially cupcakes without frosting, and we'll talk more about
that in a minute. And also topping the muffin to
you the Signfeld episode. Thanks also to this for reminding
(05:37):
me of that, which is where Elaine gets in this
business where she's just just selling the muffin tops, just
the tops, right. Yeah, Yeah, we're going to talk more
about that as well later on. Yes, you got a
lot of a lot to look for too. But in
the meantime, okay, let's get to our question. Muffins. What
(06:00):
are they? Well? Um, as with so many foods that
we talk about, muffin can mean a lot of things,
but generally what humans mean English speaking humans at any rate,
by by the word muffin, is a sweetened quick bread
baked in a single serving unit about the size of
a fist, in specialized muffin cups or or muffin tins.
(06:22):
And I will note here that fists and muffins may
both vary pretty widely in size, so fist sized, your
mileage may vary. Um, But at any rate, uh, quick
bread is a key term here, um, And that's a
that's a category of baked goods that are chemically leavened,
so you don't have to muss around with yeast, and
you can go from like raw ingredients to hot and
(06:45):
tasty food in like less than half an hour. And
you don't even have to to whip the heck out
of eggs or or butter and sugar in order to
do it. Which whipping the heck out of eggs or
butter and sugar, those are two ways of creating high
rising structure within other baked goods. Many breads use yeast,
many cakes use the eggs and or creamed butter and
(07:05):
sugar combination. At any rate, you don't have to do
any of that for a quick bread huzzah. We talked
a bit about chemical leveners in our pancakes episode, and
these are things what produce bubbles of gas when exposed
to either something acidic or to heat. Baking soda. Sodium
bicarbonate is one. It's it's a compound that reacts with
(07:27):
acids to produce carbon dioxide, and a cream of tartar
produces carbon dioxide bubbles when heated, and baking powder is
a combination of baking soda and cream of tartar, so
it's double acting. You might have seen that word on
baking powder packaging. Um. So making quick breads is simple
with the use of chemical leveners because you just mix
(07:47):
your your your dry ingredients in one bowl, your flour,
your leveners, any mixings you're using, and your your wet
ingredients in another bowl. Your your milk, your oil or
melted butter, and sugar. I know sugar is dry, it's
it's weird, it's an amorphous solid. Just just roll with
it being in the wet category. Um. And then you
stir the wet and the dry together until they're just
(08:07):
barely combined, and then toss the batter in the oven.
I mean you put it in a pan of your
choosing first. I would I wouldn't just like throw it
in there. Jackson Pollock No, um, but yeah, when you're
doing this combination, you don't want to overstir or let
it sit very long. Once the wet and dryer combined,
like a little stirring in time will let the baking
(08:29):
soda and whatever acid is in the recipe go to
work creating bubbles. But too much stirring your time and
those bubbles will deflate, um and give you a sunken muffin.
Nobody I've done that before. Yeah yeah, um that this
method of batter creation um is named for muffins. It's
(08:51):
the muffin method, I know. And uh yeah, doing this
correctly that the result will be a moy tender baked
good that rose just so fast and so effectively that
it may have spilled out over the top of its
container in the oven, creating a pretty domed top. Yeah yeah,
(09:11):
we used to call them sombrero hat muffins. Sombrero hat muffins.
That's really weird but sweet. Why. I think I made
it up when I was a kid because they looked
to me, they looked like sombrero heads. Okay, yeah, oh gosh,
um like like that terminology. Many muffin flavors are sweet, uh,
(09:37):
either a dried or fresh fruit involved, um, nuts, chocolate
stuff like that added in. But muffins can be savory
as well, with cheese or herbs or hot peppers or
like onions and garlic. Wheat flour or similarly, behaving of
flowers are common, but corn meal can also be used
where combination um. Most corn breads are, by the way,
also quick breads. English muffins, meanwhile, are another thing. Entirely. Um.
(10:02):
Those are savory yeast raised flatbreads that are cooked UM
in a in a stovetop pan or on a griddle
using UM using a tall sided metal ring to keep
the dough in place. That the ring like forces the
dough to rise as it cooks instead of spreading out
like a pancake wood. Um. That's helping create structure within
the setting dough, like those nooks and crannies. Right. So yeah. Yeah. Also,
(10:27):
the dusting of corn meal that often comes on the
outside of English muffins helps like mitigate the direct heat
of the cooking surface um and prevents too crusty of
a crust from forming. Yeah. Well here's the frightening question. Yeah,
but about the nutrition. Uh, look, y'all muffins are out
(10:50):
of control um, like like store bought muffins, like oversized,
super sweet, wildly rich. Um. They can run you a
quarter of your daily caloric intake and all or more
of your recommended intake of sugar with very little protein
on the balance. UM. And I know that they can
seem like a sensible snack or like grab and go
(11:12):
breakfast sort of situation, but to be honest, you're usually
better off just getting a donut at that rate, um,
because a donut will probably have a little bit more
fat and probably way less sugar. Um, so it'll fill
you up and keep you going longer than a muffin.
I remember very vividly I was stuck in LaGuardia, as
(11:36):
often happens in LaGuardia back when we had to travel,
oh yep, and I was just desperately looking around for
something to eat. And so I got in this huge
line for Dunkin Donuts and I got all the way
to the front, and then I saw the muffin I
had wanted. I was finally able to read the calorie count,
(11:57):
and I got up to the register and she said,
what we have? And I said never mind. It was
like outrageous. I knew it was gonna be high, but whoa.
But you were just like, nope, nope, because it wasn't
even that big. And I thought, oh, sure, no, yeah, no,
that stuff it gets wild. Yeah, I know it's a
(12:20):
gag in Max Smart. I haven't seen that movie no
long time, but I remember there was a muffin a
joke about how how how many galleries surprisingly are in
even the smallest ones, And then here's this quote that
I love from Jeremy Glass over at thrill List. With
an average muffin packing more than four calories and a
mind melting forty of sugar and one serving, eating a
(12:41):
muffin for breakfast is exactly the same as taking out
your heart, putting it on a serving dish, and then
covering your heart with killer bees whose own hearts are
filled with spite. The muffin as a whole isn't a
bad thing. Convenient, delicious, easy to snack on when you're
rushing for the train. But let's be honest about it,
it's nothing more than a frosting cupcake mass cureating as
a sensible adult breakfast choice, I love killer bees in
(13:06):
their hearts. Right. Oh gosh, that's a that's a gorgeous
quote from from Jeremy. He also does some food writing
over at a house stuff works dot com. So uh so, good,
good good writer, good human um And yeah, I mean,
you know, of course, if you if you make muffins
at home like you can, you can make all kinds
(13:29):
of substitutions and additions to get more protein and less
sugar in their um. You know, yogurt or apple sauce
and places some of the oil whole wheat flour or
nut flour, and places some of the white flour added
seeds or nuts or fresh fruit, just a little bit
less sugar in general. U it's yeah, yeah, I mean
(13:50):
it's a treat. Enjoy it. If you have that muffin craving.
I encourage you to indulge it because it's important to
indulge cravings because it's nice. Um. But you know, just
be be aware of serving sizes. I know, I used
to make a pretty good zucchini carrot apple. It doesn't
(14:11):
sound very good, but actually that's great. Yeah. So yeah,
you can expand your muffin horizons. I don't think I
ever would have considered that as a muffin until I
was like, well, zucchini bread is a thing. Why isn't
there zucchini muffin? And there you go. Oh yeah, yeah.
The rest is history. We do have some numbers for you.
(14:34):
The number one selling brand of English muffins is Thomas's
English Muffins. That probably is not a surprise, accounting for
an annual five hundred million dollars according to the New
York Times and estimated seven people. No. The recipe for
these English muffins. One of them, Chris Botcella, ended up
(14:55):
in court after he left the company for rival Hostess
Brands in twenty ten. Oh dang, oh yeah, this was
such a great read. The court documents refer to the
recipe books as code books, and the d and the
detail how the recipe was split into several pieces to
prevent it from leaking out. Wow, they wore crux to
(15:17):
the recipe. They totally did, apparently to industry consultants spent
years attempting to nail down this recipe, but found they
could not consistently produce the quote nooks and crannies, so
very fun English muffin intrigue. Yeah. Yeah, and there there
(15:40):
is a lot written. I mean, like you can pretty
easily find a good, like scientific guide to how to
make regular muffins like tasty and and good and how
that works. Um, but but there is like it's a
lot more complicated when you get into the English muffin situation.
So now I'm taking it as like a baking challenge.
(16:02):
I don't particularly like English muffins. I mean, I mean,
I don't hate them like they're shine, but I'm like,
at that point, there's a lot of other bread products
I would rather be consuming UM. But but I'm like
that the challenge. Oh I need some baking rings. I
actually have nose. Yeah okay, well, well maybe with our
(16:27):
powers combined, maybe maybe. Um. In terms of non English muffins,
as of packaged muffins made up about six of the
global muffins market, as opposed to m artisanal or store
baked muffins. Yeah, yeah, yes, there is a muffins market. Yes.
(16:48):
People in the food research industry referred to it as such.
I love that, delightful and furthermore as um. The muffins
market is estimated to be worth seven point eight billion
dollars worldwide. Wow, and it's it's on the rise, like
it's predicted to reach nine point three billion dollars. Wow.
(17:13):
I don't and I don't know, Like I guess outside
of when I was a poor college student living partially
out of like whatever my school vending machines had to offer,
I don't really think of um packaged muffins being a
food group, but they certainly are. We need to I've
(17:35):
actually been thinking seriously about this for a while. We
need to reinvent the food pyramid. Yeah. In terms of quarantine,
and maybe I think mine is like hot sauce wine.
That's it. I would love to have like a muffin section.
(17:59):
Oh uh yeah, my my quarantine food pyramid is definitely
like the base is just like bread and peanut butter. Uh.
It's a delicious, delicious space. And coffee. It's all floating
on a river of coffee, like the river sticks. It's
(18:19):
just you're right right. Coffee is a huge part of it.
And then box wine somewhere. Yeah. Yeah, like like floating
clouds of of like balloons, like hot air balloons. I
like this. I've been looking for art projects. Maybe y'all
take this up. You work on the science of the
(18:39):
English muffet. Okay, I'll make a ridiculous food chart of
the pyramid chart, perfect salave air. All right. We do
have a lot of history for you, we do. But
first we've got a quick break for a word from
our sponsors, and we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you.
(19:07):
So as you might imagine, tracking down the history of
any type of bread product is tricky for a lot
of reasons. But food historians think that the muffin got
started with the English, perhaps in the seventeen ish century.
The term originally referred to small yeast risen things that
were more bread like than crumpets were, yeah, crumpets being
(19:31):
a little bit more pancake like. Right. The word muffin
first appeared in the written record in the eighteenth century. Uh.
These things were also commonly called gems, which I love. Um.
To make them, people traditionally used muffin rings on a griddle.
Yeah yeah, like today's English muffins. Um. And And these
(19:52):
muffins were also likely less sweet than modern muffins, as
sugar was still pretty expensive. From um from a cookbook
called The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy from
seven um. There was this warning about this style of muffin.
It said, don't touch them with a knife, either to
spread or cut them open. If you do, they will
(20:14):
be heavy as lead. Oh, very very strongly worded. I
I love it. Yeah you you You were to open
them with a fork and only a fork. Yes, don't
you dare? Don't you dare? Meanwhile, the the word muffin
in English um possibly no one's entirely sure, possibly came
(20:35):
from either a German word for a small cake um
mouf or muff being muffin in the plural or or
muffin in the plural, I'm not entirely sure, in the
pronunciation there, or from an old French word for soft
or tender um mufflet, muffle, I'm not sure. I don't
know French um uh. Also a side note here, an
(20:57):
etymology side note. Um. I had to pull myself a
a from an extremely tempting rabbit hole about the etymology
of ragamuffin, which seems to be entirely separate, and I
love it. Oh gosh, I am gonna treat myself to
that rabbit hole later on, and I am so excited.
(21:17):
Were's such nerds and I love it. It was originally yeah,
well it was well, it was originally a word for
for the devil um oh wow, yeah, and like probably
Cockney based, but no one's entirely sure anyway, So I'm
(21:38):
I'm psycked that you bring up the devil. I I
see why you're so excited. I might go on the
same man. I'll send you a link perfect, I'll post
it for y'all to rabbit holes were all um Muffins
were a really popular item during the early nineteenth century
(21:59):
for those could afford a servant. It was kind of
a luxury to have the servants wake up for you
and make this food so it would be ready when
you were up for breakfast. Ah. Yes, it's still still
these these made in a in a ring on a
grittle or stovetop exactly. Yeah. But if you didn't have
a servant, there was an alternative, the muffin man. The
(22:20):
muffin man. Do you know the muffin During teatime, muffin
men would go through the streets ringing their bells to
alert people that they were around. They were selling muffins,
sort of like a very early precursor to the ice
cream truck. I guess uh. They were so rampant that
in the UK in the eighteen forties, Parliament passed the
(22:41):
law banning the bells, but it was largely ignored because
of course it was uh muffin man. Nursery rhyme originated
sometime in the eighteen twenties um and related to that
nursery rhyme. I basically cannot hear the word muffin without
thinking about Shrek and what an absolute jewel of a
(23:02):
human John Lithgow is. Yeah, I actually meet too. Every
time I think of muffin, Shrek is the first thing.
I think almost it's up there for sure. If if
you guys do not remember, um what I'm talking about,
there's there's a great John Letgau is playing the villain
of the piece, and there's this moment where he's kind
(23:23):
of interrogating, um, the gingerbread man, and yeah, and he
just leans in real close and he's just like, do
you know the muffin man. Yes, it's excellent, muffin man,
the muffin Man. It's beautiful. It's I'm doing a very
bad John Letgau right now, but I think it was
perfectly serviceable. Oh thank you, thank you. Uh. At any rate,
(23:49):
muffins as we know them could not happen until the
invention of modern chemical leveners. A little bit before all
of this that we're talking about, like around the sixteen
through the early eighteen hundreds, Um, there were some chemical
leveners in use. Like fancy bakers could use a heartshorn
to give their goods lift. Um. That's baker's ammonia a
k A ammonium carbonate a k A. Smelling salts. It's
(24:12):
a stuff plus heat levener um, but it produces ammonia
along with the carbon dioxide, so it's not ideal um.
And yes it is what people used as smelling salts
in the Victorian era. UM. Poor bakers around the same
time frame might have used pearl ash a k A
potash um, which was made from wood fire ashes and
(24:34):
is basically lie um. It's a it's a stuffed plus
acid levener, but it also leaves a bit of a
chemical aftertaste. The scene would start changing in the seventeen nineties.
That's when French chemist Nicolas LeBlanc um isolated baking soda.
Around the same time, UM, cream of tartar was known
UM and used, but it was this expensive byproduct of
(24:55):
the wine industry, and researchers did know that the two
could be combined in to a double acting sort of thing.
But yeah, altogether like out super pricy um. Both both
ingredients were super pricy um. But then kind of quickly
a couple of things happened. Around the eighteen fifties. Researchers
worked out how to industrially produce baking soda, and an
(25:17):
American chemist combined that new cheaper product with a cream
of tartar substitute mono calcium phosphate to create the first
baking powder that could be produced relatively inexpensively and at scale.
Um so, yeah, the Industrial Revolution gave us muffins. Well,
thanks for that, I guess, among other things. After moving
(25:44):
from England to the US and eighty Samuel Bath Thomas
created the first nooks and crannies English muffin, allegedly based
on a half remembered recipe for his mother's tea cakes.
He used a griddle to achieve the exterior crunchiness, and
he called them toaster crumpets m Later that year he
opened a bakery in New York City, and it didn't
(26:06):
take on for English muffins to catch on at hotels
and restaurants as a fancier option to toast. By eight four,
people were calling them English muffins. Recipes for quick bread
muffins were common in late nineteenth century American cookbooks. By
this time, two additional industrial things had happened. Home kitchens
(26:28):
were more likely to have ovens um and sugar was
much less expensive. Also around the same time, um, the
oven ready muffin tin was invented. In nineteen twenty, Fred
Wolferman started making English muffins, and yes that Wolferman, uh
I actually had to look this up, but everyone else
seemed to know who he was. But it's another brand
(26:49):
of English muffin is very popular today. Yes. Pinning down
the history of banana bread specifically is also tricky, but
essentially it was probably a recipe provided by a big
company or corporation to promote either the use of baking
soda and or flower and or the banana sometime between
(27:10):
the thirties and the fifties. I know we discussed it
in our banana episode, but a lot of these pamphlets
came out from people trying to, you know, get people
excited about buying and using their whatever they're trying to sell.
So that's probably the case with banana bread. Yeah, and
there's a lot of marketing around bananas at the time. Yes. Yes.
(27:32):
The American concept of breakfast, let's talk about that for
a second, right, Yeah, it transformed in the nineteen seventies
as more women entered the workforce. Since few people were
around and had the time to make and cook breakfast
at home even eat it, probably the focus shifted to convenience,
(27:53):
grab and go items rosen popularity, and companies began introducing
products like Sarah Lee's frozen muffins and this led into
like kind of a muffin craze um in the eighties
and uh in the nineties, And this may have started
with a Canadian chain called Marvelous Muffins in ninety nine
(28:18):
out of Toronto. That's muffins with three m's. I've never
heard of that and I love it me neither. This
is new to me but very exciting. Um uh so
the founders apparently started this chain up after experimenting with
these large premium muffins and other shops. They found great success.
People were like driving in for miles away going like
(28:41):
going like big muffins with stuff in them. Oh my goodness.
Um Duncan Donuts added muffins to their lineup. By eight
muffin shops began opening across the US and Canada with
these ever fancier, larger, more cupcakey muffins for sale. UM
Muffins got in on the like mall chain craze early
(29:03):
in h one and apparently this is a huge um
like nostalgia factor thing for Canadians. Again, I don't know
about it right in if this is a thing from
your childhood or whenever that that you that you remember, um,
at their peak in the mid nineteen eighties, there were
over a hundred and thirty Muffins locations. Oh wow, oh gosh. Um.
(29:27):
In April of nine, eight six, the Orlando Sentinel ran
a piece called popularity of Muffins on the Rise, and
it was it was reporting on recent franchises like um,
All My Muffins, which was one out of Beverly Hills.
And then they reported that the total sales of muffins
(29:48):
in the country was reaching towards a hundred million dollars
per year. I love that the muffins sounds so menacing.
Muffins on the rise. Um. By by the early nineties,
at least UM, it was a truth universally acknowledged UM
(30:10):
that muffin tops are the most important part of the
muffin um. The l A Times ran an article in
two in which the author claims to have invented a
new baked good based on this fact, muffies. If I
may quote for you who eats muffin bottoms, just about
everybody prefers the tops, which is why I invented muffies.
(30:32):
They're baked on a baking sheet instead of a muffin
tin and have no bottoms. You've got to appreciate the
innovation muffies. Gosh, and this brings us to the Muffin
Tops episode of Seinfeld which came out in and seeing
that episode, Um oh, I'm so happy I get to
(30:54):
use my Seinfeld knowledge and that episode they disagree. They
think you have to make the whole muffin right or
else it's not as good. So it's like, you just
make the top. It doesn't work. Yeah, yeah, so so
you have to cut off the stem right right, And
then they're like trying to donate the stems, and the
(31:15):
people working at food Pigs or whatever, like who just
who took the tops? What kind of sickle was just
giving us the bottom? And yes they're they're They're slogan
is top of the muffin to you? Yeah. I I
did not remember anything about this, but I came across
(31:36):
it in my research and when I when I realized
that it was the thing at the top that you said,
the top of the muffin to you was a Seinfeld reference,
I was like, oh, man, I did not beat Antie
to a Seinfeld reference. Impossible, impossible. I should have known better.
I should have known. But but of course, um, like
all trends, the muffin trend could not last. Low fat
(32:00):
and then low carb trends made it pretty difficult, and
yogurt and cupcakes would become the kind of it shops.
Yeah and they. Seinfeld did an episode about the yogurt
trend as well, but I think they were the show
was over by the time the cupcake trend happened. So
that was the sex and the City thing, right, Oh yeah,
(32:22):
oh yeah, that's sex in the city factor was huge
in the cupcake trend. Yes, anyway, all right away from Seinfeld.
Facts from now Thomas's English muffins I Love this were
imported to Britain for the first time in the nineties nineties,
where they are called American muffins. Please write in and
(32:43):
confirm that that's what I read. That is so good.
That is so good. A decade earlier is actually when
the company came up with the nooks and cranny slogan.
So even though it sounds old timing and like it's
been around forever, was actually in the eighties that they
can okay, h yeah um and somehow yeah, Like like
(33:08):
we said earlier, the muffins market is still a growing
sales category. UM. A lot of a lot of manufacturers
these days are apparently using UM food science and some
new like plant based protein ingredients to UM to try
to make them a little bit healthier, to sort of
fit them back into that grab and go niche that
they lost hold of as a as health trends changed. Right.
(33:32):
I wonder, I feel like there must be a muff
and I'm not considering I just can't imagine the muffin unconsidered. Gosh,
that is a good title for something unconsidered. Oh, tell
tell me more about this unconsidered muffin the ear that
you're contemplating. Oh, I just feel like there's no way
(33:55):
the muffin market could be that big unless I'm not
considering a muffin. I mean, I mean blueberry and chocolate separately.
Blueberry muffins and chocolate chip muffins are are both pretty popular.
And I feel like, I mean, like when you think
about like like Hostess or like Little Debbies or something
like that, definitely have little packaged like mini muffins stuff
(34:17):
like that. Another Steinfeld reference. Oh yeah, three for the trifecta.
Oh gosh, I mean, I don't know. I wonder I
could Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts. How popular that muffin options are.
(34:38):
They're they're still they're still out there. It's true, it's true.
And yeah, and and internationally too. So who knows corn
muffins corn muffins. I don't know. Oh yeah, that's true,
that's true. See that I'm just not piecing together the
tapestry that is the muffin bit. Yeah. Those Sam's Club
(35:02):
muffins that like are as big as your head. Uh,
I mean just size. Size alone means that they're a
major factor in the market. I'm sure. Yeah, they must
make up for like one of those counts are a
hundred regular muffins. You're right, all right, it's coming together. Well,
(35:22):
that is about what we have to say about the
muffin Um. We do have a little bit more for you,
but first we've got one more quick break for a
word from our sponsor. And we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes,
(35:43):
thank you. And we're back with listeners. Listener muffins. Oh
oh yeah, gosh, this is so hard to do via skype.
It is, It's all right, but we're making it work.
We're trying. Emma wrote, I just finished listening to your
(36:09):
Easter Egg episode and I thought I would give you
an insight on how we do Easter in Australia, or
at least how I do Eastern Australia. For the last
forty years, I've spent every Easter on the banks of
the Gulpa Creek in southern New South Wales. For the
last thirty of those years, I've been in charge of
organizing an Easter egg hunt for all the children that
(36:29):
camp with us. This can vary from ten children to
upwards of fifty. Now in the Northern Hemisphere Easter falls
in the lush berth of spring, but down here we
are mid autumn, on top of which the Australian bush
is not soft and gentle like a cultivated garden or park.
It is jarring and dry and dusty. I have attached
photos of the hunts over the years. I also have
(36:52):
to ensure the eggs are hidden early enough that the
sun doesn't melt them, but late enough that the parents
who were partying the night before get the sleep in
that they need. Also, if I leave it too late,
the ants can become an issue. Regardless of the problems,
by mid afternoon on Easter Sunday, we have the appropriate
number of kids crashing from a sugar high with sore dummies.
Another difference from the Northern Hemisphere is that we have
(37:14):
replaced the Easter bunny with a local marsupial, the bilbie,
so we'll have an Easter bilbie. Oh my gosh. This
year we were also gifted with three hours o TV
of it on the making of Easter chocolate from the
harvesting of sugarcane in Queensland to the eventual sale of
Cadbury Easter bunnies in the supermarket. This year we had
(37:37):
to stay at home and everyone was very sad, but
we still managed to eat our body weight and cheap chocolate,
so not a total loss. The Easter bilbie, that's Easter bilby.
I I need to look up pictures of this because
that sounds real adorable. Sabine wrote, I am a huge
fan of Savers since well ever, but I was truly shocked,
(37:59):
yes shocked, that you never had white asparagus. As you mentioned,
we Germans eat mostly the white, thick one, although the
green is getting kind of known in the last years,
but never really made it in the kitchens of the Germans.
Of course, we know a lot of ways to prepare
the white gold, as it is sometimes called. Most of
the time a true German will eat it with fresh potatoes,
thin slices of cooked and or air dried ham, and sauce,
(38:22):
hollandaise or even more traditional melted butter. The peel is
used to make a soup out of it. Um. Most
of the times you don't buy asparrius in a grocery store,
but either in one of the stalls in the streets
which appear out of nowhere in April to sell local
grown asparagus and later strawberries, or you buy it directly
at the producer's farm, who mostly will also have said
ham and potatoes. To buy asparagus from another part of Germany,
(38:45):
let alone other parts of the world is frowned upon. Yes,
we Germans love our asparagus how much. Well in times
of Corona, when the borders are closed, the asparagus farmers
were alarmed. If the borders are remaining closed, the workers
who help of a staying who are from Eastern Europe
are not allowed to come in, the vegetable will rot
on the fields and Germans will not have their traditional
(39:06):
spring vegetable. To avert this crisis, the German government not
only allowed the harvest workers to come by a special permit,
but flew them in, I kid you not, instead of
let them travel by road and train. One would hope
that the workers will be paid better this year, but
I wouldn't count on it. And another personal story about asparagus.
One of the first dates I had with a former
(39:28):
boyfriend who was American was an asparagus dinner I wanted
to cook. Since he lived next to a farm, I
told him to bring a bundle of asparagus. He came
late because he had to run around to find proper
green asparagus, which he proudly presented to be saying it
was the only bundle he could find in the whole city.
He was so proud of it, and I looked at him,
asking what the hell should I do with these green,
(39:50):
thin excuses of spears. Well that was over twenty years ago.
The former boyfriend is my husband now and we live
happily ever after eating white a sparagus. Since that's so great,
that's that's a great first date story. Oh that is
very very sweet. Oh my gosh, that's wonderful. I'm determined
(40:12):
we'll try this one day, Lauren. One day, I think
we will I think we're going to get to do it.
I'm sorry. I want this experience. I want. I want
to go to Germany and I want this experience of
of getting it from a fresh farm stand and not
being sure how to cook it. I am very excited
for that experience as well. So thanks to both of
(40:37):
them for writing in. If you would like to write
to us, If you have banana, bread or muffin projects
in the works and want to share us, you can
email us. Our email address is hello at savor pod
dot com. We're also on social media. You can find
us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at savor pod, and
we do hope to hear from you. Savor is a
(40:57):
production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my
heart Radio, you can visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as
always to our superproducers Styllan Fagin and Andrew Howard. Thanks
to you for listening, and we hope that lots more
good things are coming your way.
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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