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Pineapple Muffins
To two well-beaten eggs add gradually one teacup of sweet milk and one-third cup of melted butter. Thicken this with one (sifted) quart of flour in which has been mixed three teaspoons of baking-powder, a heaping tablespoon of sugar, and teaspoon of salt. When thoroughly beaten add one cup of grated pineapple and bake until quite done (which will be in about half an hour) in hot, greased muffinrings. Fill the muffin rings a little more than half full.
A plain quick-bread batter carrying grated pineapple, written for an era when muffins were baked in metal rings rather than a tin. Two things need attention before you start: the flour-to-liquid ratio and the missing oven temperature.
- The flour is the problemA sifted quart is about 4 cups, roughly a pound, against one teacup of milk, two eggs and a third cup of butter. Even with a cup of juicy pineapple that yields a stiff dough rather than a muffin batter. Either cut the flour to about 3 cups or increase the milk until the batter drops heavily from the spoon.
- TeacupA teacup in American books of this period is usually reckoned smaller than a modern 8-ounce cup, often around 3/4 cup, though usage varied from book to book. Measuring it as a full cup helps the ratio above rather than hurting it.
- Sweet milkSimply fresh whole milk, specified to distinguish it from the soured or buttermilk that other recipes call for with soda. Since this one uses baking powder, do not substitute buttermilk without adjusting the leavening.
- Oven heatNone is given. Muffins of this type want a hot oven, 400-425F. At that heat they will be done in 20-25 minutes, not the half hour the original allows, which reflects slower, less even ranges.
- Muffin ringsBottomless metal rings set on a greased griddle or baking sheet, greased and preheated so the batter set immediately. A standard 12-cup muffin tin, greased and filled as the recipe directs -- a little more than half full -- does the same job.
- The pineappleGrated fresh pineapple carries a lot of free juice; drain it and count that liquid against the milk, or the centres will stay wet. Well-drained canned crushed pineapple is a fair stand-in. Baking destroys the bromelain, so there is no effect on the batter's structure.
- Baking powderThree teaspoons to this much flour is on the light side by modern practice; if you reduce the flour to 3 cups, keep all three. Mix only until the flour disappears, then get the pans into the oven promptly.
- YieldHard to pin down, but a quart of flour makes a large batch: likely 18 or more, depending on ring size. Best eaten the day they are made; the fruit makes them go heavy overnight.
Muffin rings were standard equipment in nineteenth-century American kitchens, used both on the griddle for yeast-raised English muffins and in the oven for chemically leavened batters like this one, and they gave way to the one-piece gem or muffin pan as cast-iron and pressed-tin bakeware became cheaper. Pineapple was for much of the century a costly imported fruit, and it became common in ordinary home baking only as faster shipping and, later, large-scale canning put it within reach of an average household.