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Muffins, for Breakfast
Mrs. S. McM.
Three eggs, one cup milk, one tablespoon of good butter melted, one tablespoon sugar, a little salt, two heaping teaspoons Cook's Friend baking powder, flour enough to make a batter; bake in muffin rings; when almost done moisten over the top with a feather dipped in sweetened milk.
A plain baking-powder muffin batter of the kind that assumed the cook already knew the consistency wanted. Two things need pinning down: how much flour, and what to do about the branded leavening.
- Cook's Friend baking powderA Canadian brand widely advertised when this book appeared, and still sold today. A heaping spoonful is an imprecise measure, and modern double-acting powder is generally brisker than the single-acting powders of the period, so 2 level teaspoons is a safe reading for the quantities here.
- Flour enough to make a batterFor three eggs and one cup of milk, this lands at about 2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour — a thick batter that drops from the spoon rather than pours. Add the last half cup gradually and stop when it mounds; overfloured muffin batter bakes dry and tunnelled.
- MixingBeat the eggs, then combine wet and dry with as few strokes as possible, leaving the batter lumpy. Nothing in the original says to beat it smooth, and gluten developed at this stage is what makes tough muffins.
- Muffin ringsIn 1877 these were plain metal hoops set on a greased griddle or baking sheet, filled about two-thirds. A standard 12-cup muffin tin does the same job; grease it well, as this batter has only one tablespoon of fat.
- Oven heatThe recipe gives none. Bake at 400F for 18 to 22 minutes, until risen and springy at the centre. Rings on a griddle over direct heat need turning; a tin does not.
- The feather and sweetened milkMost likely a glaze, brushed on in the last few minutes. Use a pastry brush and a tablespoon of milk with a pinch of sugar stirred in, and return the muffins to the oven for two or three minutes.
- Sugar and saltOne tablespoon of sugar makes these barely sweet, which is the point — they were meant for butter and preserves at breakfast. "A little salt" means about 1/2 teaspoon; with unsalted butter, go to 3/4.
- YieldAbout ten to twelve standard muffins. Best within an hour of baking; they stale quickly, having so little fat.
The Home Cook Book (Toronto, 1877) was compiled by "ladies of Toronto and other cities and towns" and sold in aid of the Hospital for Sick Children, and it is often cited as one of the first Canadian cookbooks. Mrs. S. McM.'s call for Cook's Friend baking powder by name is a small piece of that story: chemical leavening had only become a reliable household staple in the previous generation, and branded goods appear throughout the book, in the instructions as well as in the advertisements at the back. The recipe also shows how loosely such books were written for readers who baked daily — no oven temperature, no baking time, and "flour enough to make a batter," a judgement the contributor assumed any cook could make by eye. The feather dipped in sweetened milk belongs to the same kitchen: feathers were a common improvised brush in period kitchens.