Introduction
Pikelets, also known as pitchy bread or bara pyglyd, have been around since at least the 14th century. It has also been referred to as the ‘poor man’s crompet’. A pikelet uses a crumpet batter, but is not cooked in a ring like a crumpet. This is why a pikelet is referred to as a poor man’s crumpet. This bread item is believed to have Welsh origins, but has continued to be popular throughout the modern UK. The earliest mention that I could find for pikelets was by the theologian John Wycliffe and his reference to it in his interpretation of the Bible in 1382, specifically in Exodus Chapter 29, verse 23. In this verse, he referred to a ‘crompid cake’. When looking at the New King James version of the Bible, this same item is listed as a ‘wafer from the basket of the unleavened bread’.
(Wycliffe)
Early crumpets were typically made with buckwheat flour and cooked on a hot stone. Buckwheat is not related to wheat at all since it is a fruit seed from the rhubarb and sorrel family. It’s gluten free. It has an intensely earthy, slightly bitter flavor. Buckwheat originated in China as early as 2600 BC. It arrived in Europe in the Middle Ages. It adapts well to poor, sandy, clay, or acidic soils. Plus, it is extremely resistant. Typically, it’s sown in June due to its sensitivity to frost. About a month later, it begins to flower, which is great for attracting bees and therefore honey-making.
In 1611, Randle Cotgrave wrote of barrapyclids in A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues:
Popelins: soft cakes made of fine flower, kneaded with milk, sweet butter and yolks of eggs and fashioned and buttered, like our Welch Barrapyclids
(Lindahl)
In 1638, Thomas Nabbes (a Stuart playwright) mentions crumpets in his masque The Springs Glorie. The character of Lent addresses Shrovetide thus:
Why thou Helluo of hennes and bakon, thou larder houst of collops and egges;
thou that makest the kitchin proclaime
its employment through the neighbourhood, with the sent of thy Lard and crumpets, what canst thou boast oft? (Nabbes)
In 1694, François Rabelais’s book The Fourth Book was translated by Thomas Urquhart and Peter Antony Motteux. In this book, there is a reference to “Welsh barrapyclids”.
In 1695, William Westmacott wrote of crumpits in his book Historia vegetabilium sacra:
Triticum Multiplex, or double-ear'd Wheat, hath been manur'd here at Rowley-Regis in this County; and the French or Buck Wheat, (not that it is like Wheat in the growth or Grain, but rather called so, because it serveth the meaner sort of People to make Bread, in those parts where it is sown, as it is in the barren Land of this County, being sown alone, or with Barly) is sweetish as Sugar, and vended in the Markets, at about eighteen pence a Measure; they make Cakes of it in these parts, as they do Oat-cakes, and call it Crumpit; or if they mix it with Barly and Rye, they can the better make Loaves of it to Bake. In Germany and Italy the ordinary People (Westmacott)
It was not until around the 18th or 19th century that crumpets and pikelets became leavened (either by yeast or later by baking soda). A crumpet comes out looking more like an English muffin. This is because only the underneath side is baked, leaving the top side soft and sponge-like. Since a pikelet does not use a ring, it tends to be thinner like a pancake and more free-form in its shape. Also, modern pikelets appear to be flipped over like a pancake, so that both sides are baked.
Wycliffe’s reference was for an unleavened wafer. The earliest example that I have found for a leavening agent like barm or yeast for this recipe was Raffald's recipe in 1769. So, I have decided not to use yeast in my interpretation of this recipe. I am using Raffald’s recipe as a basis for my recipe, but simply removing the barm and decreasing the portions.
The Source Recipe
Medieval Welsh recipes were not well documented. The earliest published recipe that I have found for this batter was from 1769 in Elizabeth Raffald’s The Experienced English Housekeeper. The recipe in her book was called To Make Tea Crumpets. This specific recipe calls for eggs, milk, water, barm, and flour. Modern recipes for this batter include eggs, butter, salt, milk, sugar, flour, and leavening agents varying from yeast to baking powder.
Related Recipes
· In Bobby Freeman's recipe for Pikelets in his book First Catch Your Peacock, his recipe calls for 4 oz. flour, 2 eggs, 3 oz. butter, and 1/2 pint of milk.
(Freeman)
· In the mid-18th century, gentleman farmer William Ellis remarked on the use of buckwheat in Shropshire: “It may be sown in July or August for cattle to graze on it in November, or sooner. In Shropshire they grind French wheat very fine, and make their cakes on a back or bake-stone which is two or three feet in diameter, on which they put a sort of batter made of this flour, milk, and yeast; and when it is turned and done enough they butter and eat it, drinking butter-milk with it: this cake is called jannock or crumpet, and is what old Parr of this country eat all his life.” (Boermans)
· From 1750, “…having but little wheat growing in the separts, and with this they make cakes that supply bread, by mixing oatmeal with water and a little salt, which they let stand together twenty or more hours, and then knead it into a dough or batter, and bake it like pancakes on a stone that has a fire under it; and when they have prepared a good parcel, they lay them on racks to dry, for in this manner they become hard, and will keep hard, sweet, and sound a long time.” (Ellis)
· “The Hertfordshire plain cheap Pancakes for Farmers Families, &c.--Are made with wheaten flower, milk, eggs, and powder'd ginger. To a pottle of wheat-flower they put two quarts of new milk, four eggs, and some powdered ginger; these they stir together into a batter consistence, and fry them in hogslard; when one side of the pancake is fried enough, our housewife, orher maid-servant, turns it in a clever manner, by giving it only a toss with the frying-pan, and when this is dexterously done, it is the best way of turning them.Thus she goes on frying pancake after pancake, and as she lays them one upon another,in a platter or dish, she sprinkles some coarse sugar for their sauce; but takes what care she can that the family eats them hot, for the hotter they eat them, the less danger there is of rising in their stomachs, if the lard should be rankish. But whether they eat them cold or hot, if the ingredients are fresh and good, they are agreeable victuals; and though I mention sprinkling of sugar over the pancakes after they are fry'd, as sauce to them, yet some think it the better way to mix sugar in the batter, for mixing it the more regular to the taste.” (Ellis)
· Elisabeth Luard’s recipe:
Procedure
Pour flour into a bowl. Add the egg and milk. Stir the ingredients together. Continue to whisk the batter until smooth. The batter should look like heavy cream. Melt some butter on to a flat griddle pan. Warm the pan on medium or medium-low heat. Then pour about ¼ cup of the batter on to the griddle. Bake until a golden brown on the bottom side (bubbles should appear) and then flip the pikelet to lightly brown the other side. Remove the pikelet from heat. Plate and serve.
Works Cited
- Ayto, John. The Diner's Dictionary. 2012. https://archive.org/details/dinersdictionary0000ayto/page/106/mode/2up.
- Cotgrave, Randle. A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues. 1611. http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cotgrave/.
- Davidson, Alan. The Oxford Companion to Food. 2014. https://books.google.com/books?id=bIIeBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA234&lpg=PA234&dq=bara+pyglyd+medieval+recipe&source=bl&ots=3rtDjoDOni&sig=ACfU3U0Zj1OnQZB08qvUA7KeAHDfTbEwBA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi0rKOgktv3AhVKCjQIHXP4D-0Q6AF6BAggEAM#v=onepage&q=bara%20pyglyd%20medieval%20recipe&f=false.
- "Exodus 29:23." https://biblehub.com/exodus/29-23.htm.
- Fairchild, Lynne. “Bara Pyglyd.” https://tudorbaking.blogspot.com/2022/05/bara-pyglyd-also-known-as-pikelet-or.html.
- Freeman, Bobby. First Catch Your Peacock. 1996.
- "History of Crumpets." https://crumpetman.com/crumpet-history.
- Lindahl, Greg. “A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues Compiled by Randle Cotgrave.” http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cotgrave/.
- Luard, Elisabeth. European Peasant Cookery. https://books.google.com/books?id=psWIDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT828&lpg=PT828&dq=elisabeth+luard+bara+planc&source=bl&ots=GeuYmV9Myu&sig=ACfU3U14i_mOTrILZstDEn7uDijUAgYGHQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi8yN3Br-r3AhVDCTQIHfR7DUIQ6AF6BAgYEAM#v=onepage&q=elisabeth%20luard%20bara%20planc&f=false.
- Nabbes, Thomas. “The Springs Glorie.” https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A07976.0001.001?rgn=main;view=fulltext.
- Nannestad, Chloe. "The Untold Truth of Crumpets." 1 February 2022. https://www.mashed.com/753583/the-untold-truth-of-crumpets/.
- Raffald, Elizabeth. The Experienced English Housekeeper. 1769. https://books.google.com/books?id=1I4EAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=crumpet&f=false.
- Rabelais, François. The Fourth Book. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/8169/8169-h/8169-h.htm.
- Riske, Heather. "From Buckwheat to Rye." 30 April 2021. https://www.feastmagazine.com/features/article_1b4e4eec-a393-11eb-a096-773c80393ccc.html.
- Westmacott, William. Historia vegetabilium sacra. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo2/A65494.0001.001?rgn=main;view=fulltext.
- "What are Crumpets?" https://bakesomebread.com/crumpets/.
- Wycliffe, John. The Holy Bible containing the Old and New Testaments. 1382. Edited by Josiah Forshall and Sir Frederic Madden in 1850. https://books.google.com/books?id=ssJIAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA263&lpg=PA263&dq=%22john+wycliffe%22+%22crompid+cake%22&source=bl&ots=gj6hoZCREO&sig=ACfU3U16CDJ4zaDWXuv9ud6suOYTMCZIKg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjRj_ucndv3AhWzk4kEHTDGCVkQ6AF6BAgXEAM#v=onepage&q=%22john%20wycliffe%22%20%22crompid%20cake%22&f=false.
