QUESTIONS FOR THE OZTRALIANS

They look remarkably similar to pancakes.

Yeh, I know. I have long liked bought-crumpets but first, they cost money, and second, they aren't available near me. I looked up crumpet recipes and worked on that, a year or two ago, mentioned in a thread here, but I don't have the right circular disc thingies. I tried saving various cans, but cans here now have odd bottoms (oh, never mind). So, picklets it is. I think it was Izzy who clued me in.

Now I'm going to have a look at crumpet recipes - I'm intrigued!

The recipes are similar, it's a matter of containing the pour..

At one point I started saving water chestnut cans but I don't use those all that much..

edit to say, there are actual circular devices for this, online.

Old tuna cans would have worked, but not with the new designed cans with what I'll call curly bottoms.

They are similar to pancakes except the batter is thicker so they don't spread so much, and they are a lot smaller.

They are also known as drop scones.

tell us, if you find it..

They were called pikelets in my house as a kid, and we had them usually at weekends, maybe every other weekend. The special ones had sultanas and raisins in them, and if they were still warm when served, the butter used to melt right in...... mmmmmm.

I think that the fashion now is to call them drop scones (pronounced sconns by my family, although others may care to differ).

The beeb still call them pikelets....hurrah!

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/user/3360296/recipe/pikelets

As previously mentioned, crumpets are nearly all shop bought here, and either toasted under the grill or popped into the toaster....no frying involved.
Personally, I love mine toasted until just before the point of burning so it's nice and crisp on the outsides but still moistish in the middle.
A scraping of butter and then marmite (or vegemite) and I'm in heaven.

If you like Marmite/vegemite, you will LOVE a thin scraping on your hot crumpet.

Hungry now....

Just looked on a crumpet "ideas" site and saw this helpful comment from someone who seems to be clued up, osso.

From someone called Grainlady.....

"Crumpet/English Muffin rings are $10.95 at King Arthur and some are less than $5 per set on Amazon.com. You can also purchase round cookie cutters or egg rings to use.

I have 12.5 oz. cans of chicken breast meat you can open both ends that are the same size as my crumpet rings (3-5/8").

I don't use mine for English Muffins, only crumpets. I cut English Muffins with a pizza cutter into squares. This eliminates second cuts which tend to get tough from all the additional manipulation. I do the same thing with biscuits.

Helpful hint when making crumpets. Be sure to spray the inside of the rings with cooking spray. After you've made the first group of crumpets, turn the rings over to make the second group. Since you only put about 1/4-inch of batter in the rings, which rises about half-way up the ring, the upper portion of the rings will still be clean."

I've just had replies from both Sisters (who have lived all over Oz from about 1965 onwards) and neither are familiar with brumm.

The only brum we have in the UK is the word we use when referring to the city of Birmingham. If someone comes from Birmingham they are known as a brummie.
Apart from that, it, at a very long stretch, could possibly be a variation on the word brahma, which is certainly a London (Cockney) term for something which is excellent/genuine/of a high standard.

"Wanna buy a watch? It's a brahma"

Not a word that's used very much nowadays, but it was certainly common around these parts in the 60's, 70's and probably a lot earlier.

True, but I live money spare..
thanks, though.

Last night, i thought of an expression common in the 17th and 18th centuries, a brummagem farthing. It means something worthless, even a counterfeit. At this site, you can read about the expression and its origin. The expression was commonly used up to the beignning of the 19th century.

That is fascinating, Set. We have a saying here about "not being worth a brass farthing" and now I know where it probably comes from.

Birmingham has always had a great reputation for light engineering, and still has many small firms dotted around the place, churning out all manner of metal nuts, bolts and fittings.
During WW2 it was the main manufacturing centre for aircraft, and, as you can see by this monument, they are proud that they built many a Spit and Hurricane there.....



That monument is on an area known as Fort Dunlop, which the Luftwaffe did their very best to flatten during the war, but the ingenuity of the Brummie was such that they were able to carry on building them throughout, and were even receiving wreckage from around the country so that they could salvage and re-use any bits that weren't beyond repair.

Even today, Birmingham churns out the majority of Jaguar vehicles that are exported around the world, their workforce recently being almost doubled because of the increase in demand for the various Range Rover models.

Vast fortunes were made in Birmingham when the industrial revolution kicked in, sometimes on the back of the most unlikely ideas and items. Lightbulb moments were happening on a regular basis, many of them resulting in massive trade, profit and employment.

Take the humble pen nib.

During the 1850's, it was reckoned that if you were to do a survey of pen nibs in any large office in any part of the world, half of them would have come from Birmingham.

Rather than copy pasting, I'll just paste the link...

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_pen_trade

Very early on (mid 1700's?) the reputation for precision work in Birmingham was such that Goldsmiths and Silversmiths had been producing high quality items for years, and pretty soon afterwards Birmingham was deemed important enough to have an Assay mark of its own, a high honour indeed.

It is said that the Government Assay Official met with dignitaries from both Birmingham and Sheffield one evening, to discuss which symbol should be "awarded" to each city.
They met in a pub called The Crown and Anchor, where it was decided that Sheffield should have a Crown mark, and Birmingham the Anchor.

Strange, considering that Birmingham is totally landlocked and about as far away from the sea as you can get in the UK.

So, if you see a piece of silver or gold with the Anchor, you know where it was assayed.




Off to walk the hound now. Please excuse typos, as I was doing all this in a bit of a hurry.

Back later.

Old Joe Chamberlain (father iof Neville and Austin) got launched in life in Birmingham, and began his political career there, serving as mayor. His family were cobblers for may generations in the London area (Southward, i believe, but don't quote me), and in more than a modest way. His father (also Joseph) didn't feel he could afford to pay for an education for all his sons, so Joe was sent to work for a cordwainer at age 16. At the age of 18, he was sent to Birmingham to work in a manufactory making screws, which the family had acquired, and he soon was give the business to manage. The rest, as is all too often said, is history.

By the way, the article i linked basically says that Birmingham metal workers were sufficiently clever that they found it easy to make die stamps for coins, as good as or better than the royal mint.

Probably Southwark, not Southward. Can't find Southard London on google, except as typos.

Checked because I'd never heard of Southard in London, thought it might be a small part I'd not heard of.

Yes, it's Southwark.

Pronounced suth'k.

British place names don't help the non natives with their spelling. I always pronounced it Suthuck. Gloucester, Leicester and Scarborough pronounced Gloster Lester and Scarbrugh.

What about:
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch!


Names are just as good.

I know a Menzies (mingis)

and a Farquarharson (Farkwahs'n)

Not to mention Oxbridge colleges.

Oxford, mainly.

Magdalen, for instance.