Why are store-bought English Muffins SOOOOO HORRIBLE????

For years now, I've tried every single brand of english muffin on the grocery shelves. Every single one. And I consistenly end up eating about 1 and throwing the rest in the trash. You'd think I'd learn, wouldn't you? "Extra Crispy"... give me a break! They're so doughy you could hardly call them "baked". Soft, doughy, over-conditioned nasty-tasting little inedible pucks of ... what? Even Thomas', which used to be good, have lost all their charms. Why is stuff like this even allowed on grocery shelves? Why do people buy this stuff? Why, oh why, don't any any bread bakeries bake delicious English Muffins, the way they used to be????

Or is it just me?


Rant/off

Thanks for listening!


:rant:

passes the taste and texture test is "Bay's English Muffins". They are in the refrigerator section of my local grocery but they are very expensive. Something like $2.69 for six.

I have resorted to toast. Miss the muffins. I think Thomas are now as awful as the cheap ones.

And really, English muffins are super easy to make. There are lots of recipes online. This one is pretty close to mine, though I don't use dairy. This is one of those things that is ideal for using up those sourdough starters or (I would assume) that no-knead business so many here seem fixated on for their breadmaking. When I have a good sourdough or desem, it usually doesn't take me long before I'm desperate to inject a little variety. You can also bake this as a loaf and slice off as you're ready to toast; this seems to make for a lighter "muffin" with superior toastiness, though I love the chewiness of an actual individual muffin.

Another thing that is surprising easy to do and vastly superior to store-bought is bagels. They're kind of a messy project because you have to mess with a pot of boiling water before you bake them, but soooo good! The biggest trick is finding malt for your water--and I usually just end up making my own (sprout rye berries 2-3 days, dry, grind to a powder).

Hmmm. . . I send a baking weekend coming on. :)

The local grocery sells "English muffin bread" which makes great toast and poor man's Cuban sandwiches. I've given up on Thomas's, even though they're rendered edible via toaster oven but not toaster. The toaster oven dries them out before it actually toasts them and they lack that half baked gumminess that way. They're also quite good toasted on top of the wood stove, but wood stove season is at least 2 months away.

They're still nothing like they used to be.

Health food stores used to carry Matthew's whole wheat variety and a 7 grain variety whose name escapes me. The former had a slightly weird texture but both had wonderful, intense flavor. They had to be refrigerated or frozen, though, and that drove the price way up.

Now they come out more like crumpets. And I hate crumpets.

:hi:

They're all we eat here - the freezer is packed with them.

I can't eat them, so I haven't had more than a bite in recent years.

But I know that TJs has a variety with a funny old British allusion on the label.

And why are they all gummy these days, anyway? I've noticed that with some commercial breads, even good loaves I've eaten for years. Is it a change in the baking processes? Is it that gluten stuff?

I've asked for answers from bakery reps when I catch them in the stores, with no success.