Coming from Birmingham you can imagine I hold strong views on whether a crumpet is a crumpet or a pikelet
According to various ‘sources’ the main difference between a crumpet and a pikelet is the thickness of the dough.
“Unlike a crumpet, a pikelet is not cooked in a ring hence so the pikelet is thinner and possibly misshapen. The crumpet was originally hard until the Victoria era when it became soft and spongy as eaten today. The pikelet is said to be the “poor man’s crumpet” since poor people could not afford setting rings”
This last bit is a load of rubbish. Pikelets were cooked that way because WE LIKED THEM THAT WAY!
Those that remember the war will well remember mum or gram cooking pikelets, a cheap staple in hard times. Nowadays we buy premade crumpets but whilst that’s how they are labelled, they are still pikelets to us!
Of course, a few of us golden oldies may still cook pikelets the old fashioned way!