“sourdough”
13 recipes vs 47Recipes with “sourdough” in the title: most use no yeast (84% vs 2%).
“sourdough” (13)the rest (47)middle half of all
Yeast · share using anyrecipes with sourdough in the title 15% vs the rest 97%
English Muffins Lab
English Muffins: what 76 recipes agree on
Griddled nooks and crannies: milk, water, fat and yeast per 100 g of flour.
76 recipes from 48 sites, each reduced to grams and written as baker's percentages: grams of each ingredient per 100 g of flour, so a small recipe and a double batch line up. Below: the typical batch, how far recipes stray from it, and a page for every recipe with a link to the original.
Recipes
76
from 48 sites
Typical flour
450 g
about 3 2/3 cups
Lines weighed
97%
of ingredient lines
Weights printed
36%
by the source, rest converted
The typical batch of English muffins
The median of all 76 recipes for each ingredient, scaled to 450 g of flour. No single recipe is exactly this: each line is the middle of its own distribution. “Most recipes” means the middle half, from the 25th to the 75th percentile.
| Ingredient | Grams |
|---|---|
| FlourThe scale for everything else | 450 gabout 3 2/3 cups |
| LiquidMost recipes use 300 to 395 g | 335 gabout 1 1/3 cups |
| Fat25% use none; the rest mostly 27 to 40 g | 27 gabout 2 tbsp |
| SugarMost recipes use 9 to 27 g | 18 gabout 1 1/2 tbsp |
| SaltMost recipes use 6 to 9 g | 7 g |
| YeastMost recipes use 3 to 8 g | 5 g |
Volumes are approximate: flour at 125 g a cup, sugar 200 g, butter or oil 225 g, milk and other liquids 240 g.
Every recipe, ingredient by ingredient
Each dot is a recipe, placed by grams of the ingredient per 100 g of flour (100% would be as much as the flour). The shaded band is the middle half of recipes and the line is the median.
Liquid
median 74% · most 67 to 87%
A very wet dough or batter is what gives the open, craggy nooks and crannies.
Each dot is up to 2 recipes. range 56 to 108%
Fat
median 6% · 25% use none
A little butter or oil for a softer crumb.
Each dot is up to 3 recipes. range 0 to 16% · those that use some, mostly 6 to 8.8%
Sugar
median 3.9% · most 2 to 6%
A little sugar or honey.
range 0 to 14% · 5% use none
Salt
median 1.6% · most 1.4 to 1.9%
About 1.5 to 2%.
Each dot is up to 2 recipes. range 0.7 to 2.9%
Yeast
median 1.2% · most 0.7 to 1.8%
Yeast for the rise; some recipes add baking soda too.
Each dot is up to 2 recipes. range 0 to 3.3% · 17% use none
Where recipes disagree
Measured by how far apart the 25th and 75th percentile recipes are. The widest gaps are where the choice of recipe matters most.
- Fat. 25% of recipes use no fat, and the rest disagree too: the middle half of them add 6 to 8.8% of the flour weight.
- Sugar. The middle half of recipes use 2 to 6% of the flour weight in sugar, so a recipe at the 75th percentile has 3.0 times as much as one at the 25th.
Recipes agree most on liquid and salt: liquid 67 to 87%, salt 1.4 to 1.9% for the middle half.
Around the world
73 of the recipes come in 2 languages with enough of each to compare: English 60, French 13.
- French recipes use 18% less liquid than English ones (63% against 77% of the flour weight) and under a third as much sugar (0.9% against 4.5%).
What the words in titles mean
English recipes whose titles use a word, against the ones that do not. What recipe writers do when they pick the word, not proof that it makes the texture.
“bread”
14 recipes vs 46Recipes with “bread” in the title: more yeast (2.1% vs 1.1%).
“bread” (14)the rest (46)middle half of all
Yeastrecipes with bread in the title 2.1% vs the rest 1.1%
The most-reviewed recipes
18 English muffin recipes have 50 or more reader ratings. A rating count says how many people rated a page, which follows its traffic more than its quality. Against the other 58, medians per 100 g of flour, compared within each language:
On no ingredient do the most-reviewed recipes differ from the rest by more than chance would explain.
50+ ratings (18)the rest (58)middle half of all
Liquidthe most-reviewed recipes 74% vs the rest 74%
Fatthe most-reviewed recipes 7.8% vs the rest 6%
Sugarthe most-reviewed recipes 6.5% vs the rest 3.2%
Saltthe most-reviewed recipes 1.7% vs the rest 1.6%
Yeastthe most-reviewed recipes 1.1% vs the rest 1.2%
Most reviewed
- Sourdough English Muffins Recipe · littlespoonfarm.com5.0 from 1,043 ratings
- English Muffins Recipe · preppykitchen.com4.9 from 871 ratings
- Sourdough English Muffins · farmhouseonboone.com4.6 from 669 ratings
- Sourdough English Muffins · kingarthurbaking.com4.6 from 430 ratings
- Homemade English Muffins · bakedbyanintrovert.com4.6 from 404 ratings
Recipes to start with
Closest to the typical batch
Nearest the median on every ingredient at once.
- How to Make Easy English Muffins · theviewfromgreatisland.comliquid 75% · fat 7.5%
- Homemade English Muffins · houseofnasheats.comliquid 81% · fat 7.1%
- Bread Flour English Muffins · kingarthurbaking.comliquid 74% · fat 8%
- Cinnamon Raisin English Muffins · theviewfromgreatisland.comliquid 80% · fat 7.9%
- English Muffins · tarasmulticulturaltable.comliquid 80% · fat 4.9%
Most liquid
- Gluten-Free Sourdough English Muffins made with Bread Flour · kingarthurbaking.comliquid 108% · fat 14%
- English Muffins · tastesbetterfromscratch.comliquid 103% · fat 10%
- English Muffins · leitesculinaria.comliquid 100% · fat 14%
Least liquid
- recette des muffins anglais maison · amourdecuisine.frliquid 56% · fat 4.3%
- Homemade English Muffins · fifteenspatulas.comliquid 56% · fat 0%
- Sourdough English Muffin Recipe · baking-sense.comliquid 56% · fat 8%
Go deeper
- DiscoverEvery recipe plotted on any two ratios.
- CalculatorStart from the typical recipe, move the ratios, get grams.
- IngredientsWhich ingredients recipes use, and the choices they make.
- RatiosWhich ingredients rise and fall together.
- TimelineRecipes by publication year and how the typical one shifted.
- Around the WorldThe typical recipe in each language, and where French, German or Italian recipes part from English ones.
- Title WordsWhat recipes whose titles say fudgy, healthy or small batch do differently from the rest, and which words change nothing.
- All RecipesEvery recipe, sortable, with a page each.
- ClustersThe styles the numbers fall into.
- Decision TreeA few questions that narrow the recipes to the ones you want.
Top sources
- 10kingarthurbaking.com
- 4chefsimon.com
- 4ptitchef.com
- 3farmhouseonboone.com
- 3melskitchencafe.com
- 3tasteofhome.com
- 2bakedbyanintrovert.com
- 2baking-sense.com
- 2biggerbolderbaking.com
- 2foodnetwork.com
- 2littlespoonfarm.com
- 2savingdessert.com
In 5 languages: English 60, French 13, Dutch 1, Portuguese 1, Spanish 1. Lines in other languages are read in their own units and words, and each recipe page links to the original. 48 sites in all. No site contributes more than 12 recipes.
How the numbers are made
Every ingredient line is converted to grams and grouped (butter and oil count as fat; white, brown and liquid sweeteners as sugar), then divided by the flour weight. That baker's percentage is the only comparison that holds across recipes of different sizes.
97% of the 592 ingredient lines got a weight. 36% of those weights were printed by the source; the rest were converted from cups and spoons with standard densities, so treat single recipes as close, not exact. Frosting, glaze, streusel and other toppings are listed on each recipe page but left out of the percentages.
A recipe outside the plausible range for any ingredient is left out rather than allowed to stretch every chart; it is usually a different dish with the same name or a misread line. Of the pages fetched, 80 were left out: 44 outside the plausible range on some ingredient (liquid 20, fat 8, yeast 7, salt 6, sugar 3), 25 with no flour, or none that could be weighed, 6 with a title that names a different dish, 3 too many lines without an amount, 1 with an ingredient in amounts that could not be weighed, and 1 duplicate of another page.
Every recipe page links to the original, which is where the method is. Recipe Lab does not republish instructions or photos.