The English Muffin. Bastion of the confusion of all things anglo-american.

For you Brits and Aussies... what is it? A flat plain bread thingy that is cooked from yeast dough with milk and butter. It is a little like a crumpet in size but is crumbly not stodgey. Usually eaten toasted with butter. Often used to make a sandwich with egg and bacon called McMuffin (or with just a potato filling, an O'Muffin).

But why the name? there seem to be four common explanations:
1. The English adjective adds much needed flavor to the otherwise boring food.
2. Originally a scone* recipe but Americans could neither pronounce nor make correctly.
3. Calling them Autralian Toaster Biscuits gave baked goods a bad name (sorry mate!).

Personally I think it is a little US retaliation to us adding 'American' to their sports where their rules are different to ours. The best examples are 'American Football' and 'American Golf' **.

God help breakfast nomenclature.

* scone (UK) is called biscuit (US), biscuit (UK) is called cookie (US), crumpet (UK) does not translate at all, jam (UK) is called preserve (seeded) or jelly (seedless) in the US. Thankfully butter is spelled, if not pronounced, the same (and there are maked similarities between the UK and US variants). Next month in the breakfast series: bacon, ham, sausage, link, weiner, frank and patty nomenclature.
** among other rules, American golf does not penalise dancing on your opponent's line in high heels shouting "in the hole" and giving everyone high fives.