Why It's A Frankly Terrible Idea To Cut English Muffins With A Knife

English muffins are a satisfying blend of crunch and porous textures — the perfect thing to sandwich your morning bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich between. Whether plain or toasted, the leavened discs are often healthier than other bread and bagels, due to their high fiber content and lower volume of fat and sugars. Plus, some English muffins are even enriched with vitamin B, so they're a good choice beyond just taste. There's even a national holiday dedicated to the tasty discs in the United Kingdom — so mark your calendar for April 23.

Breaking away from the flat terrain of a slice of toast, English muffins provide a unique texture upon which to slather apple butter and strawberry jams. But its crunchy, perforated makeup is precisely why you should treat it differently than other bread and bakes. There are probably many things you don't know about English muffins (like that it's actually an American invention), but one other thing is that it's a terrible idea to cut them with a knife.

English muffins have a different baking process than other bread that makes them more porous — a surface that will reliably soak up slabs of butter and spoonfuls of jam. British expat Samuel Bath Thomas invented the treat when he wanted to create a thinner, pre-cut version of the crumpet. He succeeded in 1874 while living in New York City and the treat became so popular that he had to open up a second bakery. But what was it about this bread that drew customers in? 

When you bake an English muffin, little air pockets form in the dough, creating tiny holes in the finished product. Many people preferred the unique texture and the perfect crunch of a toasted English muffin, compared to the flattened and much thicker nature of a crumpet. Plus, English muffins come pre-sliced, so it's very easy to just pop it into the oven and enjoy. With all their unique attributes, English muffins can easily be destroyed if you mess with their delicate inner ecosystem. That's why you should never cut it open with a knife.

Because of an English muffin's unique baking process, that desirable texture is achieved. But there's no point in crafting a muffin with a good inner surface if you destroy it all with a flat blade. To preserve this unique muffin's makeup, opt to start cutting into it with another instrument instead. For the easiest of openings, we recommend poking the muffin's perimeter with a fork until it splits. This way those inner ridges, nooks, and crannies are preserved. 

If you don't want another utensil to wash, another option is to simply pull apart the two halves of the muffin by hand. Following the natural curves of the muffin, you can do this by gently squeezing the sides of the bread all the way around until it falls open — revealing its porous inside. If you were to use a knife in this process, you would be slicing a flat surface and ruining those textures you sought out in the first place. So don't be that guy.