The perfect savory muffin

Earlier this fall I decided to learn to crochet in earnest I say learn as if I were starting from scratch but I have faint fuzzy memories of both grandmothers leaning over my shoulder guiding my hand as we built endless chains that trailed across the carpet like vines only to be unraveled minutes later so we could start again The classic childhood ouroboros creation destruction repeat At several point though I stopped I never got past the pot-holder stage the beginner plateau where ambition meets a lack of tension control and the yarn eventually migrated to the back of a closet as forgotten as the recorder I learned in third grade But sometime this year I realized I had drifted into the modern trance of double-screening phone glowing while the television blared and something in me rebelled The next morning I wandered into a local yarn store called The Dropped Stitch and exposed myself petting skeins of mohair in colors with edible names tarragon licorice pumpkin spice Related Fire up weeknight favorites with horseradish I left with the pumpkin one of syllabus and a new hook and by that night I was sitting on the couch tongue between my teeth reacquainting myself with the basics single stitch double stitch treble At a certain point something shifted I was no longer just playing with string I was making fabric Uneven bumpy full-of-heart fabric but still something that could keep you warm It felt almost alchemical Once I got the rhythm down I began to experiment a fringe here a scalloped edge there even the terrifying act of turning a corner There s something deeply satisfying about that moment when you ve completely mastered the bones of a new skill and can start to play It s the same thrill I get from a limited bedrock recipes the ones so deeply memorized they become launchpads for improvisation Good pizza dough Silky bechamel Egg pasta that stretches like silk Once you know those you re free to riff to add lemon zest or nutmeg or a fistful of herbs the culinary equivalent of adding fringe Want more great food writing and recipes Sign up for Salon s free food newsletter The Bite That s why I want to share what I think might be the perfect savory muffin I ve been quietly working on this one for months a small obsession that started as a way to use up a half-empty carton of buttermilk and turned somehow into a quest After a great number of test batches and a scant tragic crumbly failures I at last landed on the right formula soft white flour for tenderness a scoop of cornmeal for texture a heavy hand with black pepper and the powerful marriage of oil and butter which together create a crumb that s both plush and crisp-edged There s just enough onion and garlic powder to make the kitchen smell like breakfast at a good diner As written the recipe necessities nothing more than a generous swipe of cultured butter and a plate of soft scrambled eggs maybe a rasher of bacon if you re feeling traditional But it s also a dream of a base recipe the kind you can build on endlessly once you ve got it down I ve been playing with three variations lately a classic corn cheddar and bacon number a butternut squash muffin with manchego and crisped sage and a farmers industry version that folds in roasted vegetables goat cheese and a dollop of onion jam They freeze beautifully reheat like a charm and make the kind of cozy quietly impressive breakfast you ll be grateful for when guests are still half-asleep and coffee hasn t yet kicked in I already have a scant batches stashed away for the morning after Thanksgiving a small insurance strategy against holiday chaos Here is the base muffin recipe The Perfect Savory Muffin