[2] In North America, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, it is frequently eaten with sweet or savoury toppings such as butter, fruit jam, honey, eggs, sausage, bacon, or cheese.

English muffins are an essential ingredient in eggs Benedict and a variety of breakfast sandwiches derived from it, such as the McMuffin.

[7] In the Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson states that "[t]here has always been some confusion between muffins, crumpets, and pikelets, both in recipes and in name".

[11] Comparing the bell-ringing of muffin men to the melodic chimes from an approaching ice cream van that generates excitement in children today, Michael Paterson in A Brief History of Life in Victorian Britain writes, “the ringing of a handbell was one of the most joyous sounds in a Victorian childhood”.

[12] The traditional English nursery rhyme "The Muffin Man", which dates from 1820 at the latest, traces to that custom.

References to English muffins appear in U.S. newspapers starting in 1859,[23][24][25] and detailed descriptions of them and recipes were published as early as 1870.