I keep reading in various recipes that splitting English muffins with the tines of a fork "creates" texture or "creates" nooks and crevices. This has never made any sense to me. As far as I can tell, the texture is already *in* the muffin, created by large, irregular air bubbles, which are encouraged by using a higher hydration dough (or batter) and by ensuring adequate proofing time right before cooking on the griddle. I have always split my muffins with a bread knife, and have no shortage of large, irregular pockets inside. Am I missing something? If this is a myth, why do people keep repeating it?

My theory is this: the original idea was that the mark of a good English muffin was one that had so many large holes inside that it COULD EVEN be split with just a fork; a knife wasn't required. For reasons unknown, this then morphed, illogically, into the current, widespread notion that English muffins SHOULD be split with a fork, and this was then retroactively justified by attempting to connect it to the texture of the nooks and crannies.  

What do you think?

Kent in Taibei