In 1985, The Times published a recipe for the blueberry muffins served at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in
Boston, which Marian Burros, who adapted the recipe, judged among her favorite muffins in the city.
A few years later, a reader wrote Marian to say that the best blueberry muffins in Boston were in fact
from the now-closed Jordan Marsh department store. Marian tracked down and adapted that recipe
so you can judge for yourself. But the origins of the Jordan Marsh recipe were unclear until 2023,
when Mara Richmond of Burlington, Vt., wrote The Times to say that the developer of the recipe was
her father, Arnold Gitlin, then the executive food consultant for Allied Stores, which owned Jordan
Marsh at the time. His recipe, Richmond said, was an adaptation from one in Esther Howland’s 1847
cookbook, “The New England Economical Housekeeper, and Family Receipt Book.” Everything old is
new again. This version has a lot more sugar and butter and fewer eggs than the Ritz-Carlton muffins.
It also calls for mashing a half cup of berries and adding them to the batter. This produces a very
moist muffin, one that will stay fresh longer.
Ingredients
Yield: 12 Muffins
1/2 cup of softened butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup milk
2 cups blueberries, washed, drained, and picked over
3 teaspoons sugar
Steps
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 375.
Step 2
Cream the butter and sugar until light.
Step 3
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after
each addition. Add vanilla.
Step 4
Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder,
and add to the creamed mixture alternately with the milk.
Step 5
Crush ½ cup blueberries with a fork, and mix
into the batter. Fold in the remaining whole berries.
Step 6
Line a 12 cup standard muffin tin with cupcake
liners, and fill with batter. Sprinkle the 3 teaspoons
sugar over the tops of the muffins, and bake at 375
degrees for about 30-35 minutes.
Step 7
Remove muffins from tin and cool at least 30 minutes.
Store, uncovered, or the muffins will be too moist the
second day, if they last that long.
Other Recipe Websites
Just One Cookbook - This website is one that I use a lot and I like how neat and organized the page
looks. There are plenty of images that draw the viewer in but it's also not too overwhelming. I also like
how at the top there are tags to filter the recipes into weeknight, bento, sweets, and tips sections.
Martha Stewart - I looked at how the specific recipe page is organized on this website and I noticed
that there is a progress bar and table of context box on the side of the page. It's interactive, so depending
on which section you're scrolling through it will tell you how far you are in the recipe. I also like how there
are more conversational segments throuhgout the recipe, such as whether to "smash" or "mash" the
avocado.
Culinary Hill - I searched up another blueberry muffin recipe for comparison, and noticed some differ-
ences in the layout. A progress photo follows each step, but I also noticed that at the there is a summary
page with step to step instructions at the very end.
Non-Recipe Websites
Runner's World - What I like about this article is the visual contrast and orgnaization. You can "jump to"
certain sections of the page in the table of contents box at the top of the page. This can similarly be
applied for a recipe where you can jump to ingredients or get right to the steps.
WikiHow - The pages on wikihow have a very distinct look and are uniform throughout. Each section
of information is placed into a block with an image/illustation tacked on and a bolded number tracking
the steps. A tips and comments section is listed below which is helpful and could be used in a recipe page.
Scribbr - This is a great example of an interactive page that has a table of contents at the top that follows
you as you scroll down. When you hover over the box, it folds open and will direct you to a list of the sections.
I thought this was a nice addition and a new way to think about organizing the page.