The best blueberry muffins in Boston

Good day. In 1985, we published a recipe for the Cranberry Muffin that pastry chef Gunther Moesinger served at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Boston. Marian Burros, who adapted the recipe, considered them among her favorite muffins in town. A few years later, a reader wrote to Marian to tell her that the best blueberry muffins in Boston were actually the ones ever served at the now-closed Jordan Marsh department store. Marian, always fearless, tracked that recipe (above) so you can judge for yourself.

But exactly who created the Jordan Marsh muffin wasn’t clear until the other day, when Mara Richmond of Burlington, Vt., wrote to say that her father, Arnold Gitlin, had come up with the recipe. He was then the executive food advisor for Allied Stores, which owns Jordan Marsh. Her recipe, Mara told me when we spoke on the phone, was adapted from one in Esther Howland’s 1847 cookbook, “The New England Economical Housekeeper, and Family Receipt Book.”

Everything old is new again! The Marsh version has much more sugar and butter and fewer eggs than the Ritz-Carlton recipe. It also requires mashing half a cup of berries and adding them to the dough. This produces a very moist muffin, one that will stay fresh longer.

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Jordan Marsh Blueberry Muffins

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With breakfast sorted out, you can focus on dinner. I like Melissa Clark’s new recipe for Roasted Salmon with Rhubarb, a real taste of spring, especially if you can get your hands on some of the Copper River sockeye salmon that are coming in now. That fatty flavor of the wild fish is perfect against the strong astringency of the rhubarb.

Alternatively, there is David Tanis’s recipe for wok-fried asparagus with walnuts. I like that one for its big, muscular flavor, although I hardly ever make it with nuts. I like it better with cashews if I feel flushed and with peanuts if I don’t.

Or if you can cook outside? Try my recipe for the fast track grilled baby back ribs, which uses a super cool basting technique that I learned from chef Adam Perry Lang. I like the ones that have pickle salad.

Many thousands more recipes to cook this weekend await you at New York Times Kitchen. Yes, you need to have a subscription to read them. Subscriptions support our work and allow it to continue. If you don’t have one yet, I hope you do. take one out today. Thank you.

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Now, it has nothing to do with string beans or pig’s trotters, but I’m in love with John Wray’s new novel, “gone to the wolves”, about three Florida misfits who grew up on the heavy metal scene of the 1980s and 1990s.

Here is Imogen West-Knights in The Guardian, in Guinness World Records endurance.

Kelefa Sanneh is in The New Yorker with a profile of singer-songwriter Kim Petrasaiming for stardom.

Finally, take some time to read Ange Mlinko’s poem, “to my hummingbirdin London Review of Books. And then bake those muffins! I’ll see you on Sunday.