Nicola here. Yesterday was Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day, a date that is a particular favourite of mine for two reasons, firstly because my husband and I had our first date over a pile of homemade pancakes on a Shrove Tuesday long ago and secondly because, well, I just love pancakes. Here is a picture of yesterday's feast!
In the Christian tradition the 40 days of Lent, which begin today, are a time of prayers and fasting, abstaining from a whole range of foods, including meat, eggs, fish, fats and milk. Shrove Tuesday itself was the day you were summoned to church to be “shriven” and confess your sins before Lent. The shriving bell would be rung to call people to confession.
Shrove Tuesday therefore was the very last day you can indulge in treats for 40 days. After that, all edible temptation has to be removed. So the making of pancakes was a great way to use up eggs, butter and other stocks of food that would be out of bounds for the following 40 days.
As ever, in England they enjoyed a good party. The picture on the left shows the contrast of carnival and Lent, with the pub on the left of the picture and the church on the right! The four days before Ash Wednesday were very festive. Just as children go trick or treating at Halloween, they used to go “shroving” or “lent-crocking” on the Tuesday night, knocking on doors to ask for food with a rather cute rhyme:
We be come a-shroving,
For a piece of pancake,
Or a bite of bacon,
Or a little truckle of cheese, of your own making
There was another rhyme for "Collop Monday," collops being little pancakes of fried meat:
Once, twice, thrice
I give thee warning
Please to make some pancakes
‘Gin tomorrow morning
Anyone who failed to come up with the goods was in danger of being pelted with stones or broken crockery, which makes it all seem a rather less charming and innocent pastime!
Shrovetide also had plenty of other fun entertainments including games and dancing. The Royal Shrovetide football match in Ashbourne in Derbyshire is a tradition that has continued for centuries. Also called "hugball" it is recorded as far back as 1667 but is thought to have derived from 12th century Shrovetide ball games.
Another throwback to this time is the pancake race. The tradition is that in about 1445, a woman heard the shriving bell while she was making pancakes and ran to church in her apron with the frying pan still in her hand.
There are a number of excellent historical recipes for pancake-related dishes. The 18th century Banniet Tort sounds pretty amazing - a pile of pancakes made with cream and layered with fruit, alcohol and sugar! The 1730 recipe is below:
“Take a pint of cream, and make it into Pancake Stuff; season it as you do pancakes, and fry off eight of them fine, crisp, and brown; sheet a little dish with Puff-paste, and lay in the bottom, some slices of citron; lay on those a pancake; have some sack and orange-flower water and sugar mingled together, and sprinkle over: Lay another; then more sweetmeats, and sprinkle between every one still till you have laid them all: Lay sweetmeats on the uppermost, and sprinkle what you have on the top, and close it with a thin lid, and bake it off pretty quick; and when baked, cut it open, squeeze in an orange, and shake it together, and cut the lid to garnish; sugar it over, and serve it.”
The British Library has an even earlier 1585 recipe in “The Good Huswifes Jewell” recipe book which involves ale!
My best recent pancake discovery was the Dutch poffertjes, which we came across at a Christmas fair a few years ago. These are small mini-pancakes which are made in a special pan. Apparently they started off as communion offerings in the Dutch church but in the 18th century a shortage of wheat led to the substitution of buckwheat which made them plump and delicious! Like the bigger pancakes they can be served with butter, or icing sugar or maple syrup or all three, or anything else you like!
Do you have a favourite pancake dish? And are you ready to give up delicious food (or anything else) for Lent?