Pancake Day!

Nicola here, blogging about food (which I seem to do quite often!) Tomorrow is Shrove Tuesday, otherwise known as Pancake Day, Mardi Gras and various other names around the world. Like many festivals that have become popular celebrations, Shrove Tuesday originated in the Church calendar and is still observed as a religious festival by many people.

The name Shrove Tuesday comes originally from the word “shrive” meaning to absolve, as it falls just before the beginning of Lent. The name Mardi Gras, “Fat Tuesday” is more descriptive, however, as it gives a clue to the theme of eating up all the rich food you might then forsake during the 40 days of Lent, when people would be expected to fast and pray. Meat, eggs and various milk products were forbidden.

I have a special place in my heart for Pancake Day as Mr Cornick and I had our first date over a pile of pancakes quite a number of years ago! Since then, we tend to mark the occasion with a plate of homemade pancakes served with lemon and sugar. It’s pretty low key, but in the past, more of a thing was made of eating up all those tempting foods before Lent started.

First there was “Collop Monday.” According to Daniel Defoe in his 'Tour of Great Britain' written in 1726, the day before Shrove Tuesday was the day when meat was cut into “collops”, slices, or into steaks for hanging and salting until Lent was over. It was the tradition to eat bacon and eggs on that day. I remember this from my childhood in Northern England when my grandparents always marked the day before Pancake Day with a dinner of fried bacon and fried egg.

By Shrove Tuesday it was time to use up your stocks of fats, eggs and butter. Fritters, pancakes and other combinations of eggs and fat were very popular! The laws of what was permitted to be eaten or not during Lent were pretty strict in the Middle Ages but there were some liberal definitions of different sorts of food in order for the diet not to become too dull. According to English Heritage, by the 12^th century it was decided that the rules against eating meat didn’t apply to birds, so chicken could be eaten. Beaver tail was allowed because beavers lived near water and ducks were renamed barnacle geese because it was believed these birds hatched from barnacles and so were permissible to eat! (This sounds more like an April Fool’s joke.)

Lent was also a time when dancing and merrymaking was banned so as much fun and games as possible was squashed into the time ahead of when it started. It’s thought that this was the origin of the Pancake Race – a legend from the mid 15^th century says that when a local woman heard the shriving bell ringing whilst she was making pancakes, she dashed to church still holding her pan.

This recipe for Banniet Tort from Charles Carter’s The Compleat Cook, written in 1730, certainly helped to use up a lot of dairy products! “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 til you have laid them all. Lay sweetmeats on the uppermost and sprinkle what you have on 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.”

Throughout the centuries there have been many different ways to eat up your Shrovetide treats ahead of Lent. In Scotland, for example, there were “care-cakes.” These are described as “a kind of thin cake, made of milk, meal or flour, eggs beaten up and sugar, baked and eaten on Fastern’s E’n” This was the old Scots term for Shrove Tuesday. The Scots crumpet, a thinner version than the English one, was also a favourite as these could be rolled up and eaten with jam and butter. My husband still makes these to his family recipe.

These days I guess our sweetmeats could be blueberries or ice cream, or we could make savoury pancakes with all sorts of different fillings. What hasn’t changed though is our enjoyment of food as part of various different festivities and celebrations during the year!

Is there a traditional meal you eat at this time of year? Do you enjoy a pancake on Shrove Tuesday (or at any other time for that matter!)  And will you be giving anything up for Lent?

Comments

[Mary T]

There was no traditional meal that we had before Lent. As for pancakes, my mother would usually give us a breakfast of pancakes or cinnamon rolls once a week all through the year.

Being Catholic back in the 50s we gave up meat every Friday. There were a few extra meatless and fasting days during Lent. While it could be a inconvenience at times, giving up meat never seemed like much of a sacrifice to me, but I bet it was a great sacrifice to the working man (and woman). What did seem like a sacrifice to me was giving up sweets - which we did.

Nowadays I don't give up much but I do try to increase my prayer life and good acts during Lent. Enjoyed this post.

[Nicola Cornick]

Pancakes once a week! Mary, I am envious of that! I can imagine that giving up sweets as a child would have felt quite a sacrifice. We all have favourite foodstuffs that are hard to give up, don't we.

[Pat Dupuy]

The Episcopal church is big on celebrating Shrove Tuesday with a pancake dinner, usually prepared by the men! I've enjoyed a few of those over the years.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Nicola, this isn't a tradition observed where I grew up, but fun to read about! I love that you and your husband first dated over sweet pancakes. Surely a good omen. I also like that chickens and ducks were reclassified as Not Meat to improve the range of foods available. Human ingenuity in action! I didn't know that beaver tail was an option; actually, I thought it was a western hemisphere animal but obviously not. (What about the rest of the beaver???)

[Kareni]

What a fun and informative post, Nicola! You definitely have my encouragement to do more food posts.

May you and Mr Cornick (which auto correct wished to change to cornucopia) have many more happy pancake celebrations together!

[Grace F.]

My mother always made donuts on Shrove Tuesday. It was the custom in Hungary where she grew up. It's a good way to use up oil or lard before Lent.

[Jenny Wilcox]

Yummmm!! Pancakes with lemon and sugar - best way to have them as far as I am concerned. We had fish when I grew up - this was the only concession my anti-religion father would allow.

[Nicola Cornick]

That sounds like an excellent tradition, Pat!

[Nicola Cornick]

Yes, the levels of human ingenuity to get round those religious food restrictions! I'd never heard of eating beaver tail before. I'm not sure about the rest of the beaver other than what went to make the hats!

[Nicola Cornick]

Thank you, Kareni, I am glad you enjoyed it! Mr Cornucopia and I have just enjoyed some breakfast pancakes - many thanks for the good wishes!

[Nicola Cornick]

Now, that is another excellent tradition!

[Nicola Cornick]

I like a nice bit of fish, but I agree pancakes with lemon and sugar are the best!

[Lynn]

No pancakes here I'm afraid; we are both on strict diets for health reasons though it has always been a tradition. Many years ago, long before decimalisation I decided that just giving up something I liked was hardly in the true spirit of Lent so I looked around and decided I would not pass a charity collection box without giving it a silver coin, a sixpence or a shilling.
Has anyone any idea how many such boxes lurk on shop counters?I barely made the 40 days without bankruptcy! Not something to try now the smallest silver coin is one pound.
I did not tell anyone as that would not have been in the Christian spirit but it gave a twenty-something year-old a real sense of achievement and a new meaning to that Easter.

[Nicola Cornick]

That really is a lovely idea, Lynn, even if you hadn't anticipated the economic consequences! And I imagine it gave you a well-deserved sense of having done something really worthwhile.

[Christina Courtenay]

Beaver tail?!? Yuck! In our house we will definitely be having pancakes - such a treat! In my case with just sugar, but other family members prefer lemon and sugar, or jam and sugar (that's a bit too much for me!). Either way, they are delicious!

[Nicola Cornick]

Yes, the beaver thing is quite disgusting, isn't it! Enjoy your pancakes!

[Karin]

We didn't celebrate Pancake Day/Mardi Gras under any of its names, but I do love pancakes any day of the year. My mother used to make the thin ones that are rolled up with jam, like crepes. I tend to make the thicker style American pancakes, and I often add in some kind of fruit, like apples or blueberries, and experiment with different ingredients, like cottage cheese(fluffier pancakes), teff flour(delicious!) or pumpkin puree(a colorful and nutritious addition).

[Nicola Cornick]

I love all those suggested additions, Karin! We had the crepe style ones this morning with blueberries but I am all for trying some teff flour now.

[Mary M.]

Okay, beaver tail was a challenge I couldn't resist.

Googling "recipe beaver tail" turned up ... something close to pancakes! Specifically, they're a Canadian specialty of fried dough, sugar coated, in the shape of a beaver tail.

Next, I found a recipe for the real thing: Roasted Beaver Tail in a campfire setting. It starts out, "Trap a beaver according to your local game regulations and remove the tail.
" I won't gross everyone out with the rest, but it sounds a lot like pork belly, with the objective of crisp skin and unctuous, fatty inside.

Finally, this:

"What can you do with beaver tails?
The scratch and water resistance properties of beaver tails make for excellent footwear, such as cowboy boots. Additionally, the small, intricate groove pattern can make for a striking and unique piece of footwear that is very distinct from both cow- and snake-based leathers."

Terrific rabbit hole, Nicola, thanks!

[Vicki L]

I'd never heard of lemon and sugar on pancakes. So...lemon juice? Lemon curd? Or jam and sugar.

Me, I just make pancakes and use honey or jam on them.

Since I read this post last night I decided hmm, I should make pancakes this morning. Told Hubby we were having pancakes for breakfast today. He goes What? Why?

So I got to educate him as to the why. And enjoy a delicious breakfast.

[Nicola Cornick]

That's so interesting about the recipe for the donut type beaver tail! I wonder if that's what they actually meant?

The other recipes sound okay - if it wasn't beaver! So interesting.

[Annette N]

I am one of those Episcopalians who enjoyed Shrove Tuesday pancake dinners at our church.
If I am honest, I enjoy pancakes no matter who cooks them or where I eat them.
Thanks for this terrific post. And a reminder of the delicious way people in the past celebrated the upcoming greatest event in Christianity.

[Nicola Cornick]

Hi Vicki! Well, we have lemon juice to counter balance the sweetness of the sugar but people put lots of different fillings, especially maple sugar or honey. I hope you both enjoyed your breakfast!

[Nicola Cornick]

LOL, yes me too, Annette on the eating of pancakes! I hope you enjoy a lovely dinner!

[Janet]

My mother's home town of Liberal, Kansas has a Pancake race every year in competition with Olney, England. My brother was almost the Pancake Baby the year he was born since we were staying with my grandmother when he arrived. My mother, who would have hated being the focus of that kind of attention, always said how thankful she was that he arrived so swiftly the night before- 20 minutes from the hospital door to delivery!
For those who are interested, Olney won this year's race.

[Nancy Mayer]

Never had a tradition of anything special before Lent. We had a pancake breakfast at Church on Sunday though few of our members had the tradition of pancakes at any time. Growing up we heard the Catholic children talking about giving up meat for Lent and we always had fish at school lunches. I much prefer waffles to pancakes and hadn't had pancakes for at least 5 years before Sunday.

[Karen S. Clift]

Mary, I also went hunting for beaver tail & those Canadian pastries sound wonderful! But I wondered as I also thought Beavers were unique to North America. Turns out there is a Eurasian beaver as well, known in both Europe & Asia & almost wiped out for its fur for those men's hats, just like the NA species. But they are being reintroduced & there are populations once again in parts of Europe & Asia, including Britain. So I guess they did eat a meat beaver tail. Probably ruled it as similar to fish since they like water as well. Here's a Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_beaver
There are also beavertail boats, railroad cars, trucks, etc--I guess they like the shape!

Many decades ago, I worked in a Perkins Pancake House (family restaurant chain) and Thursday's special was all the pancakes you could eat, served in sets of 3. We closed at 10, but about 9 we had a group from England come in for supper--ordered the special & kept ordering. They'd never had the thicker style American pancake as Karin described it. They loved them & while fascinating, we just kept wishing they'd head out so we could go home. That all you can eat thing can be a pain somedays!

Mom sometimes would make breakfast for dinner on Sunday nights, often pancakes, bacon & eggs. I'd come home from a day that started with opening the restaurant at 6:15 that morning, working the grills, etc until about 2, doing prep and clean up if we didn't finish earlier, then switch to kitchen manager job & do inventory, prep the stock order & phone it in (pre-computers back then). Finally get home about 5 or so, & Mom's making what I'd cooked all day. Somehow, I just didn't want pancakes at that point, but either that or fix something myself. Ah well, easier to just eat them, right? Spoiled myself for cooking pancakes, I have to do them on a grill, can't do them in a skillet ever since then... Ah, the memories!

[Teresa Broderick]

We would gallop home from school on Shrove Tuesday because my mother would already be at the cooker making pancakes! There were four of us and she would stand there for an hour making and tossing them out to us as we were always hungry back then.
For myself making them for my kids it was my own personal nightmare!! I couldn't do them right whatever I tried. I finally gave up the year I had to throw out the frying pan with the last batch!
Great post Nicola, brought back some great (and bad) memories:):)

[Nicola Cornick]

Love the idea of your brother almost being The Pancake Baby, Janet. I've just checked up on the Olney/Liberal race. What a wonderful bit of twinning!

[Nicola Cornick]

Waffles are a lovely alternative to pancakes. I wasn't keen on the fish in Lent thing when I was at school - largely because our school meals were so horrible!

[Nicola Cornick]

LOL, Teresa! I love the contrast of your eagerness as a child to eat them and your discovery that it was a nightmare to make them! My DH wasn't very happy with the quality of his yesterday but I thought they were great. They are quite tricky to make, I think. I'm afraid I don't make them from scratch!