THESE AREN’T TRADITIONAL FLUFFY PANCAKES stacked high and robed in maple syrup, as the Americans do it. These are thin and delicate like crêpes. On Pancake Day, pancakes are traditionally sprinkled with sugar and a healthy squeeze of lemon. Little children quickly learn to roll them into a tube, and the tasty treats are eaten without cutlery as fast as they’re released from the skillet.
MAKES ABOUT
12 PANCAKES
1¾ cups / 230 grams all-purpose flour
Pinch of salt
2 medium-size eggs
2 teaspoons unsalted butter, melted
2½ cups / 540 milliliters milk
Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl and add the salt. In a small bowl, beat the eggs lightly. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients with your hand and add the eggs a little bit at a time, beating well until the batter is smooth.
Add the melted butter and half of the milk to the batter and mix well. Add the rest of the milk and mix just until it is incorporated.
Allow the batter to rest for about 10 minutes while lightly buttering an 8-inch / 20-centimeter, heavy-bottomed skillet and setting it over high heat. Using a ladle, pour in the batter to coat the pan thinly, then cook the pancake until it’s set and just becoming golden.
Flip the pancake over with a spatula (we flipped them in the air as children, but it’s a risky proposition) and cook on the other side for a scant 30 seconds. Remove the pancake from the pan and serve immediately. Repeat with the rest of the batter.
Shrove Tuesday—also known as Pancake Day—is the day before Ash Wednesday, marking the start of Lent. During the religious observance of Lent, abstinence from luxury is often practiced as an opportunity to repent for sins and for self-reflection. In fact shrove is the past tense of shrive, an Old English word meaning “to obtain absolution from wrongs.”
In olden days, pancake recipes enabled housewives to use up any stocks of milk, butter, sugar, and eggs, all of which were forbidden during the stark abstinence of Lent. The night before the start of the Lenten fast is a time when many still engage in making and eating great stacks of pancakes. Eating till you burst is allowed and encouraged. As schoolchildren, we devoted Ash Wednesday mornings to boasting tales of our pancake-eating accomplishments.
In an old traditional Irish practice, wedding during Lent was forbidden, so matchmakers hurried to find suitable spouses for single folk in the weeks leading up to Ash Wednesday. In the “unfortunate” households still “burdened” with unmarried daughters, the poor spinsters (regardless of their age) were encouraged to toss the first cake in the air, as a ritual to bring luck. The link between the girls’ pancake-making prowess and ability to flip them golden and whole was analyzed as a predictor for the next year’s chances of marrying.