Today is the day before Lent begins this year. In some parts of the world, this day might be called something like Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday. Here in Tübingen, I unofficially call it the “Last Call for Doughnuts Day”, since Berliner doughnuts will pretty much disappear from view in the bakeries starting tomorrow. But while reading a British newspaper online this morning, I discovered another name: in England, today is known as Pancake Day!
According to Wikipedia, legend has it that back in the 1400s, a woman was busy cooking one Tuesday before Lent, making pancakes in order to use up all the luxury items in her larder, such as butter, since these items were forbidden during Lent. The church bells started ringing, calling the worshipers to the services, before the woman was done cooking. So since she was running late for church, and with no time to change into her church clothing, she grabbed her frying pan with the last pancake in it, and ran down the street toward the church, flipping the pancake over in the pan as she ran. There are towns in England – well, at least there is one town — where they have a pancake-flipping road race. In order to enter, you have to dress in an apron and housewife-style kerchief on your head. Traditionally only women entered the race, but it is technically open to anyone who wears the proper outfit. You run with a pancake in the pan, flipping it at the beginning and at the end.
Anyway, even though not everyone races through towns with frying pans in England today, it is traditional for everyone there to make pancakes today. So, the newspaper The Independent published some helpful tips so that your pancakes will come out well. Here’s the list of what I found with their entertaining set of tips; click here to read the details for each in the original newspaper article I took this from.
- Tip one: Actually follow a recipe – all too often people just fill a bowl randomly with flour, etc. without considering proportions of ingredients
- Tip Two: Use the right pan – do not give into temptation to buy a cheap non-stick pan
- Tip three: Don’t use too much butter – it may seem like a good idea but it isn’t
- Tip four: Embrace flipping failure – for when you heave the pancake up too high and it doesn’t go gracefully back into the pan.
- Tip five: Put your faith in science – quoting from the article “University College London Professor of Mathematics Frank Smith has devised a formula works out the perfect mechanics for a flawless flip, based on how high you plan to flip the pancakes and how large they are going to be. It is: It is: L = 4×H /π– D / 2. “
Now, I personally have never made pancakes by using a flick of the wrist to toss them up and over and back into the pan. I always used a spatula. But judging from the photos with that article, what they call pancakes in England are different from the American-style ones I’ve always made. The English ones look thinner and more like crêpes to me.
Actually, realizing that immediately brought to mind my experience in Bolzano a few years ago when Chris and I hosted a brunch for some friends, serving pancakes that one of the locals said would be called “omelette” in that part of the world.
In fact, I’d had a crazy time trying to explain the difference between omelette and pancakes to my fruit-stand lady in Bolzano, whose English was good, but who thought the kind of food (a pancake) that I was describing was simply an “omelette”. You can read my old blog post about that here.
Of course, that story – and more! as they say — is also included in my new eBook, Life on a Gelato Diet. I did not intend to work in plug for the book in a post today. But in honor of Pancake Day, a reference to past encounters with pancakes seemed fitting.
BTW, for those of you who have already bought a copy of the book, thank you! And for the rest of you, please consider buying it today, and then telling anyone else you know to do it, too. 😉 My sales are flirting with being able to breaking through into the top 100 list on Amazon for my little sub-genre (travel memoirs in Italy) …. but I need to get my sales way up to stay at that level. So, please share that link to the book with anyone you know so they, too, can enjoy stories about gelato, pancakes … and more. 😉