Shrovetide Pancakes — A Shrove Tuesday Tradition

Shriven/Shrove: archaic : to confess one’s sins, especially to a priest*

When they heard the “pancake bell,” people flocked to the church to be “shriven” or confessed on Shrove Tuesday, and ready to make the pancakes that date back to Saxon times.

If you think of Shrove Tuesday pancakes as stodgy, thick American pancakes, think again.

Meant to use up eggs, butter, and milk just before Lent, these pancakes resemble French crêpes and Italian crespelle more than the flapjacks so beloved by lumberjacks and that mythical figure, Paul Bunyan. One recipe, meant for the rich, included cream instead of milk, sherry, orange-flower water, and nutmeg in addition to the basic recipe ingredients provided below.

In some towns in England today, people race,  flipping these pancakes in contests. I suspect their pans are larger than mine or their aim is better!

Or maybe not …

MAKING SHROVE TUESDAY PANCAKES

1 large egg or 1 egg and one yolk
1 ¼ cup whole milk
1 cup minus 2 T. unbleached all-purpose flour
1 T. melted butter
Pinch of salt

Butter for frying

Put flour into a bowl and make a well in the middle. Break in the egg and yolk. Whisk the eggs and about ¼ cup of the milk, gradually incorporating the flour, to make a smooth cream. Whisk in the rest of the milk, the melted butter, and a pinch of salt.

Heat 8-inch crêpe pan over medium-high heat.

Add about ½ t. of butter to pan.

Take a 1/4 cup measure, fill with batter, and swirl in pan.

Cook over medium-high heat until spots show on one side.

Flip, and cook briefly on the other side. Keep adding butter to the pan in between “cooks.”

Stack. Serve stacked with syrup or rolled up, filled with jam, butter, and/or sugar.

Makes about eight pancakes.

© 2010 C. Bertelsen