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Pancake Day

rynner2

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Two thirds of people ignore Pancake Day
By Katy Hastings
Last Updated: 1:53am GMT 04/02/2008

Pancake Day looks to be falling flat as more than two thirds of people admit they now ignore the Christian tradition.

Many people questioned for a survey failed to even realise tomorrow was Shrove Tuesday while only 27 per cent said they would definitely make pancakes.

Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Day, is the day before 40 days of Lent during which only the plainest of food maybe eaten. Pancakes became the food of choice so that rich ingredients such as eggs, milk, sugar could be used up.

Only one in five people surveyed by McDougalls Flour last month knew that Pancake Day was imminent and more than two in three said they would either ignore the tradition altogether or make no more than a half-hearted effort to mark it.

Mark Wilkinson, from the flour firm, said: "Up until the 90s most households would flip a few pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. But it seems that fewer and fewer people can be bothered these days."

Pancake Day is a moveable date which falls 47 days before Easter Sunday, the date of which is set according to a complex astronomical formula.

Tomorrow is the earliest Pancake Day for many years and it's likely to catch quite a few people by surprise.

The pancake is featured in cookbooks as far back as 1439 and the tradition of tossing or flipping them dates back at least as far as the 17th Century.

Supermarket Morrisons estimated 5 million people have never made a pancake and did not know which ingredients to use despite the age-old recipe being made by families for centuries.

Sandra Clegg, from Morrisons, said: "Pancakes have been part of our culinary and social history for half a millennia. It would be a shame if making them was consigned to the history books."

Shrove Tuesday gets its name from the ritual of shriving - or confessing and being forgiven for sins.

http://tinyurl.com/2lwfv6

So many old traditions dying out...

Whatever happened to the Nude Houswives Three-legged Pancake Race?

(Or did I make that up..? :madeyes: )
 
I didn't bother today as I have just burnt my frying pan!!!

I was worried that most people don't know how to make pancakes. For the record:

4oz plain flour
1/2 pint of milk
1 egg

whisk and off you go. Remember the first one is always rubbish.
 
Don't forget to fold in fruit berries or banana slices if you have them. Mmmm blueberry pancakes

The important things are, not to overbeat them and to know when to flip them. If you try to get the batter smooth they'll be chewy. Flip when the upper surface is covered with bubbles; don't let more than one or two pop before you flip. Let them sit a little longer after flipping if you've added fruit, or you'll have gooey bits.

I think it very sad that folks can't be assumed to know how to make pancakes.

One of my favorite lines in all literature concerns pancakes, but I've always found it peculiar. In Moominsummer Madness, when Snufkin explores the little Fillyjonk's deserted house (she having been arrested on Midsummer Eve with Moomintroll and the Snork Maiden) he finds the pan containing her Midsummer meal on the stove. "There had been a pancake once." But the question is - does the word translated here as "pancake" refer to a Finnish dish for which there is no English equivalent? Or did the Fillyjonk really make only one pancake? How do you only make one pancake?
 
I was all set, husband all expectant, particularly expectant as he's just come off two years gluten-free. Then I found I only had gluten free flour and it just wouldn't go right, the result was like neoprene offcuts. I had to send him next door to his mum's. :(
However, the cats loved them. :shock: I gave them some and put the rest out thinking the badgers would like them, and next thing I knew the garden was awash with foxes fighting over them, despite the fact there was a chicken carcass out there as well! They had that for pudding. :D
 
PeniG said:
Don't forget to fold in fruit berries or banana slices if you have them. Mmmm blueberry pancakes

Sacrilege! Pancakes should only be eaten with lemon and either honey or sugar.
 
Fizz32 said:
...

Sacrilege! Pancakes should only be eaten with lemon and either honey or sugar.
Nonsense. Pancakes are a high carbohydrate, starch + fat, delivery system. How you make them, how you fill them, is entirely a matter between, you, your scales and your conscience.

Yesterday, I happened to mention Pancake Tuesday to my youngest, that it was all that the British had left of 'Carnaval,' the bumper weekend knees up (still held in the South of Holland), before Ash Wednesday and Lent.

My Daughters then held me at gun point and forced me to make them pannenkoeken. We had them with powdered sugar, stroop, lemon juice, jam, cheese and thin strips of bacon.

I forgot to put egg in and nobody noticed, I do use karnemelk (butter milk), though.

The most important thing is to use, sunflower oil and make sure you have a really good frying pan (one you can trust). Just keep it almost smoking hot and bob's yer uncle. ;)
 
PeniG said:
One of my favorite lines in all literature concerns pancakes, but I've always found it peculiar. In Moominsummer Madness, when Snufkin explores the little Fillyjonk's deserted house (she having been arrested on Midsummer Eve with Moomintroll and the Snork Maiden) he finds the pan containing her Midsummer meal on the stove. "There had been a pancake once." But the question is - does the word translated here as "pancake" refer to a Finnish dish for which there is no English equivalent? Or did the Fillyjonk really make only one pancake? How do you only make one pancake?

Finnihs pancakes are quite robust, thick affairs, either fried nice and thick or baked in the oven and cut into squares, and they're very nice indeed. Secondly, Tove Jansson wrote in Swedish and so it sounds like the kind of thing a nice lagom-minded Swedish-speaking citizen would say - why do you need to make two pancakes when you're only going to eat one? Thirdly, isn't it a bit ridiculous to apply economic rationale to a story about small hippo-shaped trolls? They probably get their pancakes from the magic pancake tree, or something.

Here in Sweden (in Gothenburg at least), pancakes are eaten after pea soup on Thursdays, and they're very nice. On Shrove Tuesday and during Lent, you eat these amazing things called semlor instead - spicy buns with almond paste and whipped cream. I read last year that 9,000,000 semlor were consumed in Sweden over Lent - which is about one for eveyr man, woman and child in the country.

Naturally, being an Englishman, I prefer my pancakes nice and thin, turned instead of tossed (tossing is for show-offs) and served with sugar and lemon.
 
I'm talking about traditional Shrove Tuesday pancakes, Pietro. :)

There aren't any laws dictating what folk can eat with them, but I'm a bit old fashioned in my thinking that it's supposed to indicate the using up of rich foods before Ash Wednesday, and so I'm a bit traditional about how I eat them on Shrove Tuesday.

Any other time of year, I'll be stuffing 'em with all sorts. I like the cheese and bacon idea.
 
Pietro_Mercurios said:
Fizz32 said:
...

Sacrilege! Pancakes should only be eaten with lemon and either honey or sugar.
Nonsense. Pancakes are a high carbohydrate, starch + fat, delivery system. How you make them, how you fill them, is entirely a matter between, you, your scales and your conscience.

Yesterday, I happened to mention Pancake Tuesday to my youngest, that it was all that the British had left of 'Carnaval,' the bumper weekend knees up (still held in the South of Holland), before Ash Wednesday and Lent.

My Daughters then held me at gun point and forced me to make them pannenkoeken. We had them with powdered sugar, stroop, lemon juice, jam, cheese and thin strips of bacon.

I forgot to put egg in and nobody noticed, I do use karnemelk (butter milk), though.

The most important thing is to use, sunflower oil and make sure you have a really good frying pan (one you can trust). Just keep it almost smoking hot and bob's yer uncle. ;)

Dutch pancakes are so damn nice. I like the ones which come a bit like pizzas with meat and cheese etc. all over them.

Goddamn, Im hungry
 
Pietro_Mercurios said:
... We had them with powdered sugar, stroop, lemon juice, jam, cheese and thin strips of bacon.

...
Not all at once, of course. :lol:
 
CodenameThrow said:
Finnihs pancakes are quite robust, thick affairs, either fried nice and thick or baked in the oven and cut into squares, and they're very nice indeed. Secondly, Tove Jansson wrote in Swedish and so it sounds like the kind of thing a nice lagom-minded Swedish-speaking citizen would say - why do you need to make two pancakes when you're only going to eat one?
I thought it might be something like that. The Fillyjonk was intending to feed herself, her uncle, and her nasty aunt Emma the Rat (who not only stood her up, but couldn't be bothered to let her know that the Iron Curtain had fallen on her uncle's head and "they both cracked") on that pancake, so I was pretty sure I must have the wrong image in my head.
Thirdly, isn't it a bit ridiculous to apply economic rationale to a story about small hippo-shaped trolls? They probably get their pancakes from the magic pancake tree, or something.
Thinking about the economics of Moomin Valley makes it funnier to me. And don't you be ridiculous - there's no such thing as a pancake tree! Moominmamma and the Fillyjonks have to cook with ingredients out of their cupboards. In Moominvalley in November, we meet a Fillyjonk who loves economizing and "making sure that not a single drop of Semolina has been wasted." How the flour, Semolina, etc., get into the cupboards, and how one gets the concept of economizing in a world as bountiful as Moomin Valley, are the really mysterious things.

Anyway, I'm glad to know what British people put on their pancakes, as I was wondering. You don't have maize for corn syrup, or cane for cane syrup or molasses, or maple trees for maple syrup, so I was wondering what you topped them with, traditionally, and thinking maybe honey. Blueberry pancakes with lemon and sugar might be nice; I'm not a big fan of lemon myself, but my husband is, and we're both huge fans of blueberries.

The whole Shrove Tuesday = Pancake Day is strange to me anyway, as we don't do it here. Shrove Tuesday = Mardi Gras, and then on Wednesday (San Antonio having a huge Catholic population) people take off work to get ashes and walk around all day with black smudges on their foreheads, which is how us nonchurchgoers know that Lent has started. That and the "Lenten specials," featuring fish, that the restaurants begin to offer. Happy Fasting, y'all!
 
PeniG said:
Anyway, I'm glad to know what British people put on their pancakes, as I was wondering. You don't have maize for corn syrup, or cane for cane syrup or molasses, or maple trees for maple syrup, so I was wondering what you topped them with, traditionally, and thinking maybe honey.

You're right, of course, but our lemon groves and sugar cane plantations are the finest in Europe. Second, in terms of national pride, only to our mushy pea mines and haggis forests.
 
No, and Moominmamma makes a whole load of jams and preserves to put in the cellar

And Every winter while the Moomins are hibernating, the winter people break in and scoff the lot!!!

<Kondoru, wearing a rusky hat and ragged blanket, goes though the sad remains of the cellar, muttering `no bloody nutella again!`>

And when she wakes up, she wonders what has happened to the jam.
 
For the first time, I made myself a few pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, and they went very well with lemon and sugar. Thanks to a Delia Smith recipe handed down through the generations I am now officially flup.

Anyone else participate?
 
haha... I tried. My Portuguese housemate had never heard of pancake day so I tried very hard, didn't manage to make anything in any way resembling a pancake, and then ate the whole mess with whipped cream for lunch. Oh dear. :(
 
Oh well, there's always next year! Just think of them as flour omelettes...
 
It had to happen... :roll:

Health and safety officers ban running in pancake race
Contestants in a pancake race poured scorn on health and safety advisers after they were banned from running due to fears they would slip over in the rain.
Published: 7:30AM GMT 17 Feb 2010

Hundreds of spectators booed as St Albans City Council Tourism Manager Charles Baker announced the precautions at the beginning of the race.

He said: "We have a new set of rules today. Due to the wet weather conditions and health and safety regulations, in this year's race, there will be no running allowed. Only walking is permitted. Any team that runs will be disqualified.

It is a genuine health and safety concern. People fall over in the dry, they will certainly fall over in the wet."

Ten teams took part in the 'Pancake Walk' yesterday, three of whom were disqualified for not following the new 'wet-weather' rules.

Hertfordshire NHS Community Partnership team captain David Emery, 34, whose team was disqualified in the final, said: "This is health and safety gone mad. I have been disqualified from a running race for running."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... -race.html

Well, we might as well cancel the Olympics right now - H&S will never allow all that running and jumping and throwing things....
 
I know it's nothing to do with pancakes but it is about food and myth. In Preston (where I come from) we used to have, and still do have, butter pies. They are basically potato and butter in a pie! I know of two stories of how they came about. One says that by the end of the week factories had run out of meat, so made them just with potato instead. The other one said that it was due to Preston being such a Catholic town, meat wasn't eaten on Fridays, hence, butter pies. I hae no idea if either of them have any grain pf truth in them though.
 
Spudrick I'm so glad you bought Butter Pies up. I went to a funeral in Preston before Christmas where they served butter pies at the wake. Being a south London girl I had never heard of them and was baffled. They are the most delicious things I've ever tasted, with lashings of black pepper, yum!
I asked a few friends there if this was "normal" and they all agreed it was a "Friday" dish as everyone was Catholic in Preston!

I made a big batch of pancakes for my work colleagues and bought them in on pancake day. Someone had just returned from the US and brought corn syrup, someone else bought Nutella, another whipped cream....if there wasn't pancakes involved I'd say it was a weird food-related sex-day!
It was good we all chipped in though and had a team contribution :)
 
When I moved to Lancaster (30 miles north), they had never heard of butter pies. I did assume it was a Lancashire thing, and specifically a Preston thing. The name Preston apparently originates from Priest town. The other Preston delicacy are parched peas, delicious on a cold winters day, sat on the flag market, a tub of parched peas with vinegar on.

On this note I have found a link with a recipe for parched peas.

:)

http://www.information-britain.co.uk/fo ... ed%20Peas/
 
I'm from 17 miles South of Preston and I've never heard of Butter Pies. They must just be a Preston thing. I have heard of parched peas, but I'd never had them
 
If you have a 'Booths' nearby you may just find them as they do tend to stock local produce and they are still made. They are nicer than they sound.
 
A good excuse to use the photo...

Binche_MCL01.jpg


Gilles
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Gilles are the oldest and principal participants in the Carnival of Binche in Belgium.

There are around 1000 Gilles, all male, some as young as 3 years old. All wear the traditional costume of the Gille.

They go out on Shrove Tuesday from 4AM until late hours and dance to traditional songs.

In 2003, the Carnival of Binche was proclaimed one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

The Gilles all wear a particular traditional costume on Shrove Tuesday

The outfit features a linen suit with red, yellow and black heraldic designs (the colours of the Belgian flag), trimmed with large white lace cuffs and collars. The suit is stuffed with straw, giving the Gille a hunched back.

They also wear wooden clogs and have bells attached to their belts.

In the morning they wear a mask of a particular design. After reaching the town hall, they remove these masks — they are not worn in the afternoon. During the afternoon parade, they throw blood oranges to (and sometimes at) the crowd and some of the Gilles wear large, white, feathered hats.

They carry ramons, tied bunches of twigs, and baskets in which to carry the oranges. Their sticks are said to ward off evil spirits.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilles
 
cheeky381 said:
....if there wasn't pancakes involved I'd say it was a weird food-related sex-day!
Where on Earth do you work?

And are they hiring? What?
 
Well Anome, we're a close knit office!

And we do have "Muffin Mondays" which can be construed as a bit naughty....but is literally where we eat muffins at 11am on a Monday :)
 
Re: A good excuse to use the photo...

theyithian said:
Binche_MCL01.jpg


Gilles
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Gilles are the oldest and principal participants in the Carnival of Binche in Belgium.

There are around 1000 Gilles, all male, some as young as 3 years old. All wear the traditional costume of the Gille.

They go out on Shrove Tuesday from 4AM until late hours and dance to traditional songs.

In 2003, the Carnival of Binche was proclaimed one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

The Gilles all wear a particular traditional costume on Shrove Tuesday

The outfit features a linen suit with red, yellow and black heraldic designs (the colours of the Belgian flag), trimmed with large white lace cuffs and collars. The suit is stuffed with straw, giving the Gille a hunched back.

They also wear wooden clogs and have bells attached to their belts.

In the morning they wear a mask of a particular design. After reaching the town hall, they remove these masks — they are not worn in the afternoon. During the afternoon parade, they throw blood oranges to (and sometimes at) the crowd and some of the Gilles wear large, white, feathered hats.

They carry ramons, tied bunches of twigs, and baskets in which to carry the oranges. Their sticks are said to ward off evil spirits.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilles

The inspiration for the Picaros from the last complete Tintin adventure...and possibly Frank Sidebottom.
 
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