Shrove Tuesday: 'Pancake Day' Explained

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[Salvation]

Shrove Tuesday

'Pancake Day' Explained

Catherine Fournier

I remember Pancake Day from my childhood. A bizarre tradition, one that turned my mother's nutritional schedule upside down, one that transformed math class into a picnic in our school rooms. Though I asked, there was little or no explanation for the inexplicable adult actions, and offered plates of pancakes brimming with butter and dripping with syrup, I didn't question the matter too closely.

During my first Lenten season as a Catholic, I finally began to gain some understanding and explanation for this strange habit. Actually not so strange at all, it makes perfect sense when viewed in a liturgical light, as does all of Catholic tradition.

Shrove Tuesday (Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras or fetter Dienstag) is the day before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Since Lent is a time of abstinence, traditionally of meat, fat, eggs and dairy products (one wonders what was left) Shrove Tuesday's menu was designed to use up all the fat, eggs and dairy products left in the kitchen and storeroom. It is also a 'feast' to prepare for the time of 'famine' in the desert. In some cultures, it is traditional to eat as much as possible on Shrove Tuesday, sometimes up to 12 times a day.

The English term "shrovetide" (from "to shrive", or hear confessions) is explained by a sentence in the Anglo-Saxon "Ecclesiastical Institutes" translated from Theodulphus by Abbot Aelfric (q.v.) about A.D. 1000: "In the week immediately before Lent everyone shall go to his confessor and confess his deeds and the confessor shall so shrive him as he then my hear by his deeds what he is to do [in the way of penance]".

In many traditions, Lent is a time for cleaning, in preparation for Easter and spring. First your soul, then your kitchen, then the rest of the house was cleansed and purified of the past year's accumulations. Old clothes are mended, and new clothes purchased at this time of year. In the Ukraine, houses were whitewashed inside and out during Lent. In this way, everything was made ready to face the season of Salvation and Rebirth. Traditions of 'spring cleaning' stem from this religious observance.

Pancake Recipes:

Plain Mlyntsi (Griddle Cakes)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon melted butter
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk

Directions:

• Place the dry ingredients in a bowl, stir them together well with a fork.
• Add the remaining ingredients and beat well with a manual or electirc beater until thoroughly blended.
• Heat a heavy griddle or frying pan, cast iron is best. Grease the pan lightly with a few drops of oil.
• Test the griddle with a few drops of cold water. The griddle is hot enough when the drops keep a globular shape and skitter across the pan. If the water spreads out, the pan is too cool. If they evaporate immediately, the pan is too hot, and the cakes will burn.
• Pour the batter into the pan with a small scoop or measuring cup to form cakes about 3 inches in diameter.
• Cook the cakes until bubbles break on the surface, flip them quickly and cook the other side.
• Do not turn more than once.
• Serve very hot with syrup, honey, or thick sour cream.

Oatmeal Apple Pancakes

Ingredients: (for 1 2/3 inch pancakes)

• 1 cup oatmeal
• 2 cup buttermilk, or sour milk (1 cup milk plus 1 tablespoon lemon juice)
• 2 egg
• 2 tablespoon oil
• 2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup flour
• 1 apple, chopped into small pieces
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon, if desired

Directions:

• Place the oatmeal and buttermilk together in a large bowl. Allow to soak for a few minutes.
• Add the egg and oil, and cinnamon if using. Stir well.
• Add the flour, salt and baking soda and stir until well blended.
• Heat a heavy frying pan. Grease lightly with oil.
• Pour about 1/3 cup batter into the pan with a small measuring cup.
• Bake the pancake until bubbles break on the surface, flip quickly and bake the other side. Make sure the pancakes are baked through.
• Keep the pancakes warm in a warm oven until all are done.
• Serve hot.

Potato Pancakes

Crisp and brown, these are great with sour cream or yogurt, bacon and applesauce. This year, I'm going to try cooking them in the waffle iron.

Ingredients: (for nine 3 1/2 inch pancakes)

• 3 medium potatoes
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 tablespoon cream
• 1 egg, beaten
• salt
• 4 tablespoons bacon fat or oil

Directions:

• Wash and grate the potatoes.
• Place the potatoes on a double thickness of paper towels, fold the towels around them and twist and squeeze until most of the moisture is removed.
• Unwrap the potatoes and dump them in a bowl.
• Add the flour, cream, egg, and salt and toss until mixed.
• Heat the fat or oil in a skillet.
• Put about 2 tablespoons of the potato mixture in the pan.
• Press and shape the pancakes into a flat 3 1/2 inch cake. Repeat until pan is full but not crowded.
• Cook each pancake about 5 minutes over medium low heat until the bottom is crisp and brown.
• Turn and cook the other side for 5 minutes more.
• Keep warm in a 300* oven until all are ready. Serve.

[MaggieCarta]

Pic at #20—I’m gaining weight looking at it...

[amzgirl]

I have fond memories of Shrove Tuesday - the only other time we had pancakes for dinner was if Mom was low on groceries before payday! It was such a treat! We just gave up meat on Fridays and we each did an individual Lenton fast.

Despite my no longer being Catholic I appreciate the liturgical calandar and still do a Lenton fast of some sort every year. This year I think it’s going to be unnecessary internet usage, so it will be goodbye to lurking on FR for six weeks...

[Tax-chick]

I grew up Protestant.

My grandmother always stored bacon grease and other drippings, though, and so did my father. It grossed my mother out - she used vegetable oil to cook!

[Salvation]

I agree on the solemn part. When we are reminded that “Dust thou art, and into dust thou shall return.” is not really the basis for a celebration.

You’re right — I see where you are coming from. A Fish Fry on Ash Wednesday does not sound appropriate.

[Bean Counter]

Saint Alphonzo’s Pancake Breakfast *ping*

Where I stole the margarine...

[narses]

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[Biggirl]

Will be having the famous “Polish donuts” or packi’s tomorrow. :)

[Tax-chick]

I’ve got oatmeal on the schedule for Ash Wednesday. If we want to “celebrate” Lent later, we’ll go to a KofC fish fry on a Friday night.

It’s hard to get my family serious about fasting/abstinence, since we have only two family members (my husband and our oldest boy) who are “officially” covered by the rules. I try to hold the rest of the family to abstaining from meat, anyway, but the way the little boys are growing, “small meals” just doesn’t work ;-).

[Salvation]

I’ve decided to TV in the morning. I always want to know what the news is.

Hopefully I can extend it into the afternoon too.

No TV for six weeks — I’ll keep you posted on how I do.

[Biggirl]

That is what I had posted about. Will be having one tommorrow. :)

[TASMANIANRED]

I don’t think I would try potato in the waffle iron.

The apple oatmeal looks tasty.

[murron]

Did it for many years when I was young. Now I like to stay home with my husband and spend a quiet day together.

[murron]

Did it for many years when I was young. Now I like to stay home with my husband and spend a quiet day together.

[SuziQ]

For several years, our Parish had a Shrove Tuesday Pancake/Jambalaya Dinner with the local Episcopal Parish in town. It was a lot of fun.

[SuziQ]

It wasn't from the Jews being 'hounded' out of their homes, that they started the unleavened bread tradition. It came about from the Flight from Egypt, and Moses told them to prepare for the journey by going ahead and baking the loaves, not giving the dough time to rise. He also told the Jews to mark the lintels above their doors with the blood of the animal that was killed to provide food for their journey. This was the way the Angel of Death would identify those homes belonging to the "Chosen People", and he would pass over them, hence the term "Passover".

We saw a TV show several years ago talking about a strange outbreak of mental illness and death in the Middle Ages. The study determined that it was the toxin, Ricin, showing up in rye flour, that was the cause. It was the Jewish habit of preparing for Passover, by throwing out old flour, etc, that saved the lives of many of them, because they threw out old stocks of flour, so didn't ingest the Ricin.

I don't know if it's a geographical, or ethnic thing, or what, but I don't remember ever hearing about Shrove Tuesday, or having pancakes on that day, when I was growing up in S. Mississippi. It was always just Mardi Gras for us. I never heard of it until we moved up here to MA, and the impetus for the Shrove Tuesday dinner in our Parish came from a couple, the husband of which was a member of the local Episcopal Parish, and heard about it from one of his fellow parishoners.

[ElkGroveDan]

I’m giving up shroves for Lent.

[bronxville]

The idea of Pancake Day was to use up the milk and eggs in the house before Lent because in the past they weren’t supposed to be eaten.

I remember this rhyme from childhood:

Pancake Day is a very happy day,
If we don’t have a holiday we’ll all run away,
Where shall we run, up High Lane,
And here comes the teacher with a great big cane!

[bronxville]

I’m doing the same - no TV.

[MaggieCarta]

Enjoy! My favorite are the raspberry jelly (pictured above, I think) However, according to the local news this morning, custard filled are the biggest sellers. They even make prune filled ones, too.

[afraidfortherepublic]

The study determined that it was the toxin, Ricin, showing up in rye flour, that was the cause.

Reminds me of a book I read years ago that tried to make the case that the seizures, craziness, babbling and deaths in MA that were associated with the "witches" and their later trials came from toxic mold that formed on stored flour. It was a great book, and I wish I could remember the name. It could have been by Kellerman. Or, that other author who was an author and who wrote whole series of mystery novels based on biological ephemera. The one whose novel set back organ donations about 50 years.