Kitchen.HealthSufficiency

Shrove Tuesday is the day when your sins are confessed to the local priest and the beginning of the forty day Lenten fasting period when it was forbidden by the church to eat meat, butter, eggs or milk.   It is attributed to the pagan celebration Fornacalia to commemorate the making of bread before the goddess Fornax invented the oven.

For more than one thousand years, “to shrive” has meant to hear confessions but nowadays it refers to paying little attention to excuses and explanations.

Shrive Tuesday is celebrated differently throughout the world.  In the US, Canada and Australia it is simply known as Shrove Tuesday.  In UK it is known as Pancake Day.  In France, Sweden, New Orleans and Brazil  it is known as Fat Tuesday (Fettisdagen in Swedish and Mardi Gras in French.)  In Poland it takes place on the Thursday before Ash Wednesday and is called Fat Thursday or Trusty Czwartek. In Finland cream and almond paste filled buns traditionally mark the day.

Shrove Tuesday starts off the Mardi Gras festival to party before a time of self-denial.  There is a pancake race in Olney, Buckinghamshire, England which has been taking place since 1445.

Shrove-Tuesday, at whose entrance in the morning all the whole kingdom is inquiet, but by that time the clocke strikes eleven, which (by the help of a knavish sexton) is commonly before nine, then there is a bell rung, cal’d the Pancake-bell, the sound whereof makes thousands of people distracted, and forgetful either of manners or humanitie; then there is a thing called wheaten floure, which the cookes do mingle with water, eggs, spice, and other tragical, magical inchantments, and then they put it by little and little into a frying pan of boiling suet, where it makes a confused dismal hissing, (like the Lernean Snakes in the reeds of Acheron, Stix, or Phlegeton) until at last, by the skill of the Cooke, it is transformed into the forme of a Flip-Jack, cal’d a Pancake, which ominous incantation the ignorant people doe devoure very greedily. John Taylor, English poet (1580 - 1654) ; Jack-a-Lent, His Beginning and Entertainment (1630)

Old Fashioned Pancake Day Songs

A-shrovin’, a-shrovin’,
i be come a-shrovin’,
a piece of bread, a piece of cheese,
A bit of your fat bacaon,
Or a dish of dough-nuts,
All of your own makin’!
from Wiltshire.

A-shrovin’, a-shrovin’,
Nice meat in a pie,
my mouth is very dry.
from Wiltshire.

Dame, is your pan hot?
Lard and corn is dear;
I’ve come a-shovin’,
Tis but once a year.
So up to the flitch
and cut a gurt stitch;
If your hens don’t lay,
I’ll steal your cock away
Afore next Shrove Tuesday.
from Warminster.

Tippety-Tippety-tin;
Give me a pancake and I’ll come in.
Tippety-tippety-toe,
Give me a pancake and then I’ll go.
from West Somerset.

Nicky, nicky, nan,
Give me a pancake and then I’ll be gone.
But if you give me none,
I’ll throw a great stone
And down your door shall come.
from Cornwall.

(Extracts from “A Calendar of Country Customs”)

Recipes

Pancake sweet basic UK recipe

• Plain flour 4oz, 100g
• 1 pinch Salt
• 1 egg
• Milk 9fl.oz, 270ml
• Vegetable oil for frying

To serve:

Sugar, Lemon or Orange juice and wedges to garnish

Method:

1. Preheat oven to a very low heat to keep first pancakes warm.
2. Whisk together flour, salt, milk and egg in a large bowl or jug until it is a smooth batter.
3. Heat the oil in a frying pan until it is very hot then pour most of it off into a heatproof container so that the pan is just coated with oil.
4. Pour a little of the batter into the pan, tilting the pan to evenly cover the base with a thin layer.
5. Fry over a moderate heat and shake the pan gently so that the pancake doesn’t stick.
6. When the underside is golden (about 1-2 minutes) either flip the pancake by tossing it into the air or turn it over with a palette knife and cook until the other side is golden.
7. Put in a heatproof dish, cover with foil and place in warmed oven whilst you cook the next pancake.
8. Serve by sprinkling each pancake with sugar and traditionally lemon or orange juice.

Variations:

• Add sultanas or cocoa to batter
• Serve with hazelnut spread, any chopped fruit, cream or flambé with cointreau, calvados or another liqueur

Savoury basic pancake mix:

• Plain flour 6oz, 175g
• Salt and black pepper
• 2 eggs
• Milk 13 fl.oz., 390ml
• Vegetable oil for frying

Method:

Prepare as for the method given above for sweet basic pancakes.

Variations:

• Bacon and Chives, chop and add to pancake mixture or serve on top
• Sprinkle grated cheese of any type prior to serving
• Cook pancakes and add filling of cooked leeks and onions, tuna and prawns, cooked flaked fish, chicken or other meat,  scrambled egg, cubed vegetables, ricotta or cottage cheese

“… as fit as a pancake for Shrove Tuesday.” William Shakespeare (All’s Well that Ends Well)

Tossing the pancake

The ceremony on Shrove Tuesday, though it has been modified slightly from time to time, has remained substantially unaltered for centuries. In the morning one of the vergers from the Abbey, bearing a silver mace, conducts the cook, who carries the pancake in a frying pan, into the great hall where all the boys are assembled. When the room was divided by a curtain, this was then drawn aside, and the cook threw the pancake over the bar towards the door, whereupon all the boys scrambled for it. Of late years only a few – one representing each form chosen by the scholars themselves–have taken part in the scramble. Going forward, the cook hurls the pancake aloft in the direction of the bar. If it goes clean over, the selected boys make a wild rush for it in an endeavour to catch it whole, and usually failing, then struggle for it on the floor. The one who secures it, or the biggest portion, is entitled to a guinea. The scrimmage is known as the ‘greeze’.
Stone, Sir Benjamin, Pictures of National Life and History, Cassell and Company, London, 1906

Finnish Shrove Tuesday Buns

• 1 packet active dry yeast
• ¼  cup warm water, 2 oz
• 1 cup warm milk 8 oz
• Sugar, 1 cup, 6oz
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• softened butter, ¾ cup, 6oz
• plain flour, 5-6 cups, 36 oz

Glaze and filling:

• 1 beaten egg
• flaked almonds, 1/3 cup, 2oz
• Almond paste 14oz
• whipping cream, 1 cup, 8 oz
• confectioners’ (Icing) sugar, 3 tablespoons, 1oz

Method:

1. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and stand for 5 minutes.   Add milk, sugar, salt, eggs, butter and 2 cups of flour and beat until its a smooth, shiny batter.  Add more of the flour until the dough will not absorb any more.  Leave to rest for 15 minutes then knead until smooth and shiny again.  Place the ball of dough in a large, clean, warm, greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow it to rise to double its size.  Place the bowl in a draught free warm place.
2. Divide the dough into about 24 balls and place onto a greased baking sheet,  lightly cover and allow them to rise again until double in size and puffy.
3. Preheat over to 400°F, 200°C
4. Brush each bun with beaten egg and sprinkle flaked almonds.  Bake for 12 minutes.  Cool.

To serve:

Slice off cap of each bun and scoop out some of the soft centre.  Fill with almond paste and whipped cream.  Lightly replace lid and dust with confectioner’s sugar.

Copyright L Porter 2008