I missed pancake day

"I’ve yet to meet anyone, regardless of religious affiliation, who eschews a Shrove Tuesday treat. Why we don’t dare to bust them out at Easter too, or on fine September mornings, is a mystery to me."

Felicity Cloake

My sister mentioned that it was Pancake Day - she is emailing from England and so I get her email the day after she is writing. So today, here, it is Ash Wednesday - the first day of Lent. And yet again I have missed Pancake Day. Why? Is it because I no longer have small children in the house?

When I was a child we always - and I mean always - had pancakes on Pancake Day. And we children always participated. I guess when we were very small we merely helped with the mixing of the batter, but very soon we were tossing them - well initially mum probably held the handle of the pan and we sort of pretended it was us doing it, but pretty soon we were doing it ourselves with varying degrees of success. These days if I ever do make pancakes - hardly ever - I just turn them over with a spatula.

We would eat them one at a time as they were made - no waiting around for a pancake - they had to be eaten hot, straight from the pan. Rolled up, sprinkled with sugar and with a squeeze of lemon - exactly as in the picture above.

"treat the first pancake as an experiment; it usually goes wrong, which is a good excuse to treat it as a cook’s perk. As Nigel [Slater] so wisely observes, “you could argue that the perfect crêpe is always the first of the batch … Wolfed hot and hissing from the pan, squirted with lemon and a thick layer of sugar - this is the pancake that pleases the mouth if not the eye.” Felicity Cloake

Then there were the pancake races.

Basically you all line up with a pancake in a pan and then race, flipping the pancake as you go. I can't say I ever did this, and I'm not even sure that we ever watched an actual race - did we have them at school? But I certainly saw them on television. Lots of places in England had Pancake Day races. Do they have them here? I had a quick look on the net and all I found was the Uniting Church urging people to organise them for charity. Difficult to do on a Tuesday though isn't it?

It really does not seem to be the big thing that it is in England. Even the supermarkets don't make a big thing of it - and they could. I know it's simply eggs, milk, flour and butter but these days you can buy all sorts of pancake mixes - even made pancakes, so they could do a mini marketing thing.

Do you think it is because it is so religious? But then so are Easter and Christmas and they are huge. WE've had hot cross buns on sale since Christmas, so no sticking to the actual day (Good Friday) there. Shrove Tuesday, as I'm sure you know, is the last day before Lent, and is the day on which you shrive yourself - i.e confess your sins. Lent is in remembrance of Christ's 40 days in the wilderness before Easter. And yes there are more than 40 days, but apparently the Sundays don't count. Anyway it's a last indulgence before Lent. According to Wikipedia pancakes symbolise:

"four pillars of the Christian faith--eggs for creation, flour as the mainstay of the human diet, salt for wholesomeness and milk for purity. Since foods such as butter, eggs and fat are discouraged from being eaten during the Lenten season, Christians use these ingredients during Shrovetide to make pancakes or other rich foods"

I really don't know whether schools do anything about Pancake Day these days. I must ask the grandchildren. I'm sure we used to, though I cannot quite remember what. The church would certainly have done something. Did we even have a holiday? I really can't remember. So yet again I have missed it - which doesn't mean I can't cook pancakes until next Pancake Day of course, but yet, in my mind it sort of does. Which is really, really weird.

There are thousands of different kinds of pancakes of course, but the pancakes I am talking about are the thin ones with the crispy edges and just eaten with sugar and lemon. And because you have to eat them straight away they really are too difficult to cook for a crowd. Everyone is always wanting the next one.

I feel a bit sad about this. Another ancient tradition hits the dust.