Shrove Tuesday

 It's Shrove Tuesday! 

I know it's not all about pancakes, but about preparing to begin Lent. But here's a pancake recipe all the same. It's from A Good Housekeeping Cookery Compendium, published in 1956. It's the one I've been making for years now, and it's very good!

The picture of pancakes and various battered foods from the book. I love their sugar pot.

Basic Recipe:

4 oz. flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg

About 1/2 pint milk

Sieve the flour and salt into a bowl. Make a well in the centre, drop in the egg, add half the milk by degrees and mix to a smooth batter, using a wooden spoon and gradually drawing in the flour for the sides. Now beat the batter until it is thoroughly aerated - about 5-10 mins. This is best done with the back of the spoon, which is held like a pencil, the movement being made with the wrist. When it is well beaten (i.e., when the surface is covered with bubbles) stir in the rest of the milk, to give the consistency of thin cream.

Melt a knob of lard in a smooth, clean pan. When the fat is smoking, pour in some batter. (Cecilia inserts: pour a little cooking oil into a frying pan and heat. Put in enough batter to cover the base of the pan). Tilt pan so that batter just covers base. Cook gently until little bubbles appear over the surface. When pancake is done on one side, shake it away from you an with an upward jerk toss it over; cook other side. 

Serve the pancakes with sugar and lemon juice or other accompaniment. For savoury pancakes, spread with a filling such as creamed fish (Cecilia inserts: what is creamed fish?!) or sliced mushrooms and bacon, roll up, and serve with sauce.

I hope you enjoy it! Let me know what you eat it with...creamed fish, anyone? 

Finally, you may or may not have heard of pancake races...here's an article with links to other articles about it of it. (Usual caveats apply with the linked articles - they're on various news sites). 

Enjoy your pancakes!