Pancakes Sejal Sukhadwala Why do we eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday? Here we look at the traditions surrounding Pancake Day - and round up some suggestions for tempting alternatives to the tried-and-trusted lemon and sugar.

In this article

Tradition Customs and celebrations

Pancakes in the UK Pancakes around the world

Recipes

In the UK, there is a much-loved tradition of making and eating pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, which falls between February 2 and March 9, depending on the date for Easter. Shrove Tuesday ('shrove' stems from old English word 'shrive', meaning 'confess all sins') is the day before Lent - which incidentally means both 'spring' and 'goodbye to meat'.

According to Christian beliefs, Lent commemorates Jesus' 40 days in the wilderness, and observant Christians mark this period by fasting. So Shrove Tuesday was cleverly invented to use up the ingredients that were given up for Lent - milk, butter and, particularly, eggs - which may not be eaten again until Easter.

In other parts of the world, Shrove Tuesday is marked by quite different celebrations. In New Orleans, for example, it is celebrated with the Mardi Gras, and in Rio de Janeiro with the equally raucous carnival.

Other old customs include the annual pancake grease at London's Westminster school (schoolboys fighting for pancakes in return for a monetary reward); Mischief Night (breaking into people's houses in disguise and demanding pancakes); Lent Crocking or Lensharding (throwing old crockery at people's doors and asking for pancakes to be tossed back), and shroving - a visiting custom in which children sang or recited poetry in exchange for food or money. A popular shroving rhyme went like this:

'Knock, knock, the pan's hot
And we are coming a-shroving
For a piece of pancake
Or a piece of bacon
Or a piece of truckle cheese
Of your own making.'

The UK once had a thriving regional cuisine, with the various counties boasting their unique culinary specialities - and pancakes were no exception.

In England, Gloucester pancakes were made with suet, which gave them a rich, grainy texture. They were the size of a large scone, fried in lard, and served with golden syrup. Elsewhere, there were 'harvest pancakes for the poor' and 'pancakes for the rich'. The former was quick-cooking, portable food that was eaten by farm labourers. The batter was made with mild ale, powdered ginger and, sometimes, chopped apple, and small ladlefuls were cooked in lard. The 'rich' pancakes, on the other hand, were large and thin. They were made with cream, nutmeg, dark sherry, rosewater or orange flower water, and cooked in butter.

Just about every country has its own version of the pancake. Some of the best-known are: buckwheat flour galettes of Brittany, chickpea-flour socca of Nice, and the crêpes found all over France; chickpea flour farinata of Liguria, and chestnut flour necci from Lucca and Pistoia in Italy; sweet Cretan tiganítes of Greece; fragrant rosewater-spiked ataif of the Middle East; potato latkes and Ashkenazi cheese blintzes of Israel; Moroccan semolina baghrir; numerous spicy chickpea and black-eye bean pancakes of Africa; huge crisp wheat-flour and potato pancakes of the Netherlands; and Russian buckwheat-flour blinis.

If you're tempted to try something more adventurous, give one of these recipes a go:

Goan coconut pancakes by Cyrus Todiwala from Saturday Kitchen
American pancakes by Celia Brookes Brown from New Vegetarian
Buckwheat pancakes by Sarah Brown
Chickpea flour pancakes by Madhur Jaffrey from Flavours of India
Blinis by Auguste Escoffier

Or, for a taste of tradition, try one of these:

Basic pancakes with sugar and lemon by Delia Smith
Classic crêpes suzette by Delia Smith
Potato pancakes by Raymond Blanc from Blanc Mange
Passover pancakes by Fabulous Foods