Is it me, or is Pancake Day slipping off the culinary calendar? Certainly it’s losing the PR battle with February’s other great gustatory fest, Valentine’s Day. My inbox has been full of recommendations for heart-shaped cappuccino stencils and invitations to “spread a little love on my toast”, but of pancakes, nary a whisper. Is there not a single flour or frying-pan magnate out there with an eye for the bigger picture?
My children haven’t taken on board the magnitudinous importance of Tuesday, either. I remember when I was young planning the whole day in advance, pushing my school lunch around the plate so I wouldn’t spoil my appetite for the dozens of pancakes that awaited us all at home.
I guess that, what with refrigeration and the decline in church congregations, the historical imperatives for Pancake Day have been largely lost. The idea, of course, was to clear out your larder of rich food such as eggs and butter before fasting for Lent, and pancakes, or variants thereof, have been the method of choice for as long as anyone can tell. In 1747, Hannah Glasse produced a recipe for a Quire of Paper (a stack of 24 thin pancakes sprinkled with sugar); in Belgium they have their waffles, in Russia their blini, and in Germany their doughnuts. (Incidentally, it always strikes me as unfair that Sundays don’t count during Lent, so although technically 40 days long, it’s actually 46 days of deprivation. Or can we gorge ourselves on chocolate cake on Sundays provided we finish it in one sitting?)
Anyway, back to Tuesday, and how to get people more interested in pancakes. I was always a traditionalist – a bit of granulated sugar and a squeeze of lemon, or most probably a squirt of Jif. (What on earth was that all about? Were fresh lemons so hard to come by in the Seventies?) But perhaps that’s the problem: today’s sophisticated children have more sophisticated tastes.
Anthony Demetre, chef-patron of Arbutus and newly Michelin-starred Wild Honey restaurants in London, loves pancakes and wants to see far more of them around – savoury, sweet, any way you like. “In France, you’ll see as many crepe stands as you do hot-dog stands in New York, or burger stands here. And I love that.” He reckons he’ll probably make souffl? pancakes for the family this year – thin pancakes filled with an Italian meringue and then baked in the oven – but that’s chefs for you, and he readily admits the average cook just isn’t going to bother. “But making pancakes is so simple and quick,” he says. “Like all cooking, it’s down to the quality of ingredients.”
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He’ll start with a mix of superfine Italian 00 and buckwheat flours, which gives “a lovely malty flavour”. Then he’ll add beurre noisette (butter cooked in a pan until it is nut brown), free-range eggs (he uses Clarence Court because “they have such large, fabulous yolks”), milk and salt. Leave it to stand, overnight if you can, and then into a pan. “The pan is really important. Not the make or quality, necessarily – any cheap non-stick will do – but the temperature. It should be just hot to the touch, so that when you add the batter you can roll it around to coat all the base without it cooking instantly on contact. And never too much oil – we just use an oiled cloth which we rub around the pan. That will be enough.”
Demetre has nothing to add to the tossing or turning debate, though. “Flipping them high is just for show, but the children love it.” What to put on, then? Ham and fried duck’s egg to start, and caramelised apple with home-made vanilla ice-cream for pudding, he suggests. Hmmm, well, I might stretch to Nutella.