How are your Carnival celebrations going? Are you all fattened up for Mardi Gras? Lent starts on Wednesday, you know. You’ve only got a few more days to parade around, strewing beads and misbehaving, and eating whatever your little heart desires. We are going to make stacks, and towers, and cascades of teetering delicious pancakes ourselves.
There is nothing like breaking some arbitrary rules when we want to feel particularly wicked. I am not talking about indulging in deadly sins here. Just a few minor infringements upon propriety and good breeding, for sure. I like a cookie after breakfast. I also still enjoy cold pizza – no hangover required. Breakfast for dinner? That is an excellent idea.
Why else do diners serve breakfast all day long? They know we can’t resist hotcakes, pancakes, waffles, omelettes, hot buttered toast, slabs of bacon and buckets o’syrup 24 hours a day. And how often do we really indulge? Tuesday is our last chance before we clean up our acts, and get pious. Or to at least step on the scale and realize Carnival has been rocking out just long enough.
Back before Instagram influencers, pedestrians were lured into Childs’ restaurants by the sight of wholesome waitresses in white uniforms flipping griddle cakes in large, street-facing windows. Childs’ was one of the first national restaurant chains. They were a white-tiled, hygienic food palaces that were extremely popular in the 1920s. With over 100 locations, including Baltimore, Washington and New York City, Childs’ Restaurants served griddle cakes of all sorts: a plate of wheat, buckwheat or corn pancakes with maple syrup could be had for 10¢. Childs’s menus boasted:“Fresh milk, rich in cream, expressed from our own dairy every morning.” Other inexpensive meals could be had, but it was the griddle cakes that drew the diners.
Everyone has a pancake house or a diner memory from a mis-spent youth. There was that place out on High Ridge Road that was always open, and if you rooted around long enough under the car seats you could find enough money for a snack after the movies. Pancakes are even popular in Europe. Where the Pancakes Are, in London: “Hip all-day breakfast spot offering an extensive menu of sweet & savoury pancakes, plus cocktails…” The Happy Pig Pancake Shop in Amsterdam. There are crêperies galore: La Crêperie du Clown, in Paris.
Shrove Tuesday, also known as Pancake Tuesday, is the last opportunity to use all the eggs and fats before starting on the Lenten fast. Pancakes are a perfect way to use up these ingredients. Choose your pancake wisely, it’s 40 long days until Easter.
Martha suggests trying the crowd-pleasing buttermilk pancake. I love the touch of lemon juice: https://www.marthastewart.com/1515526/test-kitchens-favorite-buttermilk-pancakes
Rachael, on the other hand, suggests a crepier pancake for Shrove Tuesday: https://www.rachaelraymag.com/recipe/rolled-pancakes-with-lemon-sugar-candied-lemon-slices
As this is the last weekend of Black History Month, it is fitting that we flip some of Rosa Parks’s Featherlite Pancakes. Dan Pashman, of the Sporkful, interviewed Rosa Parks’ nieces: https://www.wbur.org/npr/526412114/rosa-parks-pancake-recipe-helps-us-see-the-human-side-of-a-hero
Rosa Parks’s Featherlite Pancakes
Sift together
1 cup flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
Mix
1 egg
1 1/4 cup milk
1/3 cup peanut butter
1 tablespoon melted shortening or oil
Combine with dry ingredients, cook at 275° on griddle
“Everything can have drama if it’s done right. Even a pancake.”
-Julia Child
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