Batter Up! It's Pancake Week!
In case you were scrambling for another excuse to cozy up with some comfort food while the winter weather continues to batter your door, perk up-it's International Pancake Week!
The tradition of whipping up bounteous batches of pancakes around this time of year began in the Middle Ages, and is a direct result of Lent.
Since Lent is a time of abstinence for all participants, everyone prepared by ridding their pantries of rich, luxurious foods such as eggs, butter, and milk. The favourite dish to use up all the soon-to-be-forbidden ingredients was pancakes! Shrove Tuesday-- also known as Mardi Gras--is the day before Lent begins, and is everyone's last chance to indulge in the pleasures of sumptuous foods and heady beverages. Many communities around the world continue to make it a merry tradition to stuff themselves with stacks of pancakes before the season of moderation sets in. [Shrove Tuesday is February 28th.]
On Your Marks, Get Set, Flip!
Some interesting and wacky traditions have arisen from the celebration of Pancake week, including the Pancake Race. The small town of Olney, England has been holding the Pancake Race every year since 1445. And, since 1950, the town of Liberal, Kansas has been competing with Olney in a good-natured transatlantic rivalry. The tradition began when a housewife was cooking the family's traditional Shrove Tuesday pancakes as the church bell summoning the townspeople to the shroving service began to ring. Anxious to get there on time, the woman immediately ran out the door, with her skillet still in her hand! This mistake immediately turned into a beloved tradition. Entrants in the Pancake Race must wait at the starting line, skillet in hand, until the "pancake bell" sounds. Then they must toss their pancake in the air, catch it in their skillet, and run the 400 yards to the church. Once they reach the finish line, they must once more toss their pancake in the air. When the race is finished, everyone attends the shriving service in the church, then the whole town joins together for an enormous pancake party!
The most traditional way to eat your pre-Lenten pancakes is with a generous squeeze of lemon juice and a sprinkle of sugar. No matter what you like to drizzle on top, though, have fun chomping your way through a steaming stack of pancakes this week!
Lemon Juice???
