If there is one bakery treat that almost everyone has tried, it has to be the pancake. Today we share four interesting facts about pancakes for you to enjoy.
1. What Pancakes Are Made Of and How They Are Cooked
A pancake is a flat cake made from batter, a wet mixture of flour with milk, butter or sugar. Once the batter is ready, it is cooked in a pan with oil or butter. Cooked pancakes can be eaten plain, or, if you have a sweet tooth, topped with honey, cream or syrup. For a more eye-catching presentation, stack the pancakes and decorate them with berries such as strawberries and raspberries.
2. Pancakes Date Back to the Stone Age!
Many people might guess that pancakes have been around for a long time, but few would imagine they go back to the Stone Age. Scientists believe they have found an 'ancestor of the pancake' from that era: the oldest evidence of pancakes was discovered in the stomach of Ötzi, the ice-age man found as a remarkably well-preserved natural mummy in the Alps, who lived about 5,300 years ago.
Pancakes have a long history that continued through Greek and Roman times, when they were made from wheat flour, olive oil, honey and curdled milk. The ancient Greek poets Cratinus and Magnes wrote about pancakes in their poetry, and Shakespeare also mentioned them in his famous plays. The word 'pancake', however, only appeared in the 15th century. From the 19th century onward, Americans used it for foods that had previously been called Indian cakes, johnnycakes, buckwheat cakes, buckwheats, griddle cakes, flapjacks and so on. Early American pancakes were made from cornmeal or buckwheat.
3. The Pancake Dispute
Most people are probably most familiar with American pancakes, the style that is popular today. But an ancient food like the pancake clearly existed long before the United States did, and other peoples, such as the Europeans, were certainly making pancakes before America. This has led to a friendly dispute between American-style and European-style pancakes.
To draw a clear line between the two: the pancakes we usually see today are American-style, thicker and fluffier than European ones because they contain leavening agents such as baking powder. European pancakes, better known to many as crêpes, are thinner and flatter than American pancakes because they contain no baking powder.
4. Celebrating With Pancakes on Pancake Day
Pancake Day is an important day in the Christian calendar. Its official name is Shrove Tuesday, and it is also known as Pancake Tuesday. On this day, Christians celebrate by eating pancakes, considered a rich, high-fat food, before a period of fasting during which fatty foods must be avoided. The fast begins with Lent (the following day) and lasts until Easter, in remembrance of the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus.
Pancake Day does not fall on a fixed date each year. It is always a Tuesday in late February or early March. This year (2022), Pancake Day falls on 1 March 2022.
