Pancakes Galore

The countdown to Easter begins on 21st February, which is Shrove Tuesday or, in the cooks’ lexicon, Pancake Day. As it’s the day before the first day of Lent (Ash Wednesday), it was traditionally a day for using up the foods that weren’t allowed during the fasting period of Lent, notably eggs.

While there may less of us fasting during Lent these days, everybody loves pancakes and there’s no shortage of people happy to have a bit of fun making them – and maybe tossing them, with varying degrees of success – on Pancake Day.

According to Bord Bia it’s the day when egg sales peak in Ireland, which is ironic when you remember that it’s the day when we are supposed to be using up stocks of food that we have in the house and that won’t keep until the end of Lent...

It will all be good fun on the day anyway and, to celebrate, the website eggs.ie features a range of Pancake recipes to suit every taste and budget. There is also a series of easy to follow video recipes by Catherine Fulvio for sweet and savoury pancakes on the website – and a reminder to use Bord Bia Quality Assured Eggs.

Because we associate them so much with Pancake Day, it’s easy to forget that the pancake is one of those universal dishes that occur in various forms in diverse cultures all over the world. And, while the traditional Irish pancake with lemon and sugar will always be a favourite, pancakes are very versatile and can be used as the foundation for a whole range of sweet and savoury dishes, whether for a snack, a dessert or as a main meal – and not just on Pancake Tuesday.

Basic Pancakes

Like all very simple dishes, the important thing is to get the basic techniques right: a good, heavy cast-iron pan is best, it must be preheated and very hot before any fat is added and the best fat is a hard block white cooking fat such as Frytex, which you smear over the pan very quickly to make a thin film of hot fat just before adding the batter. Otherwise use a little oil - but not butter - which burns at high temperatures.

Keep the batter in a jug beside the hob and use a ladle - the first pancake is always a bit of a mess, but once the pan is seasoned it will work a treat and you very quickly learn to judge exactly the amount of batter needed to swirl around the pan and just reach the edges.

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Orange and Raisin Pancakes with Crème Fraiche and Orange and Cardamom Salad

Drop scones – also known as Scotch pancakes, or sometimes pikelets – are a smaller, thicker kind of pancake and they’re very versatile. They can be sweet or savoury and they’re often served warm for tea, spread with butter and honey or jam, or as an accompaniment to sweet and savoury dishes.

These unusual breakfast pancakes from Kilgraney House at Bagenalstown, Co Carlow are more like a drop scone than a traditional pancake; the recipe comes from Irish Country House Cooking, The Blue Book Recipe Collection.

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Fried Eggs, Potato Pancakes and Bacon

These potato pancakes are a cross between a potato cake and a pancake and they’re very versatile. They are understandably popular in a wide range of dishes - here they’re given with a mini-fry, but they’re great used in the same way as the Northern Irish potato bread for all versions of the traditional cooked breakfast. And they’re delicious just served warm with a knob of butter, too. A larger version popular in the north-west, especially Leitrim, is ‘boxty in the pan’; made with a thinner batter, it turns out more like a regular pancake and can be used as a wrap.

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