Happy Pancake Day 2020! What is the recipe and why do we celebrate it?

Get ready to engage in a flipping frenzy
Tom Herbert25 February 2020

Get ready to bury yourself in stacks and stacks of pancakes because Shrove Tuesday has arrived.

Otherwise known as Pancake Day, Shrove Tuesday is today and marks the start of Lent for the next 40 days.

Every year, Brits in their millions take up their frying pans in a flipping frenzy before turning the often hilarious results over to Instagram.

It's the perfect excuse to get friends and family round to yours to tuck into mounds of delicious, homemade goodies before the period of absitinence begins.

With the event around the corner, here's all you need to know about Pancake Day 2020.

Alexandra Kusper/Unsplash

When is Pancake Day 2020?

The illustrious day changes date every year depending on when Easter falls, meaning it can be hard to remember when it is.

Shrove Tuesday is always held on the day preceeding Lent - for 2020, this means it has fallen Tuesday, February 25, a whole week after last year's celebration.

The reason why the date changes each year is because it is commemorated exactly 47 days before Easter Sunday, which also changes date each year.

Why do we celebrate Pancake Day?

Shrove Tuesday marks the last day before Lent, which for Christians is the traditional 40 days and 40 nights of abstinence ahead of Easter.

Christians would mark Lent by abstaining from a whole range of rich foods such as butter, meat and milk, and in more recent times has seen people cut out treats such as biscuits, crips and chocolate.

Pancakes were, therefore, historically eaten on this day so households could use up the sugar, fats and eggs in their cupboards before the fasting season began.

Some also believe the four ingredients in a traditional pancake represent the four pillars of Christianity, with the flour representing the 'staff of life', the eggs 'creation', milk as 'purity' and salt as 'wholesomeness'.

However, Pancake Day has become beloved by Christians and non-Christians alike, as people of all faiths indulge in the delicious food.

The world 'shrove' itself derives from the old English world 'shrive', meaning “to obtain absolution for one's sins by way of confession and penance", while the practice of flipping pancakes is attributed to an apocryphal story in which a woman rushed to church to confess her sins mid-way through making pancakes.

Pancake recipe

There are any number of pancake recipes out there for you to try, from thick American ones to thinner, crepe-style French pancakes.

Nearly every country and culture has its own version of pancakes and you can put any number of toppings on them to personalise, so it could get pontentially quite overwhelming if you've never done this before.

You could also even make vegan pancakes too if you'd prefer, and there are plenty of options to either make at home or buy out and about in London.

But lets say you're sticking to an English-style pancake - what you'll need for that are eggs, milk, flour and some form of fat (preferably butter). Some salt and sugar also works.

Here's a simple recipe for you to try at home:

Ingredients (makes around 10 pancake)

  • 75g  plain flour 
  • 120ml full fat milk 
  • Pinch of sugar 
  • Pinch of salt 
  • 1 egg 

Whisk all the dry and wet ingredients in separate bowls, before tipping the milk and egg mixture into the flour and whisking together.

Heat your pan over a medium to high heat, get the fat nice and hot and spoon the batter into the pan using a large ladle.

As soon as the batter hits the pan, tip it around from side to side to get the base evenly coated with a nice thin layer of batter.

Enjoy!

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