It’s Tuesday?
Must have pancakes for dinner.
I did not grow up in a Catholic culture and so I am still learning about local customs…bumping up against yet another of them today. Pancake Tuesday. Historically for the faithful, Lent meant abstaining from eggs and all dairy products, so all of these had to be used up before Ash Wednesday, hence pancakes for dinner on Tuesday evening.
Well, when in Dublin, do as the Dubliners do, right? We’ll have pancakes for dinner. The Kiddies love ‘em anyway, it’ll be a popular decision in our household. ‘You better stop at a shop, Mom, cuz we don’t have any syrup left,’ chirps a young voice from the backseat.
Hmm….he’s right. Dash to our local shop cum newsagent round the corner. Check the shelves. No syrup. Um, do you happen to have maple syrup?’ I enquire, thinking that if Pancake Tuesday is such a popular cultural tradition then surely every shop will carry some. ‘We don’t carry maple syrup because we don’t generally use it.’ comes the polite reply, followed by, ‘And where are you from?’ Well obviously not here, I think, tipping my hand to my out-of-town-status. Rats.
So the nice young shop clerk informs me that pancakes are generally eaten in Ireland only once a year on this special Tuesday…thin crepes-loosely-called-pancakes drizzled with sugar and lemon juice or perhaps honey.
‘You don’t do that in America?’ Ah, how can I tell this young man that pancakes are an integral part of the North American breakfast, slathered in butter, drenched in maple syrup and partnered with sausage or bacon and eggs? If the Kiddies had a mother who would cook pancakes every Sunday morning, they’d be completely satisfied. So, what’s the draw of such a food? Well….it’s probably growing up on stories…legends….of how those who settled the American frontier, like Laura Ingalls Wilder, feasted on pancakes.
“When Almanzo trudged into the kitchen next morning with two brimming milk-pails, Mother was making stacked pancakes because this was Sunday. The big blue platter on the stove’s hearth was full of plump sausage cakes; Eliza Jane was cutting apple pies and Alice was dishing up the oatmeal, as usual. But the little blue platter stood hot on the back of the stove, and ten stacks of pancakes rose in tall towers on it.
Ten pancakes cooked on the smoking griddle, and as fast as they were done Mother added another cake to each stack and buttered it lavishly and covered it with maple sugar. Butter and sugar melted together and soaked the fluffy pancakes and dripped all down their crisp edges. That was stacked pancakes. Almanzo liked them better than any other kind of pancakes.” (excerpted from Farmer Boy)
Such was the stuff that I, as a North American girl, grew up on. So what did we do without maple syrup to drench our pancakes? Well, good ol’ American ingenuity gave us a fairly reasonable substitute voted unanimously delicious by the pancake-devouring-Kiddies…Golden Syrup with a hint of Black Treacle warmed in the oven to a nice pouring consistency.
Genius!
What’s treacle?
If you need any maple syrup, um, I moved to Canada last August. Just say the word.
20 Feb 2007 at 10:34 pm
Yum to pancakes. I had my fill of them at my folks house earlier. I could easily eat pancakes every week, Im with your kids on that one! Oh, and maple syrup? Avoca do some…..
20 Feb 2007 at 10:52 pm
When in Rome….. eh?
I had to laugh at your story tho because we had friends visit us when we lived in Northern Vermont (capital of maple syrup) and they were repulsed that we would use ACTUAL maple syrup (huh?) and made a run to the store when they found out we were making brunch for Log Cabin aka corn syrup with flavoring. No accounting for taste, I suppose.
20 Feb 2007 at 11:04 pm
perfect! at work earlier i could not remember the reason for pancakes specifically. thanks for clearing that up. thin pancakes are good, but i love the fluffy pancakes dripping with maple syrup! i have to agree, laura ingalls wilder descriptions helped set pancake expectations. all the same, the fam and i always look forward to fat tuesday and having breakfast for supper! glad you are feeling better. take care.
21 Feb 2007 at 2:30 am
I’m so frightened by that excerpt … mainly because I remember reading it as a child and wanting to eat that meal! I’m sorry you didn’t get maple, but treacle/molasses work well, too.
Oh - and in Russia they do the pancake thing because it harkens back to pagan times, when it was all about sun worship: pancakes represent the sun, and it’s bringing back the sun. Or something like that. At least, that’s what the Russian news people say, on our local PBS.
21 Feb 2007 at 3:36 am
Mmmmmm. I’m a huge fan of thin crepes with lemon and sugar, but there are times when a nice thick fluffy pancake with fruit and maple syrup is just what’s needed.
21 Feb 2007 at 9:54 am
Oh my. I get a little behind on my blog reading and look what happens, You up and move!!!! Lock, stock, and barrel! How do you like it over here?
Sorry to hear you’ve not been well. But I must say, that sock is mighty impressive.
21 Feb 2007 at 1:35 pm
If I only knew that you were out of Canadian Maple Syrup, I would have brought some over to you…
21 Feb 2007 at 8:17 pm
I’m a reformed catholic, and we had pancakes at supper last night. And all because a co-worker said that she was serving them to her kids. “simple, easy, and everyone will eat them” read my thought bubble. Pancakes it was. And I have to say that we had maple syrup. Produced about an hours drive from here. I’m in the canadian maritimes, and we make killer good maple syrup. One of my favorite childhood memories was of going to the sugar bush and having maple toffee hardened on snow. Great! Now I want maple toffee!
22 Feb 2007 at 2:54 am
Hi Cheryl,
great to see youre back on your feet - those socks look fab and i love the length.
your blog is a joy to read … its so well written, and i can just imagine you talking as i read your words.
sorry to have missed you at costa last wk hope to see you l8r.
22 Feb 2007 at 2:10 pm
My DH and I developed a real and lasting taste for pancakes, bacon and maple syrup after a family wedding in LA 13 years ago.
Most supermarkets should stock it, and the real stuff, not maple flavoured syrup either.
Good Luck with the new home
22 Feb 2007 at 7:51 pm