It is Pancake Day and here at Ballymena Today we absolutely love a national day dedicated to food. Otherwise known as Shrove Tuesday here are all the details about why we celebrate with pancakes.
Shrove Tuesday is the day before Lent starts on Ash Wednesday. The name Shrove comes from the old middle English word ‘Shriven’ meaning to go to confession to say sorry for the wrong things you’ve done. Lent always starts on a Wednesday, so people went to confessions on the day before. This became known as Shriven Tuesday and then Shrove Tuesday.
The other name for this day, Pancake Day, comes from the old English custom of using up all the fattening ingredients in the house before Lent, so that people were ready to fast during Lent. The fattening ingredients that most people had in their houses in those days were eggs and milk. A very simple recipe to use up these ingredients was to combine them with some flour and make pancakes! (Source)
Happy Pancake Day from Ballymena Today
Here are our reasons why pancakes are the best:
- They have their own special day – It isn’t really a holiday but it does give you a fun holiday feeling.
- They are easy to make – well sort of. Everyone can have a go at making pancakes. If you aren’t a great chef and don’t have the ingredients at home then you can buy a pre-made batter which just needs a shake. However this does make you miss out on half the fun!
- They only need a few ingredients – Traditionally pancakes are made with just flour, milk and eggs. Here is one of the easiest recipes we have found from BBC Food.
- You can have a flipping good time! – Yip, if you are making pancakes then you cant avoid flipping them. It is fun, everyone can have a go and it doesn’t really matter if you waste a few!
- You can make a healthy version / vegan version / gluten free version – that means that everyone can join in. Here are two pancake recipes which have been adapted for different diets which you might like to try.
So there is no excuse for not having the perfect pancake this pancake day! We will now be hoping for a Pizza Wednesday, Sausage supper Thursday and Cheesecake Friday. What do you think?
