Recipe: Pancakes for Shrove Tuesday

Pancakes for Shrove Tuesday

A recipe from 1747 that is still going strong.

An old recipe taken from The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse written in 1747, this makes for surprisingly light but very rich pancakes. The pancakes were made very thin and the trick is to have the pan very hot, very well greased with butter and to drop in a minimal amount of batter, swirl it around so it covers the bottom of the pan and to pour off any excess.
Hannah Glasse recommend piling them one on top of the other, then eating them cut into slices, rather like a cake which was known as a Quire of Papers. A good way to welcome Lent.

'Take a Pint of Cream, six Eggs, three spoonfuls of fine Flour, three of Sack (sherry), one of Orange-flower water, a little Sugar, and half a Nutmeg grated, half a Pound of Melted Butter, almost cold; mingle all well together, and butter the Pan for the first Pancake; let them run as thin as possible: when just coloured they are enough: And so do with all the fine Pancakes.'