Pancakes are an American classic.
Breakfast and brunch would simply be incomplete without them
piled high and served with syrup, butter, and all of your topping favorites. While the pancake has
been a part of your mornings for as long as you can remember, it also dates back thousands of
years! Explore the history and traditions behind your favorite breakfast food, the pancake!
The Origin Of Pancakes
Pancakes have been around for centuries as a favorite staple in many cultures’ diets. They began
over 30,000 years ago during the Stone Age. Researchers have found pancakes in the stomach of
Otzi the Iceman, human remains dating back 5,300 years.
In ancient Greece and Rome, pancakes were made from wheat flour, olive oil, honey, and curdled
milk. Ancient Greek poets, Cratinus and Magnes wrote about pancakes in their poetry. Shakespeare
even mentions them in his famous plays. During the English Renaissance pancakes were flavored
with spices, rosewater, sherry, and apples.
The name “pancake” started during the 15th century but became standard in 19th century America.
Perviously, they were called indian cakes, hoe cakes, johnnycakes, journey cakes, buckwheat
cakes, buckwheats, griddle cakes, and flapjacks. Early American pancakes were made with
buckwheat or cornmeal. Thomas Jefferson loved them so much he sent a special recipe to his home
town from the White House.
Pancake Day!
Yup, you heard us—Pancake Day is real! Shrove Tuesday(Fat Tuesday) is the holiday of feasting
before Lent. During Lent, people were once not allowed to eat animal products like milk, butter, and
eggs. To prevent them from going to waste these ingredients were cooked into tall stacks of
pancakes. They were consumed in such large amounts that this day earned the rightful name of
Pancake Day.
Pancakes Around The World
You may be surprised to find that pancakes exist all over the world and it seems that each culture
has its own unique take on them. They are served for breakfast, lunch, and dinner all over the globe.
A few examples of this transcultural food are: Crepes, potato latkes, Irish boxty, Russian blini, Welsh
crampog, Indian poori, Hungarian palacsinta, and Dutch pannenkoeken.
“Pancake Syndrome”
Everyone here at Kate’s Kitchen is suffering from pancake syndrome, which we define as the love,
addiction, and obsession with pancakes! But it turns out that "pancake syndrome" is actually a
medical condition. It occurs in tropical regions when the flour used in pancakes has been
contaminated my mites and causes consumers to have an allergic reaction. YIKES!
Get 'Em While They're Hot!
Pancakes come in many different shapes, sizes and flavors. They can be sweet, savory, thick, thin,
small or large, but they are all delicious! While there are many types of pancakes, at Kate’s Kitchen
we like to keep it classic with the traditional American style. You can your have your choice of
Banana, Craisin+Granola, Blueberry, Apple+Pecan or Cinnamon+Roasted Pecan served fresh off
the griddle with butter and maple syrup. YUM!
600 BC - The first recorded mention of pancakes dates back to ancient Greece and comes from a
poet who described warm pancakes in one of his writings.
1100 AD – Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day) becomes a traditional way to use up dairy products
before lent – the pancake breakfast is born.
1445 - The year that villager’s in Olney, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom, started their famous
pancake race. Each year the winner receives a smooch from the church bell ringer.
1700s – Before baking soda chefs used fresh snow, which contains ammonia, to help make pancakes
light and fluffy.
1800s - Milk and occasionally cream become the preferred liquids for pancake batter: before then,
brandy and wine had been just as common.
1870s - The flapjack becomes known as the pancake and America is changed forever.
1880s –Maple syrup becomes the preferred topping of choice.
1931- Bisquick is first introduced and good cooks across America start using it to make extra fluffy
pancakes.
1966 – A “New York Times” food editor publishes a recipe for a baked pancake that he discovered
while visiting a friend in Honolulu.
1985 – Bisquick becomes the official sponsor of National Pancake Week, creating a weeklong
celebration of all things pancake.
1995 - The largest pancake ever flipped was made in Rochdale, United Kingdom. It measured 16.4
yards across, weighed 3 tons and took more than just a frying pan to flip it over.
2008 – Actor Rainn Wilson creates SoulPancake.com, a feel good website that encourages people to
explore what it means to be human with a little laughter along the way.
2009 – Aldo Zilli set a new world record for flipping a single pancake – he flipped it 117 times in 60
seconds.
2012 – 890 people set a world record for the most people tossing pancakes — 930 tried but 40
flippers were disqualified for dropping their cakes.
In the lovely, small medieval town of Kamnik, nestled at the foot of the Julian Alps, which
rise precipitously above the red-tiled roofs, there stands a new bistro that is about to offer the
notoriously cautious and xenophobic Slovene eaters a menu option that few, if any, will have
tried before. It is neither bizarre nor exotic, but the 20-something owners of Ekstaza
Bistro wonder if any of their customers will order it. For this summer, American-style
pancakes will be offered to the hungry citizens of Kamnik. Slovenes love their pancakes
(called palačinke), but by this they mean European crȇpes. They are smaller and less fancy
than the French version, made in a normal skillet with low sides and filled with apricot
marmalade or Nutella, then rolled into a tube to be eaten by hand. The French fill theirs with
ingredients savory (crème fraiche, lardons, gruyere) or sweet (powdered sugar and Grand
Marnier), and have a specially-made flat, round hotplate onto which batter is poured, then
smoothed across the hot surface with an offset spatula.
These European “pancakes” originated in Brittany, in the north of France. When made with
wheat flour they are called crȇpes, and galettes when made with buckwheat flour. Europeans
have made thin, flat pancakes of various sorts for millennia, with a reference to “frying pan
cakes” found in the work of 5th century BC Greek poets. The earliest pancakes were made
with spelt flour. “Pancake” first appears in a 15th century English document, while the word
crȇpes comes from the Latin crispus, meaning “curled.” Historians date galettes to the 12th
century, when buckwheat was first introduced to Europe and planted in the rocky soil of
Brittany, where it was called “blé noir” or “black wheat.” The word galette means “pebble”
and refers to the original cooking method, with batter poured over a large round heated stone.
Crȇpes made with white flour only prospered in the 20th century, since until then white flour
was prohibitively expensive as an ingredient.
European crȇpes, from Slovene palačinke to Swedish pancakes to Dutch pannenkoeken to
Austrian Palatschinken, this basic recipe is among the most popular desserts in the world
today. The biggest difference between crȇpes and palačinke is that crȇpe batter should be left
to sit for at least several hours before use, whereas palačinke batter is used immediately.
Although it may now have unappetizing connotations, the etymology of palačinke comes
from the Latin word for flat cake, placenta. American pancakes include the same basic
ingredients (flour, eggs, milk, butter), but also have a rising ingredient, usually baking soda
or powder. They are, quite literally, cakes that you make in a pan, rather than the oven. Also
called hotcakes, flapjacks, and griddle cakes, they have more of a texture, whereas crȇpes are
completely flat and largely a conduit for their filling.
American pancakes are often served in stacks, with butter and maple syrup—an ingredient
that is difficult to find in Europe, despite the reasonable number of maple trees that grow
there. The thickness of pancakes allows additions to be mixed into the batter, from bananas,
blueberries, or chocolate chips to bacon. The rising agent in the batter causes bubbles to form
on the uncooked side as the dough heats, a sign that the pancake is ready to be flipped.
American-style pancakes likely began in the form of Johnnycakes, a savory flatbread made
with cornmeal. Flapjacks, usually around 10 cm in diameter, are at least five-hundred years
old, as they are referenced in Shakespeare’s All’s Well That End’s Well.
Etymology, history, and similarities aside, your average Slovene will not have encountered
the fluffy, American incarnation of their beloved palačinke. Jure Bartol and Domen Meglič,
the young entrepreneurs behind Ekstaza, are less than optimistic about the willingness of
Slovenes to order things that they’ve never tried before. Perhaps in Slovenia’s capital,
Ljubljana, things are different—the city boasts a popular Nepali restaurant, among its
culinary wonders. But rural Slovenes tend to be resistant to new foods. This is
understandable—before Slovenia’s independence from Yugoslavia, in 1991, the shelves of
grocery stores carried limited offerings. Folks ate what they or their neighbors cultivated
themselves, and shops stocked a narrow array of goods, almost all of which was produced
within Yugoslavia. The exotic simply was not available. Today, supermarkets in Slovenia
stock everything from kim chee to sri racha hot sauce, but the tastes of the locals have been
slow to develop. When the first Chinese restaurant set up shop in Ljubljana, the initial
reaction was confusion and dismissal. A few years on, and Chinese restaurants thrive. Could
the same thing happen with the introduction of far less exotic American pancakes? When
summer rolls around, and Ameriške palačinke appear on the menu at Ekstaza, it will be
interesting to find out. But if Slovenes are slow to come around, it is likely only a matter of
time. Whether European or American, there is little better than a good pancake.
