10 flipping mad Pancake Day facts in celebration of the age-old tradition (2024)
It's one of the best days of the year! To celebrate Shrove Tuesday here are 10 fascinating facts about Pancake Day before the fasting season of Lent kicks off
Today, in kitchens around the country, people will be flipping pancakes in an annual tradition.
The idea of eating pancakes on Shrove Tuesday has been around for more than 1,000 years.
In the days before people could give up chocolate and crisps, making pancakes was a way of using up rich foods such as eggs, milk and sugar before the fasting season of Lent.
Recipes for pancakes appear in cookery books as far back as the 1400s, and it's believed the tradition of flipping pancakes is almost as old.
In celebration of Pancake Day, or Shrove Tuesday, here are 10 fascinating facts about the age old tradition:
1. The biggest pancake ever made was 15 metres wide and 2.5cm deep. It contained two million calories.
2. The first pancake recipe appeared in an English cookbook in the 15th century.
It is said to have originated in Olney when a housewife was so busy making pancakes that she forgot the time. When she heard the church bells ringing for mass she ran out of her house, still carrying her pan and pancake. Olney still has a pancake race every year.
3. The largest number of pancakes tossed in the shortest amount of time is 349 tosses in two minutes, which was achieved by Dean Gould at Felixstowe, Suffolk in 1995.
4. The longest race in the quickest time was held in Melbourne, Australia. Jan Stickland covered 384m in 59.5 seconds on 19 February 1985.
5. On average, people in the UK eat two pancakes each on Pancake Day. That means that 117 million pancakes are eaten on the day.
6. In France it is traditional to touch the handle of the frying pan and make a wish while the pancake is turned, holding a coin in one hand.
7. On Pancake Day in Newfoundland, Canada, people place items in the pancake batter before it is cooked to tell the future for family members.
8. 52 million eggs are consumed in the UK on Pancake Day. That's 22 million more than a normal day.
9. In the olden days, cooks would use snow in their pancakes as it made them soft and fluffy in texture.
10. Pancake Tuesday is known as Carnivale in Italy which comes from the Latin for ‘goodbye to the flesh’.
Traditionally during Lent, Christians would give up rich, tasty foods such as butter, eggs, sugar and fat (some Christians continue to do so, in fact). Shrove Tuesday was the last chance to eat them – and what better way to do so than with a delicious pancake!
Therefore, Shrovetide (the four days preceding Lent) was a time for merriment. A legacy of these festivities is the pancake race. Dating from around 1445, legend has it that a local woman heard the shriving bell while she was making pancakes and ran to church in her apron, still clutching her frying pan.
Shrove Tuesday (also known as Pancake Tuesday or Pancake Day) is the final day of Shrovetide, marking the end of pre-Lent. Lent begins the following day with Ash Wednesday.
Shrove Tuesday, also called Pancake Day, is the feast day before Lent starts on Ash Wednesday. In 2024, Pancake Day will take place on Tuesday 13 February.
A: For the past 18 years, IHOP has celebrated its own national holiday, National Pancake Day, a one-day IHOP tradition and event where guests can enjoy a free short stack of Buttermilk Pancakes in its restaurants nationwide.
It might be Pancake Day or Shrove Tuesday, but in Scarborough the day is marked with skipping rather than pancakes. The North Yorkshire town's Skipping Day has its origins in the days when servants and labourers would be given a half day off for Lent.
This time is a reminder for Christians of Jesus Christ's sacrifice and his withdrawal into the desert for 40 days. So, you're probably wondering - why pancakes? Well, Shrove was often the last opportunity for people to use their leftover eggs, milk and sugar before the items went off.
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.
In preparing to give up richer foods as part of Lent, pancakes began to be eaten on Shrove Tuesday. This was because people would use up richer foods such as eggs, sugar and milk before Lent began, which when combined, can make pancakes. What does Shrove Tuesday mean? This name comes from Anglo-Saxon Christians.
History. The Ancient Greeks made pancakes called τηγανίτης (tēganitēs), ταγηνίτης (tagēnitēs) or ταγηνίας (tagēnias), all words deriving from τάγηνον (tagēnon), "frying pan". The earliest attested references to tagenias are in the works of the 5th-century BC poets Cratinus and Magnes.
1. The first pancakes were called Alita Dolcia ("another sweet" in Latin) and were made by Romans in the 1st Century AD. 2. The world's biggest pancake measured 49+ feet in diameter and weighed 6,614 pounds.
Legend says that it all started when a woman heard the shriving bell calling people to church on Shrove Tuesday while she was making pancakes – and she ran to the church still in her apron with her frying pan! We don't know whether this story is true, but we think that the first races happened in about 1445.
Introduction: My name is Chrissy Homenick, I am a tender, funny, determined, tender, glorious, fancy, enthusiastic person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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