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Ginger Pancakes
Mix the yolks of three eggs, and the white of one egg, very smoothly, with four table-spoonfuls of flour. Add a pinch of salt, and a teaspoonful of freshly-grated ginger. When quite smooth, stir in a pint of new milk. Just before cooking, put in two table-spoonfuls of brandy. Fry the pancakes in the usual way (see PANCAKES). Send lemon-juice and sifted sugar to table with them. The batter for pancakes is better made an hour or two before it is wanted. Time, ten minutes to fry. Probable cost, 6d., exclusive of the brandy. Sufficient for four persons.
A thin English pancake batter — closer to a crepe than an American flapjack — flavoured with fresh ginger and brandy. The proportions are sound; only the vocabulary needs updating.
- The batter is meant to be thinFour tablespoons of flour to a pint of milk gives a very loose batter, and that is intentional. Expect to pour a thin film into the pan and swirl it, not to spoon out a mound.
- Imperial pintCassell's pint is 20 fl oz, or about 2 1/2 US cups. Using a 16 fl oz US pint will give a noticeably thicker batter.
- New milkSimply fresh milk, straight from the day's milking rather than skimmed or soured. Whole milk is the equivalent.
- Freshly grated gingerA teaspoon of grated fresh root, not ground ginger. Grate it on a fine rasp so no fibres catch in the thin batter; ground ginger can be substituted at about half the quantity but tastes duller and dustier.
- Resting the batterThe hour or two of standing lets the flour hydrate fully, so the pancakes cook tender rather than rubbery. Add the brandy only at the end, as the recipe directs.
- Whites and yolksThree yolks and one white is a deliberately rich, soft mixture. The two spare whites keep a couple of days and go into meringue or an omelette.
- FryingA well-seasoned or nonstick pan over medium-high heat, barely greased with butter or clarified butter. Each pancake takes roughly a minute a side; a pint of batter this thin will run to eight or ten pancakes, which is more than the ten minutes the recipe allows.
- Sifted sugarCaster sugar, sifted to break lumps. Serve with lemon wedges and sugar at the table so the pancakes are rolled and dressed hot.
- YieldFour servings, as stated — reasonable for a light supper dish or a sweet course rather than a modern breakfast.
Thin fried pancakes served with lemon and sugar are one of the most durable dishes in English cookery, tied to Shrove Tuesday and the emptying of the larder of eggs, milk and fat before Lent. Cassell's carries a number of flavoured variations rung on a basic pancake batter, of which this ginger version is one. Victorian kitchens made heavy use of ginger -- in gingerbreads, ginger wine, ginger beer and preserved stem ginger -- though the dried and preserved forms were far commoner than fresh root. The costing in pence is common to Cassell's entries, and the recipe states that the sixpence excludes the brandy.