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New England Pancakes
Mix three table-spoonfuls of fine flour very smoothly with a little cold milk. Add gradually half a pint of cream, a small pinch of salt, the well-whisked yolks of four and the whites of two eggs, a heaped table-spoonful of sifted sugar, and two or three drops of lemon, almond, or any other flavouring. Let the batter stand for an hour before it is cooked, then fry it in pancakes as thin as possible. Strew a little sifted sugar and powdered cinnamon upon each pancake, and roll it round before putting it in the dish. Serve very hot. Time, five minutes to fry each pancake. Probable cost, 1s. 2d. Sufficient for four or five persons.
This is a rich cream crêpe batter, not an American-style raised pancake. The whole point is thinness, and the two things that get you there are a slack batter and a very hot, barely greased pan.
- Half a pint of creamCassell's is a British book, so this is an imperial half-pint: 10 fl oz, about 1¼ US cups. Single cream or a mix of heavy cream and whole milk gives the right consistency; double cream alone will be too thick to spread.
- Flour and sugar measuresThree tablespoons of "fine flour" is roughly 25 g, which sounds scant but is correct for this much liquid — the eggs and cream do most of the binding. The batter should coat the back of a spoon and no more.
- The egg ratioFour yolks to only two whites gives a richer, more deeply coloured batter with less white to set and puff. The recipe does not say to treat the whites separately; whisk the eggs only until well broken up and frothy, not to peaks.
- Flavouring drops'Two or three drops of lemon, almond, or any other flavouring' means a bottled essence. Bottled flavourings are potent, so keep to the two or three drops specified for the whole batter and taste.
- The hour's restThis is the hinge. Resting lets the flour hydrate and the gluten relax so the pancakes spread paper-thin and cook without toughening. Skip it and the batter tightens in the pan.
- Five minutes is far too longA crêpe this thin sets in 45 to 60 seconds on the first side and 20 to 30 seconds on the second. The original timing probably assumes a slow coal range and a heavy iron pan brought up to heat between pancakes; on a modern burner it will scorch.
- Pan and fatUse an 8-inch nonstick or well-seasoned crêpe pan over medium-high heat, wiped with clarified butter between pancakes. Plain butter at this heat browns and speckles the surface.
- Yield and servingExpect ten to twelve thin pancakes, enough for the four or five persons stated. Sugar and cinnamon go on while each one is still hot from the pan, then roll and hold them in a warm dish; they stiffen quickly if left flat.
Names like "New England Pancakes" turn up in Victorian British cookery books, and the connection here looks loose — a batter built on cream, extra yolks and almond essence, rolled with cinnamon sugar, sits comfortably in the European tradition of thin sweet pancakes rather than in anything distinctively American. What the recipe does document is the Victorian household's fondness for graded richness: Cassell's gives a range of pancake recipes running from plain milk-and-flour batters up to cream-and-yolk versions like this one, each with a "probable cost" attached so a cook could match the dish to the occasion and the budget. The 1s. 2d. quoted here was a real consideration, cream being an expensive ingredient in a period when milk was delivered daily and the cream skimmed at home.