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Pancakes, Scotch
Mix three table-spoonfuls of flour to a smooth paste with a little cold milk. Add a pinch of salt, the well-beaten yolks of three eggs, two drops of lemon, and two drops of ratafia flavouring, a tea-spoonful of sugar, and half a pint of new milk, or cream, if obtainable. Leave the batter in a cool place until it is wanted for use, then at the last moment stir in briskly the whites of the eggs, which have been beaten to a firm froth. Fry the pancakes in the usual way, but instead of turning them, brown the upper part with a salamander, or red-hot fire-shovel. When the pancakes are done, spread quickly over them a little jam or marmalade, roll them up, and then serve them on a hot dish, with powdered sugar sifted over them. If liked, half a dozen ratafias, or three macaroons, may be crushed to powder, and stirred into the batter. Time to fry the pancakes, five minutes. Probable cost, 6d. Sufficient for three or four persons.
A soufflé-style pancake rather than the thick drop scone usually meant by "Scotch pancake" today. The batter is leavened only by beaten egg white, so everything hinges on how it is handled at the last minute.
- Fold, do not stir brisklyThe whites are the only raising agent; beating them into the batter as the text implies will knock out the air and give a flat, leathery pancake. Fold in thirds with a spatula and cook immediately.
- Half a pintAn imperial half-pint is 10 fl oz, about 1¼ US cups. With only three tablespoons of flour this is a very thin batter — closer to a crêpe mixture enriched with yolks.
- New milkSimply fresh, unskimmed milk straight from the dairy. Whole milk is the equivalent; the cream option makes a noticeably richer, more fragile pancake.
- Ratafia flavouringA bitter-almond essence. Modern almond extract is the direct substitute, and two drops means two drops — it is assertive.
- Ratafias and macaroonsRatafias are small, hard almond biscuits about the size of a coin; the macaroons meant are the almond kind, not coconut or French macarons. Crushed amaretti are the closest thing on a modern shelf.
- SalamanderA flat iron plate on a handle, heated in the fire and held over food to brown it. Use the broiler on high, or a cook's blowtorch; an ovenproof pan makes this straightforward.
- Five minutesThat is the total for the pan, not per side. A thin pancake sets in a minute or two over medium heat, and the top wants only seconds under fierce heat — overbrowning collapses the egg-white lift.
- YieldThree or four servings as written, which works out to roughly six or eight thin pancakes depending on pan size. Fill and roll them as they come out of the pan; they deflate on standing.
Cassell's is a Victorian household dictionary, and its "Scotch" pancake here has little to do with the thick griddle drop scone that now carries the name. What the recipe really preserves is a technique: browning the upper surface with a salamander, a heated iron plate that stood in for the overhead grill in kitchens with only an open fire and a closed oven box. The trick let a cook finish a delicate egg batter without the violence of flipping it, and the fire-shovel offered as a substitute suggests how ordinary the improvisation was. The ratafia flavouring and crushed ratafia biscuits point to the same period's fondness for almond as a sweet perfume, used where a modern kitchen would often reach for vanilla. The costing in pence, and the assumption that cream may simply not be "obtainable", suit a book aimed at a household keeping a careful eye on the daily accounts.