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Pancakes
The batter for pancakes is best when made an hour or two before it is wanted for use. It should be quite smooth, and of the consistency of thick custard. The eggs should first be whisked thoroughly, the yolks and whites separately, the flour should then be added, and beaten until the mixture is quite free from lumps, when the milk or cream should be put in. In making plain pancakes, two table-spoonfuls of flour and a quarter of a pint of milk should be allowed to each egg. If a larger proportion of eggs be used, less flour will be required. The fire over which pancakes are fried should be clear and bright, and the frying-pan scrupulously clean and hot. In order to ensure this, it is best to melt a little fat in it, then pour it away, wipe the inside quickly round with a dry clean rag, put in a little more fat, and after-wards pour in the batter, which should cover the pan entirely, and be as thin as possible. The edges of the pancake should be kept free from the pan with a knife, and the pan must be shaken lightly, to prevent sticking. When the batter is set, and the under side of the pancake nicely browned, the pan should be taken hold of at the end of the handle, and lightly jerked upwards, so as to turn the pancake completely over, and in a minute or two it will be ready for serving. If any difficulty is found in throwing up the pancake, it may be turned with a slicer, or cut in two, and then turned. Pancakes may be dished in various ways, either flat, with sugar sifted between, or rolled and piled on a hot napkin, or placed side by side in a dish. Lemon and sugar are generally sent to table with them, and they should be served as hot as possible; they may be flavoured according to taste. A few chopped apples, or a tea-spoonful of dried currants, is sometimes mixed with the batter, or sprinkled upon it when it is set in the pan, and another thin coating of batter poured over; and pancakes thus made are called apple or currant pancakes. Pancakes are much more easily fried in a small pan than in a large one. Time to fry, five minutes. Probable cost of batter, 8d. per pint. Sufficient for three or four persons.
This is a method entry rather than a fixed recipe: it gives a ratio, a batter consistency and a pan technique, and leaves the quantities to you. What it describes is a thin crêpe, not a fluffy American pancake.
- The ratio, in modern termsPer egg: 2 tablespoons flour and a quarter of an imperial pint of milk — the British pint is 20 fl oz, so that is 5 fl oz (about 150 ml), not 4. Three eggs, 6 tablespoons (roughly 50 g) flour and 15 fl oz milk gives a very loose batter, which is exactly the intention.
- "Consistency of thick custard"This is the hinge. Pouring custard, not set custard — thin enough to run across the pan the instant it lands and coat it in one tilt. If it mounds at all, add milk.
- Resting the batterThe hour or two is not fussiness: it lets the flour hydrate and the gluten relax, which gives a tenderer pancake that will not shrink back from the edge of the pan. Modern crêpe practice keeps this step.
- Whisked whitesBeating yolks and whites separately is a Victorian habit that adds a little lift to a batter made without any raising agent. It does no harm, but the aeration mostly collapses during the long rest — if you rest the batter as instructed, whisking the eggs together is no loss.
- Greasing the panThe melt-pour-wipe-regrease routine was a way of getting a bare iron pan clean and primed over a coal range, which is what the book says it is for. With a modern crêpe pan or a well-seasoned skillet, wipe a film of clarified butter or neutral oil over the surface between pancakes; a puddle of fat gives a blistered, fried edge rather than an even sheet.
- Heat and timingMedium-high, hot enough that the batter sets at the rim on contact. The book's 'five minutes' is more than a single thin pancake needs — a crêpe this thin takes 45–60 seconds on the first side and 20–30 seconds on the second. Left the full 'minute or two' after turning, it dries and turns leathery.
- TurningThe upward jerk works only when the pancake is fully set and free of the pan. Loosen the edge, shake to confirm it slides, then flip; a thin offset spatula is entirely respectable and the book concedes as much.
- Apple and currant versionsChopped apple should be sliced very thin or briefly softened first — raw chunks will not cook through in under a minute. The trick of sprinkling fruit onto set batter and veiling it with a second thin layer is worth doing, as it keeps the fruit off the hot metal.
- Yield and servingThree eggs' worth makes roughly eight to ten 8-inch crêpes; the book gives no egg count, only 'Sufficient for three or four persons'. Hold them stacked on a plate over barely simmering water, or in a 250F oven, and serve with lemon and caster sugar. The '8d. per pint' is a period costing and can be ignored.
Pancakes in an English cookery book carry the weight of Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent, when households used up eggs, milk and fat before the fast — the Shrovetide pancake custom and the pancake bell are securely recorded in England from the sixteenth century, and the ritual of tossing the pancake belongs to it. Cassell's is teaching a batter and a pan technique that underpins a whole family of dishes: the same thin egg-and-milk batter, cooked in a hot greased pan, gives you the fried pancake, and baked in a dish under a joint it gives you Yorkshire pudding. The insistence on a clear, bright fire and a scrupulously clean pan reflects the coal range, where heat could not be dialled down and a bare iron pan had to be coaxed into non-stick behaviour by repeated greasing — the reason so much of this entry is devoted to a step a modern cook accomplishes with one wipe of oil.