Pancakes, Snow
INGREDIENTS for 8 small pancakes.-3 tablespoonfuls of flour, 1 egg, 3 tablespoonfuls of snow, about 1/2 pint of new milk, lard for frying. AVERAGE COST, 5d.
Mix the flour with the milk by degrees, add the egg, well beaten, and, just before frying, the snow; it should then be all beaten up together quickly, and put into the frying-pan immediately. SEASONABLE in winter.
Pancakes, Fritters and Omelettes, Recipes for. - Directions for making the following appear under their respective headings:- Pancake, Indian.
Pancakes. دو دو وو Richer.
Fritters, Apple. دو دو دو دو دو Plain.
Snow.
Beef.
Bread & Butter.
Currant.
Indian.
Orange.
Fritters, Pea.
Peach.
Pine-apple.
Plain.
Potato. وو دو وو وو Rice.
Omelette, Bachelor's.
Ham. دو دو دو دو دو Kidney.
Plain.
Sweet.
A wartime-style trick from the days before chemical raising agents were universal: fresh snow carries air, and the trapped bubbles lift a thin batter as it hits the pan. The whole point is speed, so have the pan hot before the snow goes in.
- The snowIt must be freshly fallen, dry and light, collected from a clean surface well away from roads, roofs and anywhere animals go. Scoop it loosely into the spoon rather than packing it; compressed snow is just water and does nothing.
- The hingeFold the snow in at the last possible moment and get the batter into the pan at once. Left standing even a minute the snow melts, the air escapes and you are left with an ordinary thin pancake.
- Quantity of milkThe milk measure in the original has lost its fraction. For 3 tablespoons of flour and one egg, a batter of pouring-cream consistency is what is wanted; add the milk gradually and stop when it coats the spoon thinly.
- New milkSimply fresh whole milk, as opposed to milk that had stood and been skimmed. Ordinary full-fat milk is the equivalent.
- Lard for fryingLard gives the crisp lacy edge these are made for, but clarified butter or a neutral oil works. Use very little and keep the pan on a brisk heat -- these are thin and cook in under a minute a side.
- If there is no snowA stiffly whisked egg white folded in at the same stage does much the same structural job, though the texture will not be identical.
- Yield and servingEight small pancakes, as the original states. The book gives no serving suggestion; sugar and lemon is the conventional accompaniment. They are thin and collapse quickly as they cool.
Snow pancakes belong to a small group of nineteenth-century British recipes that fold fresh snow into a batter. The logic is sound enough: light snow is mostly trapped air, and folding it into a batter is a cruder cousin of whipping egg whites. Recipes like this one also carry a note of thrift, since the ingredient list is barely more than flour, an egg and milk, with the cost given at fivepence. A stated average cost, along with a seasonality note, is a regular feature of the Beeton household books.