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German Pancakes
This is an anticle specially belonging to the restaurant bill of fare, for its only difference from common pancakes or good wheat flour batter cakes is in its being baked thick; nearly as thick as the omelet pan is deep; and such a cake almost constitutes a meal by itself. They have usually to be mixed up at short notice. The following is the quickest way: 1 pint of milk to mix up with. 10 yolks of eggs. 4 ounces of melted butter--3 basting spoonfulls. 2 ounces of syrup--1 basting spoonful Little salt. 2 teaspoonfuls of baking powder. 1 pound or quart of flour. 1 pint more milk to thin it down.
Put one pint of milk in a pan and all the other things with it. Stir hard, rubbing the soft dough smooth and free from lumps, and then add more milk gradually. Put a spoonful of hot lard in the small omelet frying pan, pour in about a coffee cupful of batter and bake it light brown on both sides. Serve with butter and syrup. These cakes are richer made with the yolks only than when the whole eggs are put in.
French Pancakes--"Jenny Lind Pancakes" 1 pound of flour. 6 ounces of sugar. 14 eggs. 1/2 pint of milk. 1 large spoonful of melted butter. 1 pint of cream to whip. Half cup of brandy. Little salt.
Separate the eggs and mix the yolks with the milk, throw in the sugar, butter, brandy and salt, then all the flour and mix up smooth. Whip the cream and mix that with the batter, then whip the whites and stir in. Bake thin pancakes in omelet pans. Being sweet they burn easily. When done on both sides spread a spoonful of currant jelly on the pancake and roll it up like an omelet. Sift powdered sugar on top. Or, roll up plain and serve a little jelly in the dish. For cheaper kinds see wheat batter cakes.
Two restaurant-kitchen batters from a hotel cook's manual, written for someone working at speed with an omelet pan on the range. The measurements are commercial rather than domestic, and the flour figure is the one to pin down first.
- A pound or quart of flourThe book treats a pound and a quart as interchangeable, which is closer to true of the softer nineteenth-century flours than of modern all-purpose. Weigh it: 1 lb / 450 g, which is roughly 3 1/2 cups scooped and levelled.
- Basting spoonfulsWork backwards from the weights given. Four ounces of butter as three basting spoonfuls puts the spoon at about 2 1/2 tablespoons; the single spoonful of syrup at 2 ounces agrees. Treat a basting spoonful as about 2 1/2 tablespoons.
- Milk in two stagesMixing the first pint with all the flour gives you a stiff paste you can actually rub smooth, then the second pint thins it. Do not shortcut by adding all four cups at once or you will be chasing lumps.
- Thick means thickThe whole point of the German pancake here is depth, nearly the depth of the omelet pan. A coffee cupful is about 6 to 8 fl oz of batter in the small omelet pan the book specifies, and it will need moderate heat and patience so the centre sets before the outside darkens.
- Baking powder timingTwo teaspoons to a pound of flour is a modest amount for this much liquid, and it is single-acting behaviour you want to catch. Cook the batter within the half hour rather than holding it, or the cakes go flat and heavy.
- Yolks onlyTen yolks with no whites is what makes the cake rich and custardy rather than airy, exactly as the text says. Save the whites; they keep several days refrigerated or freeze well.
- The Jenny Lind batterFourteen eggs, a pint of whipped cream and six ounces of sugar to a pound of flour make a fragile, sweet batter. The warning that it burns easily is the hinge: medium-low heat, clarified butter or lard, and turn as soon as the surface loses its gloss.
- Brandy and creamHalf a cup of brandy is flavour and tenderiser both. Fold the whipped cream in first and the whites last, and use the batter immediately; it deflates as it stands.
- YieldThe German pancake batter runs to something under two quarts and will give eight to ten thick cakes, each a plate on its own. The French batter, spread thin, makes upwards of two dozen rolled pancakes.
Jessup Whitehead wrote for the men running American hotel and restaurant kitchens in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, and the framing here is pure trade writing: he opens not with the dish but with where it sits on the bill of fare, and notes that such orders come in at short notice, so the batter must go together fast. "German pancake" in this period could mean simply a pancake baked thick in the omelet pan, a form related to the later Dutch baby and the puffed skillet pancakes of American cookbooks, though the line of descent is not documented and the name's connection to any particular regional practice is unclear. The alternative title of the second recipe is a fossil of celebrity: the Swedish soprano Jenny Lind toured the United States from 1850 to 1852, at first under P. T. Barnum's management, to enormous publicity, and cooks attached her name to cakes, soups, puddings and melons for decades afterward, generally to signal something delicate and expensive. Fourteen eggs, a pint of cream and a half cup of brandy is a restaurant's idea of delicate, and Whitehead's closing line -- for cheaper kinds see wheat batter cakes -- tells you he knew exactly what it cost.