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Flannel Cakes
One-quarter pound sifted flour, two raw eggs, half ounce powdered sugar, one-quarter ounce baking powder, one saltspoon salt, half salt-spoon nutmeg, and half pint cold milk.
Place the flour in a bowl. Crack in the eggs, add the sugar, salt, nutmeg, baking powder and milk. Thoroughly mix with a whisk until well thickened. Lightly butter the bottom of a large frying pan with a little melted lard, and as soon as the bottom of the pan is thoroughly hot immediately pour in with the aid of a ladle the preparation, two and a half inches in diameter, four at a time, and cook one and a half minutes on each side. Dress on a hot dish covered with a napkin; proceed exactly the same till the preparation is all used, and serve with maple syrup separately.
A plain hotel-breakfast batter given by weight, as professional kitchens did. The only real trick is the pan temperature and the small size of the cakes.
- Weights to cupsA quarter pound of sifted flour is about 4 oz / 115 g, a scant cup. Half an ounce of powdered sugar is roughly a tablespoon, and a quarter ounce of baking powder is about 1 1/2 teaspoons.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon, so this takes 1/4 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp grated nutmeg.
- Half pint of milkOne cup (240 ml) in American measure. The batter should pour from a ladle in a thin ribbon; "well thickened" here means smooth and just coating the whisk, not stiff.
- Powdered sugarIn this period the term usually meant finely ground granulated sugar, not modern confectioners' sugar with its cornstarch. Ordinary granulated or caster sugar is closer to the intent.
- Rest the batter brieflyThe recipe does not call for it, but a few minutes off the heat lets the flour hydrate. Do not leave it standing for a long period, as some of the leavening will be lost before the batter reaches the pan.
- The hinge is the panMedium heat (modern griddle practice usually puts pancake cooking somewhere around 350-375F), with only a film of fat wiped over the surface. Too hot and the small cakes brown before the centers set; a puddle of lard fries the edges into lace.
- Size and timingTwo-and-a-half-inch cakes, four to a large pan, cook in about 1 1/2 minutes a side. Turn once, when the surface loses its gloss and the bubbles hold their shape.
- Yield and servingAbout sixteen to twenty small cakes, enough for three or four people. The napkin on the hot dish is there to absorb steam so the stack does not go damp; keep it loosely covered in a 200F oven while you finish the batch.
"Flannel cakes" was a standard American breakfast-card name through the nineteenth century for thin, soft griddle cakes, the name generally taken as a reference to the texture rather than to any regional origin; menus of the 1870s and 1880s list them alongside buckwheat cakes and waffles. The version here belongs to the era when hotel and restaurant kitchens had shifted from overnight yeast-risen batters to quick baking-powder ones, which is why the recipe can be started and served within minutes. The instructions read like a professional's: ingredients by weight, cakes ladled to a set diameter, four at a time, and the syrup sent to the table separately rather than poured over. Maple syrup as the default accompaniment reflects an American book, and the grated nutmeg is often said to be a holdover from a much older English tradition of spicing pancake batter.