From English, American and Scotch pancakes, to crêpes, pikelets and crempog, there's a LOT of different pancakes. What, if anything, makes them different? We asked an expert to help us understand why there's so much confusion about such a simple dish.
Britain loves making pancakes. It is the most searched for recipe on the internet with 450,000 monthly searches for “pancake recipe”, and the majority of Brits confidently claiming they make pancakes from scratch. But what kind of pancake are they expecting to find when they type in the box: fluffy pancakes or thin pancakes?
The decision doesn’t stop there. Not only are there seven, yes, SEVEN pages ofpancake recipes on BBC Food, there’s also blinis, drop scones, Scotch pancakes, crêpes… the list goes on. And on.
So why so many names for what is (shhh) pretty much the same thing? We asked food historian and Great British Bake-Off finalist (and pancake expert), Mary-Anne Boermans, to fill us in.
“Every region has its own name for dishes peculiar to that area. It’s not just pancakes, though. British cookery is notorious for recipes that are essentially the same ingredients and method, but with a dozen or more different names, which makes researching quite the challenge and at times excruciatingly slow.”
What makes a pancake not a crêpe?
The three key ingredients for a pancake are flour, milk and eggs and it’s cooked, unsurprisingly, in a pan. But that’s just the beginning – pancakes have had a long time to evolve. “They are mentioned in 15th century recipe scrolls in the UK, but their history goes back much further: people would have been cooking pancakes long before they were written down,” explains Mary-Anne.
Tradition states that the Pope Gelasius I handed out crêpes (or maybe galettes) to pilgrims in 5th century Rome (which makes them… Italian?). The French “pancake day” or le jour des crêpes is on Candlemas (February 2), to celebrate the event.
This neatly brings us to the French crêpe and the English pancake. What’s the difference? Is there any difference? Can you tell the difference by looking at a picture on Instagram? “The French add butter or oil and sugar to the batter, which we don't tend to do,” says Mary-Anne. “Also, they like to spread the batter over the pan using a T-shaped piece of wood (rateau en bois) to get a very thin, even layer all over, whereas we tend to just shake the pan to get the batter to cover.”
Scotch pancakes and drop scones
Scotch pancakes are Scottish, yes, but they get around. “As far back as the 1760s, they are mentioned in English cookery books, although they are different to the version made today, with lots of cream, spices and alcohol. Today's Scotch pancakes are still different to English ones: smaller, daintier, sweeter and richer than their English counterparts,” says Mary-Anne before adding: “Scotch pancakes or drop scones are delicious eaten just with butter. I can't honestly say the same of English pancakes.”
Hang on, Scotch pancakes are the same as drop scones? And does that not make them the same as American pancakes? Meaning all three are basically the same? Yes, the difference is size: “American-style fluffy pancakes tend to be plate-sized and thicker.” We don’t bring up silver dollar pancakes – a bite-sized version of fluffy pancakes. It’s just too much.
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Pikelets, Welsh pancakes and blinis
Ok, what about the Welsh? According to Catherine Brown & Laura Mason’s Traditional Foods of Britain, different Welsh regions have varying names for pancakes of different sizes, sweet and savoury, fluffy and flat, sometimes containing buttermilk, cream, or currants such as crempog cri that perfectly merge the Pancake Day and St David’s Day Welsh cake traditions.
Then we’ve the pikelet: a cross between a crumpet and a pancake, but containing yeast. Is it a pancake? Is it even Welsh?
“It depends where you live,” says Mary-Anne. “Bara peilliaid (Welsh for fine flour bread) originated in Chester in the 17th century and looked something like a modern muffin. ‘Peilliaid’ can sound a lot like ‘picklet’ to the untrained ear, which led to it being confused with the southern-English pikelet – a flat, yeasted pancake.”
The blurry line between pikelets and crumpets carried on for hundreds of years, with different regions using the same words for slightly different things. “(Roughly) south of Birmingham a pikelet is a yeast pancake with lots of holes on the top, thinner and larger than a crumpet.”
But blinis are not, we repeat, NOT pikelets. Blinis are made with buckwheat, and were originally considered a food of the poor. “The [buckwheat] crop was viewed so poorly that it was originally grown and ploughed into the soil as fertiliser. Now, ironically, they form the perfect vehicle for caviar and smoked salmon.”
There’s a pancake for everyone
Image source, Mary-Anne Boermans
Maybe what makes the pancake hard to define and classify is also what makes it great: its flexibility (no pun intended) makes it the perfect creative canvas. “There are so many variations out there, there's almost enough for everyone to have their own special version,” says the Mary-Anne. “I'd say don't restrict yourself to plain pancakes and lots of toppings - stick some flavour to your pancake batter: mix it up with some spices or booze, or both!
“Also, if you like crispy, rather than flabby, pancakes, follow the 400 year-old advice of Gervase Markham, who suggested it's better to mix your pancakes with water, not milk.”
With all of history’s inventions to choose from, Mary-Anne has several favourites for Shrove Tuesday. “Ratafia pancakes are traditional, British-style pancakes rolled around logs of a rich spiced custard, glazed with egg-white and sugar and baked in the oven.
“Poffertjes are Dutch miniature yeast pancakes. They are made in a special pan. Mine makes 15 at a time and you eat them piled up and drizzled with syrup and icing sugar.
“I love the 18th century dish known as a Quire of Paper. Incredibly rich batter cooked into small (10-12cm) very thin pancakes that are not flipped, but just cooked on the bottom. They are then stacked in a pile, one on top of the other, 10-15cm high, with sugar sprinkled in between and served as a cake. When cut through, the insides alternate with the dark of the bottom of the pancakes and the pale tops, resembling a stack of paper (Quire being a term for 25 sheets of paper. Old-fashioned parchment paper would look/stack very similarly).”
And for those of you, like us, who have dinner and dessert pancakes, Mary-Anne suggests a British classic. “As someone with a mostly savoury tooth, I'm a big fan of Staffordshire oatcakes - made from wholemeal flour and oatmeal, water, milk and yeast. They're best served folded over with bacon and cheese and put back onto the grill pan to melt the cheese. Delicious.”
That’s dinner sorted.
