All That You Need to Know About Pancakes

We eat them almost every day, combine different ingredients, shapes and ways of preparing them, but I bet you never thought to check out say, how pancakes came to be, or are there any other fun facts tied to them… well, here’s your chance. Today’s entry is all about pancakes and facts related to them.

Origin of Pancakes

Although one cannot pin down the exact period when pancakes were first invented, something called Alita Dolcia that translates into “another sweet” from Latin, was made by Romans as early as the 1st Century AD. A very interesting fact is that instead of pans and griddles, they were preparing the hotcakes on hot rocks. They made use of eggs and goat’s milk.

The very first mention of the word “pancake” dates to 1430 in an English culinary manuscript, and ever since, the recipe has been upgraded and still is, in fact.

Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day

The day that is reserved for celebrating the beginning of Lent. It was on Shrove Tuesday that people prepared pancake recipes in order to use all the ingredients that were going to be forbidden to them once the Lent (church-mandated fast) started (no meat or dairy, so no – eggs, milk, or butter). The word “Shrove” means being forgiven for whatever wrong-doings you did. This day is also known as Fat Tuesday and is celebrated by organizing events like Carnival celebrations, beginning on the Christian feast of the Epiphany and ending on the day before Ash Wednesday. The date of the day itself is closely connected to when Easter is.

Pancake Records

Have you ever wondered how big was the biggest pancake ever made? Well it measured more than 49 feet in diameter and it weighed 6,614 pounds.

The highest pancake toss? Staggering 31 feet and an inch (an integral information) into the air. This happened in November 2010, and the honors go to Dominic Cuzzacrea.

While at the topic of records, I bet you never thought that a single pancake can cost as much as $200.00. Well, it can! And it is made with 23-carat gold leaf and Madagascar vanilla pods at Opus in the Printworks in England. (Now, this is a bite that I must try! J)

The last fact on our list will probably discourage the eager pancake eaters a tiny bit. Why? Well, at least for now, even if you manage to eat more hotcakes than anyone ate by now, you will not have a place in the Guinness Book of World Records reserved for you. But who knows, maybe one day it will become an item on their list of categories, and then you will be viable for participation.

We hope that reading some of these facts made you feel better and will come up in one of your next friends-get-togethers. Till then, whip yourselves a batch of hotcake goodness and maybe start saving money to eat a $200.00 pancake.