Better known as Pancake Day, Shrove Tuesday is the last chance to use up over-indulgent ingredients such as eggs, milk and sugar before the fasting period of Lent. At least that’s what Shrove Tuesday used to be for. These days, of course, it’s about making some delicious pancakes for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
With this in mind we thought we’d bring you some of the best pancakes from around the world to give you some inspiration this year.
England
Where better to start than in England? English make pancakes in a similar way to that of mainland Europe, but seem to reserve them purely for Pancake Day each year.
A simple recipe of plain flour, eggs and milk is whipped up to make a runny batter, which is then spread thinly in a frying pan to create large, often spotty pancakes.
Once this is done, you know the rest: chuck on some lemon juice and a generous helping of sugar, and repeat until queasy.
Scotland
They take a slightly different approach in Scotland, they chose to go down the small and fat route, rather than the large and thin route.
Using the same simple recipe, with some added sugar and a raising agent in bicarbonate of soda, this gives them their plumper, fluffier nature and makes them more suited to sweet toppings.
France
No proper look at some of the world’s best pancakes would be complete without the world-famous French crêpe entering calculations.
Made with the same simple recipe we use on Pancake Day, the French crêpe has been exported around the world and is especially popular in East Asia.
The crêpe is all about the toppings, either sweet or savoury, which are usually applied in generous amounts.
China
China isn’t the first place that springs to mind when we think of pancakes, but they form a crucial part of one of the most popular Chinese dishes in Britain – crispy aromatic duck.
These pancakes are incredibly light and thin, have a very subtle taste and are made with dough rather than batter.
The USA
Like Scottish pancakes, American pancakes are made with a thick batter that contains a raising agent to create plump, sweet treats.
They are generally thicker than Scottish pancakes, and are far more likely to be consumed at breakfast. Though American pancakes can be eaten with savoury toppings like bacon, most of the time you’ll find them with maple syrup, jam or blueberries.
