We train to bake pancakes before the Real Shrovetide

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Nevertheless, the surge of popular interest these days is a good reason to invite loved ones and friends to celebrate the real Pancake Week in mid-March at a pancake meal.

In the meantime, you can practice baking pancakes.

Pancakes are strongly associated with Russian cuisine, the word “pancake” itself has a clear connection with the Old Slavic “mlin”, meaning a product made from ground grain

In the Ukrainian language the word "mlyn" still exists today - this is how the mill is called.

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov in his story “Pancakes” wrote: “You know that pancakes have been living for more than a thousand years … They appeared in the world before Russian history, survived it all from the beginning to the last page, which lies, no doubt, invented like this like a samovar, with Russian brains … In anthropology, they should occupy the same venerable place as a three-clad fern or a stone knife; if we still do not have scientific papers on pancakes, then this is simply explained by the fact that eating pancakes is much easier than breaking brains over them …"

In the main, Anton Pavlovich is certainly right - the history of the origin of pancakes is still shrouded in mystery. Scientists are nodding in the direction of China, then in the direction of Egypt. And although pancakes in one form or another are known to many peoples, the Slavs can rightfully consider the classic yeast pancake to be their national treasure.

Still would! Pancake for our ancestors is not just a favorite dish, it is a full-fledged participant in many ceremonies and rituals. The very shape of the pancakes clearly indicates their symbolic connection with the Sun. A. Kuprin wrote: “The pancake is red and hot, like a hot all-warming sun, the pancake is watered with vegetable oil - this is a memory of the sacrifices made to powerful stone idols. Pancake is a symbol of the sun, red days, good harvests, good marriages and healthy children."

Historians are almost certain that even in pagan times, pancakes were an indispensable attribute of the celebration of the Spring Solstice - a turning point symbolizing the victory of daylight over long winter nights. Perhaps that is why this cheerful product was paradoxically associated with memorial rites (after all, the Spring Solstice symbolized the death of Winter). Pancakes were an indispensable attribute of all funerals, commemorations and even weddings (when a girl seemed to die and become a woman). Therefore, the first baked pancake was usually intended for the souls of deceased ancestors. He was either put on the window, or given to the beggar - at the commemoration of the deceased. Pancakes were also used during Christmas fortune-telling, when the girls hid the product in their bosoms and, running out into the street, asked the name of the first man they met - according to legend, the betrothed will have the same name.

But first of all, pancakes are certainly associated with Shrovetide. No wonder they say: "Without a pancake - not Maslyana."

With the adoption of Christianity, the Church tied this originally Vedic solar ritual of seeing off Winter to Great Lent. Pancake week began to precede fasting and was counted according to the lunar calendar, and not according to the solar one, and lost its original deep meaning when, on the vernal equinox (this year March 20), Winter finally recedes.

The process of making pancakes was a real mystery. On the eve of Maslenitsa, the hostesses prepared dough, observing special rituals. After waiting for the stars to appear in the sky, they went to a pond or a well and kneaded the dough there (sometimes adding snow to it). Then they put the dough on the window, saying:

Month you are month

Your golden horns

Look out the window

Blow on the dough.

The flour for the dough was taken very different (wheat, barley, rye), but in the old days buckwheat was the most popular. The pancakes themselves were also prepared secretly from prying eyes (even relatives were not allowed to observe the process). By the way, our language still retains the expression "bake pancakes", although we have not baked them for a long time, but fry them. At the same time, pancakes were cooked only in the oven and always on cast iron pans (often they were several pans welded together), oiled. A real Russian pancake should have turned out to be plump, light and spongy.

“I don’t know what the process of baking pancakes consists of, but the mystery and solemnity with which the woman furnished this sacred rite is somewhat familiar to me … There is a lot of mystical, fantastic and even spiritualistic … Looking at a woman baking pancakes, one might think that she summons spirits or extracts a philosopher's stone from dough … (A. Chekhov)

The expression “To the mother-in-law for pancakes” also keeps in itself an old tradition, when on Wednesday the Maslyanny week mother-in-law was invited to eat pancakes for her sons-in-law and their wives (the day was called “gourmands”). On Friday, the son-in-law had to make a "return move" - to invite the mother-in-law with the father-in-law for pancakes ("mother-in-law's evening"), and on Saturday there were "sister-in-law's gatherings" - for the father-in-law with the mother-in-law. The week ended with Forgiveness Sunday. On this day, funeral pancakes were brought to the cemeteries, and in the evening, they burned a scarecrow of Maslenitsa, putting the same invariable pancake in his hand. Forgiveness Sunday is also called Cheese Week, on the last Sunday before Great Lent the eating of non-lean foods (including cheese) ends.

And you should definitely enjoy delicious and healthy pancakes throughout the whole Shrovetide week! You might say “useful” is not about pancakes! But, if you take the recipe for the simplest pancakes (flour, milk, salt, sugar, eggs), and calculate their calorie content (186 kcal per 100 g), then they will not seem so harmful … But, in fact, by opening any culinary site or a magazine, you can find almost a hundred options for the traditional Pancake week treats.

The main ingredients of the pancake dough are flour, liquid and eggs. Let's deal with everything in order.

Flour is the main ingredient in pancakes. Fortunately, now on sale you can find any flour, including for the "lazy" - ready-made "pancake". Do not fall for the gimmicks of manufacturers! It is difficult to call such a mixture flour - in fact, it is a "mixture" to which soy powder, all kinds of flavors, leavening agents, etc. are often added. "E-shki".

The second most frequently chosen option is regular premium flour. Also not the best choice, since such flour is devoid of almost all the beneficial properties of grain and contains only the so-called fast carbohydrates. As a result, you get zero vitamins and the maximum risk of extra pounds.

The listed disadvantages are devoid of whole grain flour, which has recently been trumpeted on every corner - but it will not be suitable for your dish either. Yes, such flour is undoubtedly useful: it preserves the vitamins contained in cereals, and also supplies the body with slow carbohydrates, which are gradually absorbed into the bloodstream and do not entail weight problems. Therefore, it is used for making bread or dietary products - but a pancake should not taste like a loaf! With such flour, your "treat" will be bland, rubbery in consistency and, most likely, will stick into the frying pan when cooking. So you have to find some kind of compromise.

As a result, a mixture of, for example, wheat flour and barley flour will provide you with the best ratio of "taste and benefit". The second is rich in beta-glucan (it lowers cholesterol and protects the cardiovascular system) and has all the properties of whole grains. At the same time, plain wheat will make the pancakes soft, if necessary, loose, and give them a pleasant golden color, and not at all the grayish tint typical of whole grain products. In the same way, you can combine wheat flour with buckwheat, oatmeal, corn.

Liquids. You can dilute the dough with anything: water, kefir, yogurt, milk. The choice depends on your taste preferences: if you want sour - kefir; softer - milk; fresher, so that the filling is better felt - a mixture of milk and water. As for the fat content of these products, milk from 3% and above, of course, will turn out tasty, but by no means useful: both for health and for a figure.

But low-fat kefir (1-1, 5%) will add flavor and keep the waist, and also make your pancakes a medicine for the stomach and intestines. You can also knead on low-fat yogurt!

Eggs at one time were attacked by doctors, they were accused of the danger of high cholesterol, but, fortunately, "acquitted". In addition, one egg contains only about 70 calories, so this component will not add extra pounds to you.

You can "fluff" the pancakes so that they come out airy, lacy, either with yeast or soda. Yeast pancakes are thick, almost like pancakes, and you can get enough of them much faster than regular thin ones. And their taste is quite bright, so you will hardly want to flavor them with a large amount of filling or sauce. As a result, you will eat less, but you will remain both full and healthy.

Salt and sugar. You should not add a lot of sugar to pancakes, you will still eat pancakes with sweet jam or honey; and if it is with fish or caviar, then sweetness is all the more useless to you. Well, the sugared dough in the pan will just burn. One and a half tablespoons of sugar, or better honey, will be enough to add flavor and light golden hue to your dish. You should not completely remove this ingredient from the recipe: the dough will turn out to be tasteless. And only a pinch of salt is needed.

Butter - vegetable and (or) butter. To reduce the amount of oil for frying, do not pour it into the pan, but add it directly to the dough: there are fewer calories and the pancakes will not stick or burn.

Don't be afraid to experiment!

Happy Shrovetide to you!

Several recipes:

Pancakes on kefir

Ingredients:

2 eggs

Kefir - 3 glasses

Flour - 2 cups

Sugar - 1 tablespoon

Salt - 1 teaspoon

Butter to grease the pancakes

Vegetable oil for baking pancakes

Divide eggs into yolks and whites. Grind the yolks with sugar and salt, pour in 2 cups of kefir, mix thoroughly. Pour in the sifted flour in a thin stream, without ceasing stirring, knead the dough. Pour in the remaining kefir. Beat the whites in a fluffy foam and gently insert into the dough. If the dough is thick, you can dilute it with soda water.

Bake pancakes in a well-heated frying pan, greasing it with vegetable oil (usually a silicone brush is used for this, but you can use half an onion, pricked into a fork). Grease each finished pancake with butter.

Pancakes with milk

Ingredients:

250 ml milk

3 x 250 ml water

2 eggs

5 tablespoons vegetable oil

3-4 tablespoons of sugar

1 teaspoon of salt (only half a teaspoon can be used)

Flour

Pancakes with milk do not contain yeast, and the result is thin and tasty. It is very convenient to wrap a variety of fillings in them, for every taste, or you can eat it like that, sprinkling it with sugar or using a sauce. Making these pancakes is very simple:

Crack the raw eggs into a deep bowl and beat.

Add milk and water, mix thoroughly.

While stirring, gradually add flour. It will take about 2 cups, and the dough should be like a liquid jelly in consistency. If the dough is too thick, add a little more milk.

Add salt and sugar to taste. If the filling is salty, then more salt is needed in the dough, but if you are planning a dessert, add more sugar. After that, let the dough stand for 15 minutes.

The pan must be well ignited and greased with vegetable oil - for this it is better to use a brush or fork with wound gauze, or a piece of unsalted bacon. You need to grease the pan before each pancake, then they will not stick and will be easy to remove.

Using a ladle, pour a small amount of dough into the pan, letting it spill around. When the pancake is browned on one side, turn it over with a spatula, allowing it to peel off on the other.

Put the finished pancakes in a stack on a large plate, greasing each with butter so that they do not stick together.

Serve hot. You can do it right like that, with sour cream, honey or sauces, or wrap the prepared filling in each pancake.

You can take any flour for pancakes, but forget that it affects the taste.

A few more video recipes: