Happy Pancake Day

Pancake Day or Shrove Tuesday is on 13th February in 2018. It is celebrated in the UK, Ireland and parts of the Commonwealth

Always preceding Ash Wednesday, Pancake Day falls 47 days before Easter There are lots of events around the country where people take to the streets to participate in pancake races. The Shrove Tuesday pancake race at Olney, Buckinghamshire has been run since 1445.

In other countries, the day is celebrated with a carnival and is referred to as Mardi Gras, or ‘Fat Tuesday’, the last night of eating fatty foods before the fasting period of Lent begins.

What’s the UK’s Favourite Topping?

Forget chocolate or maple syrup, Britain’s favourite pancake topping is lemon according to a poll by YouGov.
In an online survey of more than 5,000 British adults, 56 per cent of respondents said that they liked to have the citrus fruit on their pancakes, making it the nation’s topping of choice.

• Sugar came a close second with 54 per cent of respondents putting it down as a something they like to have.
• Maple syrup came in a distant third on 22 per cent while chocolate spread could only manage fourth choice on 17 per cent.
• Just 12 per cent of Britons like to put fruit on their pancakes while one in 100 people said they liked to have their pancakes plain and 15 per cent of people don’t like pancakes at all.
• Young people were far more likely to put chocolate or fruit on their pancakes.

The History of Pancake day

• The word ‘shrove’ is the past tense of ‘shrive’, meaning to hear confession, impose a penance or give absolution. Shrove-tide was a week of confession and merriment before Lent.
• It is said to have started when a woman ran to church still holding a pan when her cooking was interrupted by the church’s shriving bell.
• Shakespeare uses the simile “as fit as a pancake for Shrove Tuesday” in All’s Well That Ends Well.
• The sales of Tate & Lyle golden syrup triple in the week of Shrove Tuesday.

Pancakes Facts

• Some well-known expressions are “as flat as a pancake” was first recorded in 1761 though “as flat down as pancakes” dates back at least to 1611.
• The world record for pancake eating is fifty 3.25oz pancakes in ten minutes.
• The world’s largest pancake was made in Rochdale, Greater Manchester in 1994. the pancake measured 15.01 m (49 ft 3 in) in diameter and 2.5 cm (1 in) deep, it was a whopping 49 feet 3 inches in diameter.
• Australian chef Brad Jolly set a record in 2012 by tossing a pancake 140 times in a minute.
• On 8th February 2005 in London Chef Aldo Zilli broke the world record for the highest pancake toss at 329 cm.

Source:
www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Pancake-Day/ by Ellen Castelow: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5307643/When-Pancake-Day-Shrove-Tuesday.html
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/02/28/pancake-day-britains-favourite-pancake-toppings-revealed/
guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/68403-largest-pancake