Vintage Victuals: Dinner Pancakes

A little background: this was not today’s planned post. I was going to cook, then post the recipe for, a dish called Queen of Puddings. But it’s getting late in the day, and there were going to be too many desserts on this week’s menu, and I have this inside thing about pancakes with my friend Daniel who is currently recovering (recovering! woo!) from cancer and who is now learning how to eat again after five months on nothing but IV nutrition and so this is dedicated to him. Hi, D-san!

Lemon Butterflies

This recipe comes from a British book by the name of Cookery for Girls (1950/1955), A Junior Teach Yourself Book. The premise is that cookbooks of the era (and I can attest to this) assumed that the reader already had a working knowledge of how to cook. Any young girl wanting to surprise Mother with a tea-time treat was apt to run into recipes that instructed her to “pour the mixed ingredients into a prepared tin, and place in a hot oven” without previously mentioning to prepare a tin (or how) or to preheat the oven. This book, rather than being made of super-simple kiddie “recipes” for things like peanut butter stuffed celery, is a real cookbook including prep instructions. Much like just about any cookbook published today!

Dinner Pancakes

Dinner Pancakes
½ pint batter (¼ lb. flour, 1 egg, ½ pint milk, pinch salt)
lemon juice
sugar
lard to fry
Prepare batter (Measure flour into bowl. Break egg into flour. Add salt. Add half the milk and stir till well mixed. Beat for 10 minutes with a wooden spoon to incorporate as much air as possible. Add rest of milk and stir gently.) and lay aside. Heat ashet.* 
Lay sugared paper on board.
Cut lemon in two. Make lemon butterflies (see above). Have knife ready, also dish-paper for ashet.
Pour batter into small jug or cup.
Melt ¼ oz. lard in frying pan. When faintly smoking, pour in enough batter to cover bottom of pan. Cook on one side till brown, loosen edges with knife, shake pan then toss pancake or turn with knife. Cook second side.
Turn on to sugared paper, sprinkle lemon juice, roll up and serve on hot ashet with dish-paper.
Repeat process, greasing pan each time.
NOTE: Hot jam may be used as a filling. 

*Serving plate