Pancake Day (Dydd Crempog) or Shrove Tuesday (Dydd Mawrth Ynyd) is traditionally the day where you can eat what you want before the start of lent. Over the last few centuries, the day has become linked to pancakes because they’re an easy way to use up any fatty or rich foods such as butter, sugar and eggs – what people used to do before the fasting period.
A lot of people don’t know that traditional Welsh pancakes are different to the British/French crepe style pancake. They are more like American pancakes – thick and fluffy. They are traditionally made with milk, eggs, butter, salt and flour – and can be made with or with or without oats and raisins. There are some great places to go out around North Wales to get your pancake fix if you can’t be bothered making them yourself.
There are many different traditions linked to Shrove Tuesday in Wales which include kicking tin cans around the street to acknowledge the utensils and pots that are being put away for lent. In some areas, Christmas decorations were not taken down until Shrove Tuesday, where they were then burned during the feast!
Begging door to door for flour was also done, as was singing cheeky songs and poems such as Auntie Elin Enog:
Auntie Elin Enog,
May I please have a pancake?
Mam is too poor to buy flour,
And Sian is too lazy to get the treacle,
And dad is too poorly to work,
May I please have a pancake?
or the Welsh:
Modryb Elin Enog,
Os gwelwch yn dda gai grempog?
Ma mam yn rhy dlawd i brynu blawd,
A Sian yn rhy ddiog i nôl y triog,
A nhad yn rhy wael i weithio,
Os gwelwch yn dda gai grempog?
The Welsh pancakes are usually stacked high and sliced like a layered cake, and eaten with butter. They would have originally been cooked on a griddle or cast iron bakestone, but you can use a frying pan!
‘Crempog’ or ‘ffroes’ are the Welsh words for pancakes. It has also been suggested that the English Crumpet may have got its name from the Welsh.
This year Easter Sunday is on April 12th. Are you going to give up anything for lent? A lot of non-religious people join for the health benefit. Best use up all your naughty food up tonight!
