BRITISH LIFE• Festivals• Sport• Traditions

Flipping Hell, it’s Pancake Day: a Time for Tossers?

Every year British newspapers have a great deal of fun playing with language around pancakes, for Pancake Day.

The way we cook a pancake on one side and then throw it into the air to turn it over to cook the other side is described by the verbs to flip or to toss. Which brings us into a wonderful field of English slang because look: to flip can also mean to go mad suddenly, or to lose control of yourself. Used as a phrasal verb, if someone flips out they get suddenly, uncontrollably angry. And it doesn’t stop there because flipping is also a minced oath, which means it is used as a way of avoiding the F-word. “Oh flipping hell!”, we cry, when the trains are cancelled again for no reason, and we are late for work. Or, (as I just said to my dog) “WHY is there flipping mud all over the floor?”

Toss is another one. Yes, to toss something means to throw it, often so it will turn over in the air. You can toss a coin, for example. But it also means…to masturbate. And therefore a tosser in spoken language does not really mean someone who is throwing something. A tosser is a bastard; a prat, an idiot…someone you don’t like, in any case. It’s rude, but not hugely so. Don’t use it in formal circumstances, or in front of someone’s grandmother.

Anyway, when you understand this, you will understand why, last year, when David Cameron went to a primary school on pancake day (to show himself as friendly, fun, playful type of guy), tossed a pancake and DROPPED it…the newspapers, and social media, had a jolly good time. Comments like “OFFICIAL! HE’S A USELESS TOSSER!” “Flipping heck, what a tosser!” and “Cameron IS a flipping tosser” filled the air. It was all quite good fun, though maybe not for Cameron.

Anyway, Pancake Day comes every year on Shrove Tuesday, which is the Tuesday before Lent. Traditionally, Lent is a Christian period of fasting and abstinence for four weeks before Easter. Cooking pancakes on Shrove Tuesday was a useful way of using up all the eggs, fat and flour before Lent fasting began.

Even now, people “give things up for Lent”, though it should be something you like, and not “violin practice and maths”, which is the annual hopeful attempt of my daughter.

But there is also the British Pancake Race. All over the country, people put on aprons and headscarves, grab a frying pan and a pancake, and then race each other while tossing the pancakes. The story seems to have begun in 1445 in Olney, Buckinghamshire, where a housewife apparently was still cooking pancakes when they Shrovetide bell ran for church, and not wanting to be late for the service, she ran there with her pan, and pancakes in it. Whether this is fact or legend, every year Olney still holds one of the UK’s largest pancake races, but before you decide to do it, you might want to remember that the prize is just a kiss from the verger, and I’m not sure it’s worth running 400 yards just for that.

These ladies look as though they would quite like that kiss, though, don’t they?

TRADITIONAL PANCAKES

INGREDIENTS

110g plain flour, sifted
pinch of salt
2 eggs
200ml milk mixed with 75ml water
50g butter

To serve

caster sugar
lemon juice
lemon wedges

Method

Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl with a sieve.
Make a well in the centre of the flour and break the eggs into it. Then begin whisking the eggs – incorporating any bits of flour from around the edge of the bowl as you do so.
Next, slowly and gradually add the milk and water mixture, still whisking (don’t worry about any lumps as they will eventually disappear as you whisk).
When all the liquid has been added, use a spatula to scrape any extra bits of flour from around the edge into the centre, then whisk once more until the batter is smooth, with the consistency of thin cream.
Now melt the butter in a pan. Spoon 2 tbsp of it into the batter and whisk it in, then pour the rest into a bowl and use it to oil the pan, using a bit of kitchen paper to smear it round before you make each pancake. You only want the pan slightly oiled, not pools of butter swirling around in there.
Now get the pan really hot, then turn the heat down to medium and, to start with, do a test pancake to see if you’re using the correct amount of batter. Two tbsp (30ml) I find 2 tbsp is about right for an 18cm pan. It’s also helpful if you spoon the batter into a ladle so it can be poured into the hot pan in one go.
As soon as the batter hits the hot pan, tip it around from side to side to get the base evenly coated with batter. It should take only half a minute or so to cook; you can lift the edge with a palette knife to see if it’s tinged gold as it should be. Flip the pancake over with a pan slice or palette knife – the other side will need a few seconds only – then simply slide it out of the pan onto a plate. If you fancy yourself as a bit of a tosser, this is your moment to give it a try.
Stack the pancakes as you make them between sheets of greaseproof paper on a plate fitted over simmering water, to keep them warm while you make the rest.
To serve, sprinkle each pancake with freshly squeezed lemon juice and caster sugar, fold in half, then in half again to form triangles, or else simply roll them up. Serve sprinkled with a little more sugar and lemon juice and extra sections of lemon.