Maslenitsa week is in full swing. If you want to please yourself and your loved ones with unusual pancakes, then this article is for you. In it you will find recipes for openwork, rainbow, Arabic, American, Dutch and other original pancakes.

In fact, pancakes have a rich history (from the 4th century BC). They are known to almost all world cuisines. The ingredients, preparation method and serving culture differ in different countries.

Openwork pancakes

These beautiful pancakes will be a highlight on the table. And thanks to the variety of filling options, openwork pancakes can be baked even throughout the Maslenitsa week.

Ingredients:

• Milk - 200 milliliters
• Eggs - 2 pieces
• A pinch of salt

Mix the dough. Break the eggs into a bowl and beat a little with a whisk. Add salt and milk, and then add vegetable oil and flour. Mix well. The dough should be liquid, without lumps.

We take a bottle with a dispenser or make a hole in the cap of a regular plastic bottle. Pour the dough into it. We bake pancakes in a dry frying pan, making an openwork mesh using a bottle.

When the pancakes have cooled, wrap the filling in them. For example, you can make a paste from soft cheese and garlic. Place a lettuce leaf on the pancake and spread with cheese filling. You can also “stuff” openwork pancakes with omelette, hard cheese, vegetables and other fillings - to your taste.

Pancake rolls

Do you like sushi? Then why not treat yourself and your loved ones to sweet pancake rolls on Maslenitsa?

Ingredients:

• Kefir - 500 milliliters
• Eggs - 1 piece
• Sugar - 1 tablespoon
• Cocoa - 1 teaspoon
• Bananas - 2-5 pieces
• Chocolate - 100 grams
• A pinch of salt

First, knead the dough by combining kefir, egg, sugar, salt, cocoa and flour. The latter is needed so that the dough has a consistency like thin sour cream.

We bake thin pancakes.

Then melt the chocolate in a water bath (remember, this can be done in the microwave). Can be replaced with chocolate spread. Pour liquid chocolate over each pancake. Peel the bananas and place them on the pancakes (if the fruit is too long, cut them in proportion to the diameter of the pancakes). Roll up the roll. Let the chocolate “set” and cut the roll into pieces of 2-3 centimeters. Sprinkle with cinnamon or powdered sugar, pour over the remaining glaze and serve.

Rainbow pancakes

Very soon the birds will sing, the drops will rustle, and these bright pancakes will be a symbol of the approaching spring.

Ingredients:

• Flour - 2 cups
• Milk - 100 milliliters
• Low-fat kefir - 200 milliliters
• Eggs - 2 pieces
• Sugar - 2 tablespoons
• Melted butter - ¼ cup
• Baking powder - 2 teaspoons
• Baking soda - 1 teaspoon
• Salt - ½ teaspoon

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Separately, lightly beat the eggs, kefir, milk and melted butter. Gradually combine liquid and dry ingredients. Mix well.

Divide the resulting dough into 7 parts, each of which is colored with food coloring.

Grease a shallow frying pan with oil and place over medium heat. Bake pancakes for 2 minutes on each side.

Serve with fruit syrup or jam.

Pancake bags

This dish can be prepared not only for Maslenitsa, but also for other occasions. It has everything to decorate a holiday table - an original look and delicious content.

Ingredients:

• Milk - 250 milliliters
• Eggs - 2 pieces
• Flour - 100 grams
• Sugar - 1 teaspoon
• Vegetable oil - 2 tablespoons
• A pinch of salt
• Dill
• Green onions

Beat eggs with salt and half the milk. Add flour, mix. Pour in the remaining milk and add finely chopped dill. Mix again. Add vegetable oil to the dough and mix again. Let the dough sit for 7-10 minutes, and then bake thin pancakes.

We will form bags from them. You can put a spoonful of salad or fried minced meat inside the pancake bag, but it is most effective to serve these pancakes with julienne inside.

We tighten the “bags” with the feathers of green onions.

Kataef

There are about two dozen variations of pancakes called "Kataef". In some countries, you can find katayef, which is reminiscent of our dumplings or dumplings, as the pancakes are filled with cheese and deep fried.

In our more “European” version, katayef is a dessert that is yeast pancakes with a sweet filling. The latter can be served with custard, whipped cream, cottage cheese, honey, chocolate... Whatever the sweet tooth's imagination is enough for.

Ingredients:

• Milk - 200 milliliters
• Flour - 200 grams
• Water - 100 milliliters
• Sugar - 1 teaspoon
• Baking powder - ½ teaspoon
• Dry yeast - ½ teaspoon

Soak the yeast and sugar in warm (!) water for 3-5 minutes, mix the resulting mixture thoroughly. Add milk, flour and baking powder to it. Mix thoroughly again and let it brew for half an hour.

Then bake small pancakes in a dry, well-heated frying pan with a non-stick coating. We do this only on one (!) side. A sign of readiness is a dried top layer.

Fold the finished pancakes in half with the unfried side inward and seal along the edge to the middle. Using a pastry syringe or pastry bag, fill the resulting “bags” with custard, whipped cream, or other filling of your choice.

Serve sprinkled with ground nuts or powdered sugar.

French crepes

To prepare the classic French dessert "Crepe Suzette", you will need:

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 2 chicken eggs
• 500 milliliters 20 percent cream
• 120 grams of wheat flour
• 20 grams butter
• 50 grams of powdered sugar
• A pinch of salt

Orange sauce:

• 2 oranges
• 30 grams butter
• 50 grams of sugar
• 50 milliliters cognac
• 5 grams starch

First, fry the pancakes. To do this, melt the butter and lightly beat the eggs with a whisk. Add flour, cream, salt, powdered sugar to the eggs. Mix thoroughly. Then pour in the melted butter. Stir again. The dough should be homogeneous, without lumps.

Heat a frying pan, grease it with vegetable oil using a pastry brush (do not pour oil into the frying pan!). Scoop out some dough and spread it evenly. Fry the pancake on both sides for about 60 seconds.

Now let's prepare the sauce. Cut the orange zest into thin strips and squeeze the juice out of the pulp. Pour the sugar into a dry, heated frying pan and wait until caramel forms. Then add butter and orange zest. Mix orange juice, cognac and starch. Pour this mixture into the pan. Wait 3-5 minutes for the sauce to thicken slightly.

"Crepe Suzette" is ready! Serve the pancakes drizzled with the warm orange sauce on nice flat plates.

American pancakes

American pancakes are not like Russian ones. They are thicker, sweeter and smaller in diameter. In Russia, something similar is called pancakes.

Overseas, pancakes are an indispensable component of breakfast. Americans and Canadians love their pancakes so much that many fast food chains have included them on their menu. Pancakes are served with peanut butter and maple syrup.

American pancakes are very easy to prepare.

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken eggs
• 500 milliliters full-fat milk or cream
• 500 grams of flour
• 5 teaspoons sugar
• 3 teaspoons baking powder

To knead the dough, beat the milk and eggs thoroughly. Add flour, sugar and baking powder to them. Beat thoroughly and let the dough rest for a while (40-50 minutes).

When the dough has risen, stir it again. The consistency should resemble thick sour cream.

Grease the pan with butter (once at first). You can fry it. Spoon the dough into the pan. Fry each pancake until golden brown.

Place the finished pancakes in a pile on a plate and serve, pouring plenty of syrup over them.

Dutch pannekokens

Those who have ever been to Amsterdam are unlikely to pass by these pancakes. Because it is impossible to pass by. Pannekoken are sold on every corner in the Dutch capital.

At the same time, a whole performance is played out for the amazed tourists - pancakes are baked and stuffed before your eyes.

But pannekokens are not your run-of-the-mill street food. The Dutch love them. There are even family-owned shops and restaurants in the Netherlands that specialize exclusively in these pancakes.

The variety of fillings is amazing. Meat, fish, cheese, nuts, fruits - whatever they put inside pannekokens!

At the same time, the recipe is very simple.

Ingredients:

• 200 grams of buckwheat flour
• 4 chicken eggs
• 500 milliliters of milk
• 2 tablespoons peanut butter
• 20 grams butter
• 70 grams of sugar
• A pinch of salt

Pour the flour into a bowl, make a small well and crack the eggs into it. Whisk. Then pour in milk, add sugar, peanut butter. Whisk again. Melt the butter and pour it into the dough. Mix thoroughly. The dough should be liquid.

Grease the frying pan a little with vegetable oil (a little!). Pannekokens are thin pancakes, pour a little batter into the pan. When the edges of the pancake are easily separated from the pan, you can turn it over.

Prepare the filling to your taste and place it on the finished pancakes.

Swedish ragmurki

Belarusians will snort contemptuously: “These are ordinary potato pancakes!”, Ukrainians will pick up: “Simple potato pancakes.” But Swedish ragmurki (from the Swedish "Raggmunk" - "hairy donut") are first and foremost pancakes, and then a potato dish.

This dish is very filling, so it is considered an everyday buffet meal. The bacon they are served with also makes ragmurkas more filling.

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken eggs
• 300 grams of flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 700 milliliters milk
• 8 medium potatoes
• 400 grams of bacon
• A little butter for frying

Mix flour and salt in a bowl, pour in half the milk and whisk until smooth. Break the eggs into the dough one at a time and mix. Add the remaining milk and let the dough rest for a while.

Meanwhile, peel and finely grate the potatoes. Add it to the dough.

Fry the bacon in a frying pan until golden brown. Place fried bacon on foil. Save the fat remaining after frying and carefully pour it into a separate bowl.

Then form potato pancakes and fry them in butter. Ragmurki should not be thick - take the dough a little at a time.

In principle, pancakes can be eaten immediately. But it’s tastier to wrap them in foil along with bacon, pour over the remaining pork fat and bake in the oven (10-15 minutes at 175 degrees).

Swedish pancakes are served with lingonberry syrup.

Indian dosa

Dosas are pancakes that are incredibly popular in India, Malaysia and Singapore (in fact, they replace bread there). They are made from lentil and rice flour (that's why they are so thin).

There are several variations of this dish: egg dosa, chili dosa, open dosa and others.

In Russia, perhaps the most famous is masala dosa - rice pancakes with filling and spices.

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 300 grams white rice
• 300 grams white crushed lentils
• 2 pods of hot red pepper
• Half a teaspoon of sugar
• Two teaspoons of salt

Filling:

• 10 medium potatoes
• 4 tablespoons coconut flakes
• 3 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
• 4 tablespoons gha (clarified butter)
• Cumin seeds, mustard, turmeric, coriander and other spices to taste

Cover the rice and lentils with water and leave for 6-8 hours. Then grind them in a blender with a little water. It should be a liquid paste. Then add pepper, sugar, salt and mix again.

The dough should rest a little. To do this, place it in a warm place for 10-12 hours.

Before baking the dosa, grease the pan with vegetable oil or ghee. Pour 4 tablespoons of dough into the center of the heated frying pan and distribute (literally - smear) it over the entire surface with quick circular movements. The trick is to spread the batter before the pancake starts to brown.

Dosas are fried quickly - 2 minutes on one side (if necessary, fry a little on the other). You should get thin, neat pancakes.

To prepare the filling, boil and mash the potatoes. Grind coconut and ginger. Add a little water to them (it should form a thick paste). Fry cumin and mustard seeds in ghee and add the resulting coconut-ginger paste. Follow with potatoes and remaining spices. Fry for 4-5 minutes.

Wrap the filling in dosa and lightly fry the resulting stuffed pancakes in vegetable oil.

Serve hot.

As you can see, pancakes are very different. Let your table during Maslenitsa week be replete with international flavor. Bon appetit!

In Rus', pancakes were a ritual dish, prepared in honor of the coming of spring. Over the centuries, this dish, symbolizing Maslenitsa, has not lost any of its popularity - today pancakes are actively consumed, without thinking about their ritual overtones or calorie content

Description

Pancakes are a round-shaped culinary dish made from liquid dough, which is poured onto a hot frying pan. They can be served with a variety of appetizers or with the filling wrapped inside.

It is possible that pancakes were the first flour products, and although they are associated with the Russian folk holiday Maslenitsa, the history of their origin is not so clear. Some scientists believe that the ancient Egyptians indulged themselves with pancakes for the first time 5 thousand years ago. However, their pancakes were prepared with sour milk, and their shape resembled ordinary flatbreads. But historians are confident that, despite this fact, the Slavs can rightfully call this dish their national treasure. After all, the pancake is a symbol of the sun, red days, rich harvests, happy marriages and healthy children. This flour product was popular back in pagan times: it was the main dish of many rites and rituals. Our ancestors prepared pancakes for the Spring Solstice, weddings and funerals, and unmarried girls used them in Christmas fortune-telling. By the way, the first baked pancake was always intended for dead souls: it was placed on the window or given to a beggar.

This dish became an integral attribute of Maslenitsa after the baptism of Rus'. And its name “pancake,” according to the historian V. Pokhlebkin, is a distortion of the word “mlyn,” which comes from the verb “to grind” and means a product made from flour, that is, a flour product. This dish has always been one of the most economical, because it required a minimum of flour and a maximum of liquid (water or milk). And for an airy and porous texture, yeast was also added to the liquefied dough: such pancakes, like a sponge, absorbed sour cream or melted butter, making them shiny, juicy and very appetizing. Today, soda is increasingly used as a leavening agent; eggs, sugar or salt are also added to the dough.

Nowadays, there are a huge number of pancake recipes, but the main principle of their preparation is the same: the batter spreads over a frying pan greased with oil, forming a thin layer, which is then turned over to fry on the other side. Depending on the shape of the pan, pancakes can be round or square. They should be golden brown and not burn under any circumstances. This dish can be prepared correctly by experienced chefs who know well what portion of batter should be poured into the pan and when to turn the pancake.

To prepare these products, you can use not only wheat, but also buckwheat, barley, oatmeal and other types of flour. Chopped fruits, berries, vegetables, chopped meat, salted or smoked fish, mushrooms, tender curd or chocolate mass, caviar, condensed milk, etc. are suitable fillings for them.

Varieties of pancakes exist among many nations. Ukrainians prepare nalistniki, the French - thin pancakes, and Bulgarians - palachinki. In addition, in each country pancakes have their own distinctive characteristics. Mexicans wrap them with bean filling and smear them with tomato paste, the British add ale malt flour to the dough, and Americans prefer pancakes that resemble large pancakes.

Composition and beneficial properties of pancakes

These flour products have good nutritional value, which depends on the composition of the dough. Eggs are rich in vitamins B, E, D, A, PP, C and K, many minerals, amino acids and substances such as choline (prevents the development of cancer) and lecithin (normalizes liver function).

To reduce the energy value of this dish, you can slightly adjust its recipe. Instead of wheat flour, it is advisable to use rye flour, which is much better absorbed by the body and contains an order of magnitude less starch. Whole milk can be replaced with skim milk, which contains many valuable substances, but it does not contain saturated fats, the excess of which leads to heart and vascular diseases. It’s also a good idea to use mineral water as a liquid: it has virtually no calories, and the pancakes will turn out fluffier.

Oatmeal will make this dish more nutritious: they are an excellent source of fiber, which regulates intestinal function and gives a feeling of fullness.

It is important to choose a similar filling for a healthy dough. For hearty pancakes, boiled spinach with low-fat sour cream or canned salmon with lemon would be appropriate - this filling is useful for anemia, nervous exhaustion, anemia and gastritis. In dessert pancakes you can wrap grated pear with cinnamon or chopped tropical fruits, rich in all kinds of valuable substances.

Contraindications

Pancakes made from wheat flour and whole milk are quite high in calories, so people with excessive body weight and cardiovascular diseases should not abuse them.

Chapter:
Maslenitsa. Russian pancakes
3rd page of the section

About Russian pancakes,
Maslenitsa and Russian customs.
Basics of pancake science.

About pancakes

PANCAKES. Damn - spoiled from mlin (from the verb chalk), that is, a product made from flour. In Russian cuisine, a dish is prepared from liquid yeast dough, specially aged to the point of maximum formation of carbon dioxide in it, which gives the dough a special thinness and speed of preparation. Pancakes of different types, different consistencies and made from different flours are known among almost all peoples, from the British to the Uzbeks. This dish received the greatest development among the Slavic peoples, where it has only a specific - yeast variety. (In Western Europe and Central Asia, pancakes are prepared mainly from unleavened dough of various compositions.) Pancakes made from sour dough were brought to Rus' by the Varangians in the 9th century.

Russian pancakes are known from wheat, barley, oat, buckwheat flour and their various combinations, in different proportions.
The best proportion of flour: 2.5 cups wheat, 1 cup buckwheat.
Regular: 4 cups wheat flour.
The ratio of liquid (water + milk) and flour in pancakes: in equal parts by volume (for 3 cups of flour - 3 cups of liquid), yeast - 10-15 g for each cup of flour.
In addition, after the dough is ready - before baking the pancakes - a small amount of butter is added to improve the taste (20-25 g per 3 cups of flour), as well as hot milk or cream and the beaten whites of one or two eggs.
If you add 1-2 tbsp to the dough. spoons of vegetable oil, the pan will not have to be greased before each pancake, and the pancakes will not stick to the pan.

The cooking procedure is as follows:
1. Preparing the dough.
2. Kneading the dough (flour, yeast, water, butter, sugar, salt) and resting it, approach.
3. After the test, introduce additives (cream, protein).
4. Baking pancakes.

Pancakes are baking only on previously cleaned with salt and oil and heated black (cast iron) frying pans (without handles). Before baking each pancake, grease the frying pan with a thin layer of vegetable oil using half an onion placed on a fork. While the pancake is baking on one side, the other, after being covered with film, is also greased with oil using an “onion brush”.

Baking occurs on both sides of the pancake for 2 minutes.

There are varieties of PANCAKES WITH FILLING (a kind of pancakes with filling):

1) A pasty food product (cottage cheese, minced meat or fish) is applied in a thin layer to the upper (not yet fried) surface of the baked pancake and, after turning, it is quickly baked onto the pancake (if the minced meat is used raw, after turning it over, it must be thoroughly fried until it is completely cooked and the formation of a beautiful crispy crust).

2) A product thinly cut into pieces or strips (for example, salted fish) is placed on a hot frying pan and filled with pancake batter; Then the pancake is baked as usual.

3) Half of the dough intended for the pancake is poured into the frying pan in a very thin layer, after slightly baking the bottom side (so that the filling does not “sink” in the batter to the bottom), the desired products are laid out on the pancake and the dough is thinly poured on top again; When the bottom side is ready, turn the pancake over and fry until done. It turns out something similar to a fried pie.

For baking, finely chopped ready-made products are usually used: fried onions, fried carrots, hard-boiled eggs, pre-boiled and fried mushrooms - fresh and dried, salted or other prepared fish (can be from canned food), cottage cheese mashed until smooth (can be with various additives) , as well as a wide variety of pates. It all depends on the taste and imagination of the cook and the products at hand.

Pancakes are eaten freshly baked.
Usually, after making pancakes, they are simply flavored with butter (the butter is first left in a warm place so that it softens well or even “flows” a little), or butter, thoroughly shaken with a salted raw egg or yolk, or sour cream (to which you can add chopped herbs, spices according to your taste). taste).
Or they eat pancakes with salted (smoked) fish, herring, and caviar.
Sometimes butter and hard-boiled eggs are added to pancakes, cottage cheese (including with various additives) or other mixtures are used.
Pancakes are served as bread and with some first courses (depending on taste).

Serving pancakes in Russian style.

Traditional Russian additions to pancakes.

Pancakes are served not only with vodka, but also with tea.

For many recipes for pancakes, pancakes and crepe pies, see the following pages in this section.

* * * * *

Perhaps no other dish of Russian cuisine can be compared in its popularity among people with pancakes.

It is difficult to say when pancakes first appeared on our table, but it is reliably known that they were ritual dish even among the pagan Slavic peoples.

A. I. Kuprin gave a very figurative description of the pancake as a ritual dish:
“The pancake is round, like a real generous sun. The pancake is red and hot, like a hot, all-warming sun, the pancake is poured with vegetable oil - this is a memory of the sacrifices made to powerful stone idols.
The pancake is a symbol of the sun, red days, good harvests, good marriages and healthy children.”

In the old days, a pancake accompanied a person throughout his life - from birth (a woman in labor was fed a pancake) until death (an obligatory dish during funeral rites).

Russian people have a variety of beliefs and traditions associated with pancakes. But first of all, pancakes, as we have already said, are a mandatory treat for Maslenitsa, which have become, as it were, a necessary attribute of the spring holiday. Many proverbs and sayings and refrains remind us of this: “Like during Pancake Week, pancakes flew to the ceiling,” “It’s not buttery without a pancake,” etc.

And remember from Pushkin in “Eugene Onegin”:

They kept life peaceful
Habits of the dear old man:
At their Shrovetide
There were Russian pancakes.

Maslenitsa is perhaps the most joyful of the holidays of the East Slavic calendar. According to legend, Maslenitsa was born in the North, her father was Frost. One day, during the harshest and saddest time of the year, a man noticed her hiding behind huge snowdrifts and called on her to help people, to warm and cheer them up.

And Maslenitsa came, but not as that fragile girl who was hiding in the forest, but as a healthy, vigorous woman with fat, rosy cheeks, cunning eyes, not with a smile on her lips, but with laughter. She made the man forget about winter, warmed up the frozen blood in his veins, grabbed his hands and started dancing with him until he fainted.

The Russian people called Maslenitsa cheerful, wide, riotous, honest, thirty brothers sister, forty grandmothers granddaughter, three mothers daughter, etc.

We do not undertake to explain what these thirty brothers and forty grandmothers are, but the fact that Maslenitsa really was a riotous holiday was reflected, for example, in literature.

Here is a ruddy and fat goddess for you,
Gluttony and drinking and fighting are the heroine of all,
Roams around cities, towns, hamlets...

The holiday lasted a week, and each day had its own name:
Monday was called a meeting,
Tuesday - let's play,
Wednesday - delicacy,
Thursday - a turning point or revelry,
Friday - mother-in-law's evenings,
Saturday - sister-in-law's gatherings,
Sunday - a farewell, a kiss, a day of forgiveness.

On Thursday the “wide Maslenitsa” began.

It was celebrated very noisily. In these days there was no sin:
...eat until you hiccup, drink until you're too thirsty, sing until you're fed up, dance until you drop.

Each housewife tried to treat her household and guests to the fullest. And the main dish was pancakes.

But on Friday, at the mother-in-law's supper, the son-in-law treated his mother-in-law and father-in-law to pancakes. True, the “treat” was very unique. According to custom, sons-in-law and daughters invited their elders to teach them wisdom, and such an invitation was considered a great honor for parents; all neighbors and relatives usually knew about it. The son-in-law’s disdain for this tradition was very difficult to experience, condemned and created eternal enmity between him and his mother-in-law.

The curious thing was that the invited mother-in-law was obliged to send all the pancake belongings to the young couple’s house in the evening: a tagan, frying pans, a ladle and even a tub in which the dough for pancakes was placed. The father-in-law sent flour and a tub of cow butter.

Pancakes were usually baked from yeast dough. A variety of flours were taken: buckwheat, wheat, millet, barley and even pea.

Today we usually use wheat flour, but truly Russian pancakes are made from buckwheat. Many modern housewives, unfortunately, do not even have a basic understanding of these pancakes. It's a pity! Believe me, they are worth taking their place of honor on our table again. Wheat pancakes do not have the plumpness and looseness that buckwheat flour gives. In addition, buckwheat pancakes have a very pleasant, slightly sour taste.

So, so that neither the first nor the second pancake is “lumpy”, you need to remember the basic rules and techniques for kneading the dough. As we have already said, pancakes are most often prepared from yeast dough. True, along with yeast, sometimes sour milk, soda and egg whites can be used as a leavening agent.

First, knead the dough. In the old days, when the first dough for pancakes was made, certain rituals were observed, and in general it was considered a sacrament and was done in secret from family members and especially strangers.

Some housewives went out in the evening to prepare dough for the river, lake or well. Others cooked it in their snow yard in the light of the moon. At the same time they wailed:

Month, you, month,
your golden horns,
look out the window
blow on the dough.

Well, maybe someone will be attracted to this method of preparing dough. We don’t know how it tastes, but the romance of these pancakes is guaranteed.

About cooking Russian pancakes

Usually, yeast is diluted in warm water (milk), and then, gradually adding flour to the water (milk), the dough is kneaded. For the dough, take half of all the flour that will be used for pancakes.

Remember that they are most loose and plump when the dough is mixed with water. But pancakes taste better with milk. Milk improves the viscosity and plasticity of the dough, enhances the process of loosening it, since, along with alcoholic fermentation caused by yeast, it provides lactic acid (in addition to fresh milk, kefir, buttermilk, sour cream, cream, whey and other dairy products can be used for kneading dough). Taking all this into account, we advise you to choose the “golden mean” and mix the dough with a mixture of water and milk.

As we have already said, you can use different flours for pancakes. If you were unable to buy the necessary flour in the store, we recommend preparing it at home. To do this, the corresponding grains need to be finely ground in a regular electric coffee grinder. It is better if you have a separate coffee grinder specifically for this purpose.

The amount of yeast depends on the type of flour. So, for dough made from buckwheat flour you need to take more of them than for dough made from wheat. But in any case, you can’t go wrong if you add 25 - 30 g of yeast to 4 cups of flour. True, this ratio is only true for fresh yeast. It also happens that yeast sits and lies in the freezer unnecessarily, and when its time finally comes, it is already old and the dough does not fit well.

There are different ways to “revive” old yeast. Here's one of them.
The yeast should be finely ground (but not ground) and diluted with warm milk (a third of a glass of milk for 25 - 30 g of yeast), making sure that after stirring there are no lumps left. If the lumps do not dissolve, and this often happens with old yeast, then you should not grind them. It is better to strain the solution through a strainer. Then you need to add 1 - 2 teaspoons of granulated sugar to the milk-yeast solution and, after stirring the mixture, leave it for 10 - 15 minutes. If bubbles appear on the surface, it means the yeast is ready for further work with them.

Fresh yeast is also pre-diluted in water or milk. Then add the amount of liquid required for the dough and gradually, constantly stirring with a spatula, add flour. The consistency of the dough should be liquid, like sour cream. Usually put one part flour to one part liquid.

The dough should be kneaded in a wooden or enamel bowl, the size of which must be chosen taking into account the fact that the volume of the dough increases by 2 - 3 times.

When the dough is kneaded, the pan with it is covered with a towel and placed in a warm place. Under no circumstances cover the bowl with the dough with a tight lid - the dough must “breathe”. If the dough rises too quickly, it should be stirred and moved to a cooler place.

But the dough has increased 2-3 times. Add the remaining flour and ingredients indicated in the recipe (egg yolks, salt, sour cream, butter, etc.) to the pan. The dough is thoroughly mixed and placed in a warm place again. After the dough has risen a second time, it is ready for baking pancakes.

Of course, it is best to bake pancakes in a Russian oven, well heated with small, dry birch firewood. Uniform heat, like an invisible wizard, dots the dough with numerous holes, browns it, and makes it especially attractive. And what a spirit there is in the kitchen when pancakes are baking! And I no longer have the patience to wait for the first pancake.

This is how A.P. Chekhov described this moment in the story “On Mortality”:
"His eyes (i.e. Podtykina) they were covered with oil, their face contorted with voluptuousness...
- Well, can it take so long? - he winced, turning to his wife. - Hurry up, Katya!
But finally the cook appeared with pancakes... Semyon Petrovich, risking burning his fingers, grabbed the top two, hottest pancakes and deliciously plopped them on his plate.”

Modern housewives successfully bake pancakes on gas and electric stoves.

It is better to choose cast iron frying pans. Their size should be small, since Russian pancakes are baked the size of a saucer. In the old days, as we have already said, special pans for pancakes were sold. They consisted of several small frying pans welded together. It is important that the pans are absolutely clean. To do this, they are placed on fire, the bottom is sprinkled with salt, calcined, and then wiped with a dry, clean cloth. After preparing the pan in this way, the pancakes do not burn and easily fall away from the bottom.

If you have a special pan for pancakes, then once you have prepared it, try not to wash it again. Otherwise, each time before baking pancakes you will have to heat the pan again.

It is better to pour the dough onto it with a wooden ladle, but you can use any other ladle, as long as it holds a portion of dough for one pancake.

If the dough is too thick, it needs to be diluted with warm milk. They do it this way: put a few spoons of dough into a bowl, stir it with milk and only then combine it with the main mass.

Before pouring the dough onto a hot frying pan, grease it with vegetable oil or unsalted lard. As a shaving brush, you can use half a potato or a clean cloth wrapped around a fork. When the pancake is browned, turns red on one side (the bottom), and is covered with holes on the other, it should be turned over with a spatula.

The finished pancakes are placed in a stack, greasing each one with butter or melted butter, and placed in a warm place to keep warm. For this purpose, there is a special pancake maker - a large ceramic dish with a hemispherical lid. But it’s better to eat pancakes “hot from the heat,” that is, immediately after they are baked.

FROM THE HISTORY. In Rus', almost until the middle of the 19th century, black, red and other fish caviar were considered food for the poorest peasants, and only fish meat was valued. Even richer peasants did not eat caviar. Do you remember in the film “Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession” the famous scene with huge fish bowls and a small portion of “overseas” eggplant caviar? In fact, in those days, anyone who dared to serve fish caviar on the royal banquet table would not have suffered his head for such an insult, although in his daily diet Ivan the Terrible was simple to the point of asceticism. But in the middle of the 19th century, incl. Through the efforts of the then medical nutritionists, caviar began to become fashionable in all levels of society at once, and long convoys with barrels of previously waste salted black and red caviar reached Russian cities.
More often, snack pancake cakes are sandwiched with salted red fish. But if nowadays you have fish roe on hand in sufficient quantities, you can layer a snack pancake cake with it. It will be delicious too.
Cm. .

Original serving of caviar on a platter for pancakes.

This is a whole science. In order to understand its basics, let us again remember Chekhov:
“Around the drinks, herrings with mustard sauce, sprat, sour cream, grainy caviar (3 rubles 40 kopecks per pound), fresh salmon, etc. were crowded in an artistic order... The pancakes were crispy, spongy, plump, like the shoulder of a merchant’s daughter.. Podtykin smiled pleasantly, hiccupped with delight and doused them with hot oil. Then, as if whetting his appetite and enjoying the anticipation, he slowly, deliberately, coated them with caviar. He poured sour cream on the places where the caviar did not get... Now all that was left was to eat, wasn’t it? But No! vodka, grunted, opened his mouth..."

Of course, from the modern point of view on rational nutrition, eating this way will only harm your health. Maybe that’s why Chekhov’s hero “suffered an apoplexy” (the modern name is “stroke”).

And yet, pancakes must be eaten with relish, otherwise you will not understand all the charm of this wonderful dish. And further. You can’t eat pancakes hastily, in between. They require special treatment and respect. It is better to cook them on Sundays or holidays, when all the household members are gathered. It’s more difficult to bake real pancakes on a weekday given our eternal lack of time, because it will take more than one hour.

And why not revive the good old traditions and invite relatives and friends especially for pancakes? We are confident that this day will be memorable for both guests and hosts.

The recipes given on different pages of the section will tell you which pancakes to bake. "Maslenitsa. Russian pancakes"– they contain the most typical pancake recipes for Russian cuisine. To become a knowledgeable blind baker, read all the pages of this section in order. In general, Russian cuisine knows hundreds of different pancakes: rich, fast, red, peasant, royal, boyar, etc.

FROM THE HISTORY OF PANCAKES

Sometimes the first pancake was given to the poor so that they would remember all the departed. On Farewell Sunday we also went to cemeteries and left pancakes on the graves. By the way, pancakes appeared earlier than leavened bread. All sorts of pancakes were baked for Maslenitsa: rye, oat, with potatoes, cottage cheese and hemp. They were eaten with butter, sour cream, and honey. The holiday required abundance: cheese, butter, milk, sour cream, pancakes should not leave the table.

Since pagan times, we have preserved the custom of baking pancakes on Maslenitsa. Once upon a time it was sacrificial bread, a gift to the god Veles and other pagan gods. This symbol of the sun was used to say goodbye to winter and welcome spring. The Orthodox Church, unable to overcome this tradition, was forced to legalize Maslenitsa week before the start of Lent.

What recipes for your favorite food have not been invented in different parts of the world! For example, the Germans and French have long preferred thin pancakes rolled into rolls with various fillings. The British also experimented a lot with pancake dough, and they came up with the idea of ​​adding local ale and malt flour to it.

The Mexicans expanded the pancake family with their famous tortillas, which were filled with beans or meat with tomato sauce. And Americans especially liked thick pancakes, more like pancakes, with maple syrup or bacon.

The most interesting thing is that in many European countries pancakes were treated not only as a delicacy, but also as a kind of entertainment. According to medieval tradition, on Sinful Tuesday (the last day before the start of Lent for Catholics), funny races were organized, the goal of which was to reach the finish line, tossing pancakes in frying pans as they went (those who dropped the pancake were eliminated from the game). This tradition is still alive today. In addition, in England, competitions are held annually in high-speed pancake tossing - while standing still and holding a frying pan at arm's length. The winner of this competition, Ralf Laue from Leipzig, set a world record in 1997 by tossing a pancake as many as 416 times in two minutes!

But in Rus', the overseas tradition of running around with pancakes was not destined to take root. And what kind of jogging could we be talking about: having tasted real Russian lace pancakes with appetizers and washed them down with hot sbiten, he could hardly get up from the table. Perhaps, in no other country in the world were pancakes treated with such respect as in Rus'. And not just with respect, but with real reverence, turning them into a symbol of the popularly beloved holiday of Maslenitsa. Moreover, according to the old saying, the more pancakes you can eat during Shrovetide Week, the more successful and profitable the year will be.

..."Please humbly have a bite," said the hostess. Chichikov looked around and saw that on the table there were already mushrooms, pies, skorodumki, shanishkas, pryaglas, pancakes, flatbreads with all sorts of toppings: topping with onions, topping with poppy seeds, topping with cottage cheese, topping with skimmed eggs, and who knows what... .

... "And the pancakes?" - said the hostess. In response to this, Chichikov rolled three pancakes together and, dipping them in melted butter, put them in his mouth, and wiped his lips and hands with a napkin. Having repeated this three times, he asked the hostess to order the britzka to be laid for him. Nastasya Petrovna immediately sent Fetinya, ordering at the same time to bring more hot pancakes.
“Your pancakes are very tasty, mother,” said Chichikov, starting to eat the hot ones. "
N.V. Gogol "Dead Souls"

Cooking pancakes has been and remains a sacred sacrament. They used the first dough to tell fortunes; the recipe was kept secret; they went out to the bank of the river or to the well to knead it, casting spells invoking the month. “Looking at a woman baking pancakes, you might think that she is summoning spirits or extracting the philosopher’s stone from dough,” admired Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, who dubbed baking pancakes nothing less than a sacred rite with its own traditions, joys and sufferings.

The first pancakes were laid out on the windowsill for wanderers and beggars passing by. In Moscow, until the 18th century, Maslenitsa festivities took place on the Moscow River and Neglinnaya, from the Sretensky Gate to the Trinity Gate, and later were moved to the Maiden Field, where booths were held with the famous “grandfather”. And as a memory of these holidays, on Saturday of the first week of Lent, pancakes were baked again, but already Lenten, and this custom itself was called “tuzhilka for Maslenitsa.”

The most common Russian pancakes are pure buckwheat or mixed with wheat flour. As a rule, pancakes are prepared from yeast dough, but sometimes the yeast is replaced with soda or the dough is kneaded with sour milk (like sourdough), mixing in beaten egg whites, which loosen the dough well.

The pancake dough is placed 2 - 5 hours before baking. To do this, pour warm milk or water into a jar (preferably a wooden one), add yeast diluted with water, part of the entire amount of flour, knead the batter and let it rise in a warm place under a napkin. Mix the yolks separated from the whites, dissolved butter, sugar, salt into the risen dough, gradually add the remaining flour, dilute it again with milk or water until the consistency of sour cream, let it rise again, and for the last, third time, add the remaining whites and begin to bake pancakes.

Liquids and products gradually introduced into the dough must be thoroughly kneaded, avoiding the formation of lumps and ensuring that the dough has the consistency of sour cream throughout the entire cooking process.

We should not forget that pancakes cooked with milk, although tastier, are not as fluffy as pancakes with water (somewhat “sticky”), and therefore it is advisable to put the dough on milk diluted with water or add water to the dough that has risen the last time. The finished dough can be stored in the refrigerator for up to two days, but 2 hours before baking you need to put it in a warm place or warm water. For 15 - 20 regular size pancakes, 3 cups of flour and 2 cups of liquid are required, and for pancakes - 2 cups of flour and 3 cups of liquid.

Pancakes are baked on the stove or in the oven in cast iron or iron frying pans, and their cleanliness is one of the conditions for successful baking.

The frying pan (only cast iron!) is washed well, calcined, slightly cooled so that the oil does not burn, greased with fat (preferably refined sunflower oil), sprinkled with coarse salt, wiped with a paper napkin, washed again in hot water, heated again, repeating this procedure three times . After the last calcination, they do not wash, but only wipe.

When preparing pancakes, pre-heat the frying pan well, grease it with sunflower or melted butter, pour the dough into it and bake the pancakes. Pans intended for baking pancakes are no longer used for anything. After cooking pancakes, these pans are not washed with water, but only wiped dry with paper and left until the next pancake baking.

Previously, pancakes were baked in a Russian oven, which is why they still say “bake” pancakes, not “fry”.

When the pancake is ready on one side, sprinkle it with oil, turn it over and bake again (you don’t have to turn it over). To obtain soft pancakes, butter is added to the dough, and for drier ones, yolks and buckwheat flour are added.

Various products are also added to pancakes - baked goods. The best of them are eggs, onions and smelt. The eggs for baking are finely chopped, the onions are fried until reddish in color and rubbed through a sieve (the green ones are only chopped), and the smelt is boiled in salted water and dried. Raw, boiled or lightly salted fish is cut into thin slices. These bakes are placed in the middle of the pan and filled with dough.

The finished pancakes are placed in a stack on a dish, each one is greased with butter and, covered with a napkin, served hot. Serve separately butter, sour cream, pressed caviar, lightly salted or salted fish. Before serving, the butter is dissolved to the thickness of cream, whipped in the cold until foamy, and the caviar is ground with olive oil, vinegar and chopped onions are added to it.

Add whipped cream to hard and sticky pancakes, and sour cream and whipped egg whites to unleavened ones (1 cup sour cream, 4 - 6 egg whites per 1 kg of flour). If the dough becomes sour, add cold water, stir in flour and let the dough rise again.

In the old days, in France they tried to declare pancakes a national French dish. But are there any agricultural peoples in the world who do not know how to bake pancakes? So they laughed at this French claim, and that’s all! Later, the “patriots” who wanted to declare pancakes a purely Russian dish were laughed at in Russia. Pancakes are a very ancient dish, invented long before the advent of modern peoples. And much earlier than the wheel was invented.

There are many ways to prepare pancakes. And every nation has its own characteristics of pancakes. Besides, as many home cooks as there are, there are so many varieties of pancakes.

Russian pancakes have a very special consistency: they are soft, loose, spongy, fluffy, light and at the same time seemingly translucent, with a clearly visible pattern of numerous pores. Such pancakes, like a sponge, absorb melted butter and sour cream, making them juicy, glossy and tasty.

There are several types of pancakes, differing mainly in the raw materials used for them (flour, water or milk, butter, eggs), but the cooking technology for all types is basically the same.

Preparing pancake dough

The pancake dough is kneaded 5-6 hours before baking - using the sponge method. This means that at first only part of the flour is dissolved in water or milk with yeast, and then, when the dough is suitable, the rest of the flour, salt, sugar, butter is added; all this is sometimes also scalded with milk (choux pancakes), and then beaten egg whites and cream are mixed in, after which the dough should still rise and only then is it used for baking.

The amount and type of flour used for the dough and for the second filling varies. In addition, the number of times the dough rises sometimes changes - the consistency of the dough should resemble thick sour cream. To do this, the ratio of liquid and flour in the dough should be approximately the same: the volume of liquid should correspond to the volume of flour. At the same time, the concept of “liquid” in pancake dough includes water (or milk), melted butter, eggs, cream, and diluted yeast. The best, tested ratios: 4-5 cups of flour to 4-5 cups of “liquid”. True, since flour can be of different types (buckwheat, wheat) and of different dryness, and since it can be mixed in different proportions (one-third, one-half, two-thirds), then in each specific case there are slight deviations in one direction or another, but these deviations never exceed a tenth or even a twelfth of the total volume of products taken.

When preparing the dough, you need to pay attention to the following three factors: firstly, the yeast must be fresh and in sufficient, but not excessive quantities; secondly, the dough at all stages (when dissolving the dough, adding flour, milk, eggs, etc.) must be beaten and rubbed very thoroughly (there should not be a single lump in it); thirdly, scalding the dough (if required by the recipe) should not be done with hot and not completely boiled milk, but only with milk brought almost to a boil, and then slightly cooled, but not less than 45 grams. C. If the dough is not scalded with hot milk, then before baking, a protein-cream mixture is carefully added to the dough, to obtain which a little cream is whipped and the whipped whites are added to them (but not vice versa!). This mixture is added to increase the fluffiness, tenderness and sponginess of pancakes.

Preparing utensils for baking pancakes

Real pancakes can only be baked in small black cast iron frying pans. These pans should never be washed with water. They are cleaned like this: put on fire, pour in a little vegetable oil, add 1 tbsp. a spoonful of coarse salt and let it heat up thoroughly, and then cool slightly. The still hot frying pan is quickly but thoroughly wiped with a clean rag or paper napkins to remove all carbon deposits, then sprinkled with dry salt again, wiped again, and finally, when the salt is removed, wiped again with a soft, dry cloth. If the cloth remains clean, then the pan is well prepared. If the frying pan is not cleaned thoroughly enough, then the first pancake will fail (hence the expression “the first pancake is lumpy”). In this case, you need to pour oil into the pan again, add salt and clean it again. Otherwise, you can ruin all the other pancakes.

Baking pancakes

The baking process is outwardly simple: the finished dough is taken carefully, without letting it fall, with large wooden spoons or ladles and poured onto hot, oiled frying pans. In this case, the amount of dough taken each time should be such that it can spread in a thin, even layer throughout the pan. This skill comes with practice. In addition, the amount of oil with which the frying pan is greased also matters. If there is not enough oil, the pancake will burn; if there is too much oil, it will be thick and uneven, since excess oil will prevent the dough from spreading over the pan in an even layer.

To get an even layer of oil that is the same for all pancakes, do not pour it into the pan, but lubricate it before baking each pancake. You can grease the pan with a feather previously immersed in oil. But the feather is inconvenient because it needs to be changed often: it quickly wears out and breaks down. In addition, the oil is too absorbed into the feather and does not lie in a completely even layer on the pan. Therefore, it is better to grease the pan with oil with half an onion (or a raw peeled potato), cut crosswise and pricked on a fork. Using the smooth, cut surface of the onion, dipping it in oil poured into a saucer, grease the frying pan like a “brush.” If the surface of the onion gradually browns too much, you can replace it.

When the pan is preheated, properly greased and a sufficient amount of batter is poured onto it, the pancake does not bake for long. As soon as it starts to rise and brown, you can grease it with oil on top using the same onion and immediately turn it over to the other side, otherwise the pancake can dry out.

NOTE. If you add 1-2 tbsp to the pancake dough. spoons of vegetable oil, you will only need to grease the pan with oil for the first pancake, and for subsequent baked pancakes it is not necessary to grease the pan.

Types of pancakes

Pancakes are distinguished and named according to the type of flour or cereal that is used to make them: rye, buckwheat, buckwheat-wheat, wheat, millet, semolina. Thus, the very base of the pancakes can be varied. But this is not enough. Excellent technology, for example, custard pancakes. In addition, different ways of eating them add variety to the assortment of pancakes. One of them is widely known - this is the custom of eating ready-made pancakes with fatty or spicy additives, either dipping them in butter or sour cream, or wrapping salted fish (herring, chum salmon, salmon, pink salmon) or caviar in them. Another method used less frequently is adding seasonings to pancakes at the time of baking. Classic seasonings include onions, hard-boiled eggs, cottage cheese, and dried smelt. Baking is done like this: pour chopped onions and hard-boiled eggs into the middle of the frying pan and fill them with dough; you can do it differently - an almost baked pancake, without removing it from the frying pan, is spread on top with a thin layer of cottage cheese, wiped with a raw egg, and then, having coated it with butter, quickly turn it over to the other side, pressing it to the heated surface of the frying pan (this is called “frying in the heat” ).

One of the varieties of pancakes (not pies!) should also be considered the so-called pancake pies, i.e. several pancakes, stacked one on top of the other and interspersed with various fillings, most often minced meat, overcooked with onions, with chopped hard-boiled eggs. Such stacks of pancakes are greased on the sides with a mixture of eggs, flour and milk so that the minced meat does not fall out, and lightly fried in the oven.

Buckwheat cakes.

Buckwheat pancakes on water

Ingredients :
- 4 cups buckwheat flour,
- 1 glass of cold water,
- 3.5 glasses of hot water,
- 25 g yeast,
- 1 teaspoon of sugar,
- 1 teaspoon salt,
- 0.5 cups sunflower oil (for frying).

Preparation

Dilute cold water with the same volume of flour and brew this dough with hot water, stir, cool, add yeast, let rise.
Add the rest of the flour, sugar, salt, let rise and bake the pancakes.

Buckwheat pancakes with milk

Ingredients :
- 4 cups buckwheat flour,
- 4.5-5 glasses of milk,
- 25 g yeast,
- 2 eggs,
- 25 g butter,
- 1 teaspoon salt,
- 1 teaspoon of sugar,
- 0.5 cups sunflower oil.

Preparation

Mix two-thirds of the milk portion prepared according to the recipe, yeast, flour, butter, yolks, and let rise.
Add salt, sugar, boil with the rest of the milk, beat, add the beaten egg whites, let rise a second time and bake immediately.

Buckwheat-wheat pancakes

Ingredients :
- 3.5 cups buckwheat flour,
- 1.5 cups wheat flour,
- 2.5 glasses of warm water,
- 2 glasses of boiling milk,
- 25 g yeast,
- 25 g butter,
- 2 eggs,
- 1 teaspoon of sugar,
- 1 teaspoon salt,
- 0.5 cups of melted butter.

Preparation

Dissolve yeast in water, add all the wheat flour and an equal amount of buckwheat flour, and let rise.
Add the remaining buckwheat flour and let rise again.
Brew the dough with hot milk, cool, add sugar, salt, butter, let rise and then bake.

Buckwheat-wheat pancakes (half)

Ingredients :
- 2 cups buckwheat flour,
- 2 cups wheat flour,
- 4 glasses of milk,
- 25 g yeast,
- 50 g butter,
- 2 teaspoons of sugar,
- 1 teaspoon salt,
- 5 eggs,
- 0.5 cups sunflower or ghee.

Preparation

Dilute buckwheat flour in 1 glass of cold milk and brew with 2 glasses of hot milk, cool.
Add the yeast and let the dough rise in a warm place.
Beat the dough, add salt, wheat flour, butter, yolks mashed with sugar, remaining milk, beaten whites, let rise and then put into the oven.

Preparation

Rinse the millet 5-7 times in boiling water, add water, cook a thin paste, boil the millet well, and cool. (The volume of the slurry should be 1 liter).
Add wheat flour and yeast to the slurry and let rise. Then add buckwheat flour, sugar, salt, stir, let rise.
Scald the dough with hot water, dilute it to the consistency of sour cream and 15 minutes after that, start baking pancakes.

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
PANCAKES

You know that pancakes have been alive for more than a thousand years, from what is called the ancient Slavic ab ovo... They were born before Russian history, they survived it all from the beginning to the last page, which is, without a doubt, invented just like the samovar, with Russian brains... In anthropology they should occupy the same respectable place as a three-planted fern or a stone knife; if we still don’t have any scientific work regarding pancakes, this is simply explained by the fact that eating pancakes is much easier than racking your brains over them...

Times give way and little by little ancient customs, clothes, songs disappear in Rus'; much has already disappeared and is of only historical interest, and yet such nonsense as pancakes occupies the same strong and familiar place in the modern Russian repertoire as it did 1000 years ago. There is no end in sight for them in the future...

Taking into account the venerable age of pancakes and their extraordinary, centuries-tested durability in the fight against innovation, it’s a shame to think that these delicious circles of dough serve only the narrow purposes of cooking and well-being... It’s a shame both for the age and for the exemplary, purely Spartan durability.. Really, a kitchen and a belly are not worth thousands of years.

As for me, I’m almost sure that the long-talking old pancakes, in addition to cooking and gluttony, have other ultimate goals... In addition to the heavy, difficult-to-digest dough, something higher, symbolic, perhaps, is hidden in them. even prophetic... But what exactly?

I don’t know and I won’t know. This constituted and constitutes a deep, impenetrable female secret, which is as difficult to get to as making a bear laugh... Yes, pancakes, their meaning and purpose are a woman’s secret, a secret that a man is unlikely to find out soon. Write an operetta!

Since prehistoric times, Russian women have sacredly guarded this secret, passing it on from generation to generation only through their daughters and granddaughters. If, God forbid, even one man recognizes her, then something terrible will happen that even women cannot imagine. Neither your wife, nor your sister, nor your daughter... not a single woman will tell you this secret, no matter how dear you are to her, no matter how low she has fallen. It is impossible to buy or exchange a secret. His woman will not utter it either in the heat of passion or in delirium. In a word, this is the only secret that has managed for 1000 years not to wake up through such a fine sieve as the fair half!..

How are pancakes made? It is unknown... Only the distant future will know about this, but we, without reasoning and without asking, must eat what is served to us... This is a secret!

You will say that men also bake pancakes... Yes, but men's pancakes are not pancakes. From their nostrils they breathe cold, their teeth give the impression of rubber galoshes, and their taste lags far behind women's... The cooks must retreat and admit defeat...

Baking pancakes is an exclusively female affair... Chefs should have long ago understood that this is not a simple pouring of batter over hot frying pans, but a sacred rite, a whole complex system with its own beliefs, traditions, language, prejudices, joys, sufferings... Yes, suffering... If Nekrasov said that the Russian woman suffered, then pancakes are partly to blame...

I don’t know what the process of baking pancakes is, but the mystery and solemnity with which the woman surrounded this sacred rite are somewhat familiar to me... There is a lot of mystical, fantastic and even spiritualistic here... Looking at a woman baking pancakes, you might think that she summons spirits or extracts the philosopher's stone from dough...

Firstly, not a single woman, no matter how developed she may be, will ever start baking pancakes on or before the 13th, on Monday or before Monday. Pancakes are a no go these days. Many smart women, in order to get around this, start baking pancakes long before Maslenitsa, so the household gets the opportunity to eat pancakes on Maslenitsa Monday and the 13th.

Secondly, on the eve of pancakes, the hostess always mysteriously whispers something to the cook. They whisper and look at each other with eyes as if they were composing a love letter... After whispering, they usually send the kitchen boy Egorka to the shop to buy yeast... The housewife then looks at the yeast brought for a long time, smells it and, no matter how ideal it is, will certainly say:

This yeast is no good. Go, bad boy, tell them to give you something better...

The boy runs and brings new yeast... A large skull jar is taken and filled with water, in which the yeast and a little flour bloom... When the yeast has blossomed, the lady and the cook turn pale, cover the jar with an old tablecloth and put it in a warm place.

Make sure you don’t oversleep, Matryona...” the lady whispers. - And make sure your jar stays warm all the time!

This is followed by a restless, tedious night. Both, the cook and the lady, suffer from insomnia, but if they sleep, they rave and have terrible dreams... How happy you men are that you don’t bake pancakes!

Before the gloomy morning has time to set in outside the window, the lady, barefoot, disheveled and in only a nightgown, runs into the kitchen.

Well? Well, how? - she bombards Matryona with questions. - A? Answer!

And Matryona is already standing at the jar and pouring buckwheat flour into it...

Thirdly, women strictly ensure that no stranger or male household member enters the kitchen while pancakes are being baked... Cooks do not even allow firefighters in at this time. You can’t go in, look, or ask... If someone looks into the skull jar and says: “What good dough!”, then at least pour it out - the pancakes will fail! What women say while baking pancakes, what spells they cast, is unknown.

Exactly half an hour before the moment when the dough is poured into the frying pans, the red-faced and already tortured cook pours some hot water or warm milk into the jar. The lady stands right there, wants to say something, but under the influence of sacred horror she cannot say it. And at this time, the household members, waiting for pancakes, walk around the rooms and, looking at the face of the housewife running every now and then into the kitchen, think that they will give birth in the kitchen, or at least get married.

But finally, the first frying pan sizzles, followed by another, a third... The first three pancakes are waste paper that Egorka can eat... but the fourth, fifth, sixth, etc. are placed on a plate, covered with a napkin and carried to the dining room to those who have long been thirsty and hungry. The hostess herself is carrying it, red, radiant, proud... One might think that she is not carrying pancakes in her arms, but her firstborn.

Well, how do you explain this triumphant look? By evening, the lady and the cook can neither stand nor sit from fatigue. They look pained... Just a little more, it seems, and they will tell you to live long...

This is the external side of the sacred rite. If pancakes were intended exclusively for base gluttony, then, you see, then neither this mystery, nor the described night, nor suffering would be incomprehensible... Obviously, there is something, and this “something” is carefully hidden.

Looking at the ladies, one should nevertheless conclude that in the future the pancakes will have to solve some great, world problem.

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