IHOP FREE PANCAKE DAY! or The History of Pancakes

In honor of FREE PANCAKE DAY at IHOP (find your location HERE), ManVBlog would like to present to its avid readers a history of the pancake.

*grabs a pipe and sits down by a fire in an expensive (but not too revealing) robe*

The modern pancake can trace its roots back to the Romans. While Maximus Decimus Meridius was otherthrowing the Roman emperor during its gladitorial games after Joaquin Phoenix killed the other emperor what’s his name, the people in the stands could have been eating a “Alita Dolcia” (Latin for “another sweet”). These early pancakes were made of flour, milk, eggs and spices and were eaten like a flatbread sandwich, in which you could add honey or meats to it (not to be confused with the flatbread sandwiches from Subway).

The first recognizable pancakes came about during Medieval times, when you could enjoy a savory griddle cooked pancake while you watched your neighbor suffer from the Bubonic plague. These were particularly enjoyable during the Easter season, especially on Shrove Tuesday (or, as you might know it, Mardi Gras). Known by many names (Germany = hearty potato pancakes; France = crepes and galettes; Ireland = Boxty; Scottland = drop scone; Indonesia = dadar gutung; India = poori; China = bao bing), pancakes are a global phenomenon that can be enjoyed in any language. In Sweden, Thursday nights are considered PANCAKE NIGHT (as dessert), something that has been done since the Middle Ages and enjoyed thoroughly after a rousing bowl of pea soup.

The Native Americans in the United States had a concoction called “nokehick” and the Dutch Americans had a buckwheat variety that they called “panekoeken”. In 1745, you could order “hoe cakes” (because of what they were cooked on) and get pancakes, unless you were in an unsavory location. The word “pancake” did not even come into existence until the 1870s.

And that leads us to today. Oh IHOP, you festive company, you! Toying with our inner pancake taste buds that have been “evolved” over time so that they lay within our very DNA. We have truly adapted a pancake nerve that any time we hear the word “PANCAKE”, we sprint to the nearest pancakery like a baby drinking a cappuccino. Pancakeness, oh dear pancakeness, I salute you. Now, pass the syrup.

A MORE DETAILED HISTORY OF PANCAKES CAN BE FOUND HERE.