PANCAKE DAY!

A quick recap for those who aren’t sure why we feel the need to stuff ourselves with pancakes on that day!

Shrove Tuesday is a moveable feast, its date is tied to whenever Easter falls as it is celebrated on the last Tuesday before the 40-day period of Lent begins. Easter itself is the first Sunday after the full Moon that occurs on or after the spring equinox. If the full Moon falls on a Sunday, then Easter is the next Sunday.

Lent, as you may recall, is the six-week period in the run up to Easter when traditionally Christians would fast - avoiding meat, fish, eggs, and fats until Easter Sunday. These days we are more likely to commit to giving up just one thing for the duration of Lent - is this something you do, or would consider doing?

Anyways, back to Pancake Day/Shrove Tuesday, which this year falls on February 21st.

As the story goes, our forebears would cook up a storm on the day before Lent (aka Shrove Tuesday) in order to use up any eggs, milk, and other perishable foodstuffs, before beginning their prolonged fast period. Quite why pancakes have become synonymous with Shrove Tuesday is somewhat lost on me. I can see that eggs and milk may have needed to be used…but not flour, the other vital ingredient in a pancake batter mix.

I wonder if Yorkshire Pud’s were also consumed on Shrove Tuesday - maybe a first course of meat and gravy in a Yorkshire pudding, followed by pancakes…batter overload.

We may have lost many of the traditions connected with Lent, including that of marking the heads of worshippers with ashes taken after the burning of Palm branches (or crosses made from Palm leaves) from the previous year’s Palm Sunday celebrations, but Pancake Day lives on.

Every household will have their own way of making pancakes.

Some will toss.

Some will flip.

Some organised people will make a stack of pancakes.

Some will operate a one at a time production line.

And some won’t bother making pancakes on Shrove Tuesday at all!

As for what goes on a pancake - well, let’s not open that can of worms and simply say that whatever you want to top your pancakes with is absolutely fine.

Unless it’s chocolate spread, in which case you need to go and have a word with yourself <grin>.

Whatever you do this Pancake Day, it is still worth looking back at some of the older, thriftier ways of cooking. Times when nothing was wasted, leftovers were made into another meal and very little food was thrown away.

In these financially tough times, there are lessons to be learned from the past.

In 1842 John Needham produced a polishing paste for the cutlery and Sheffield Plate industries from his home and premises in Harvest Lane in Sheffield, assisted by his niece, Harriet Needham.

Harriet then met Joseph Pickering, the son of a silversmith and they wed. The couple eventually inherited the business, changing the name to ‘Joseph Pickering late John Needham’ and built the ‘Polish Works’ just around the corner in Mowbray Street from where they operated.

The ‘Polish Works’ were damaged in the Sheffield Flood of 1864 and this gave Joseph the opportunity to start planning the ‘Albyn Works’ on Burton Road – which still exists. In time, the business became Joseph Pickering & Sons, and son John Needham Pickering developed new products, including the famous – ‘Blanco’.

Albyn Works expanded to produce Blanco and employed over 100 workers. By 1875 they had a sickness and benefit club and a row of houses in Percy Street, let to his workers at special rates. Joseph’s sister Hannah married Isaac Truelove and his daughter Mary married Isaac’s brother Arthur Truelove. Arthur provided some of the tin packaging used by Joseph Pickering & Sons and in 1900 Joseph brought together the two companies and they were incorporated as Joseph Pickering & Sons Limited. By this stage Blanco was used through the British Empire in particular by the military to whiten their webbing straps etc.

In Moore Street, a new factory for the production of cartons was built in 1906. Faced with terracotta tiles it was designed by city architect – C & CM Hadfield. For three quarters of a century, ‘Blanco’ was the companies’ major product, sold to the Military in over sixty countries. The changes to Kharki after 1900 gave the company another product and then the new RAF created in 1918 a further type of ‘Blanco’ as they were using a blue colour! However, with the end of conscription production of Blanco and other polish products ended and the cardboard box business become their lifeline.

The business was finally sold by the Pickering family in 2005. By 2009 the business failed and finally closed.

Please get in touch if you have anything you would like to share about these fascinating items. Contact Richard Godley on T: 07854 646 742

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