5 February 2008
Shrove Tuesday treats
The thought that particular foods are associated with one single day only intrigues me. Things associated with major festivals, say, mince pies or gingerbreads at Christmastime or hot cross buns at Easter, tend to be enjoyed probably more during the run up to the festival itself than during the days themselves. Turkey or lamb are not really restricted to Christmas Day or Easter Sunday alone. Yet there are a few things out there which are specific for one day and one day only. Today, curiously, coincides with three such things, although admittedly only if your background lies both in Finnish and Irish cultures, such as mine.
Today is Shrove Tuesday and the 5th of February, which in Finland is the birthday of the national poet, J.L. Runeberg, known for instance for penning the original lyrics of the national anthem. I am going to take a look at all three foods associated with today: pancakes, Shrove buns and Runeberg cakes.
Shrove celebrations take around the world tend to be merry, ranging from the carnival of Mardi Gras to the rather lower-key winterly outdoor activities in Finland, where it’s customary for families to head out for sledding and games. As Ash Wednesday traditionally leads the way to Lent, people most likely wanted to stock up on good, rich foods beforehand.
In Ireland, Shrove Tuesday is rather colloquially known as Pancake Day or Pancake Tuesday, for obvious reasons. Although my household is accustomed to eating pancakes throughout the year, usually for weekend breakfasts, I realise that there are Irish people
out there who only eat pancakes on this one day a year. (I find this rather incredible, but there you have it.) Many people would also buy their pancakes ready made in shops, content to heat them up in the microwave. While this is not an anathema to me as such, I definitely consider shop-bought microwaved pancakes roughly equivalent to a portion of Burger King chips in relation to homemade garlic potatoes. Inferior in all ways, but sometimes they simply are all that there is. How and ever, today chances are very high that workplaces with canteen will serve pancakes, and/or people will have pancakes at home. As a sidenote, when I was growing up in Finland, I was accustomed to having my pancakes, made irregularly regularly at home, with sugar only, or perhaps with jam if I was feeling adventurous. I was intrigued when in Ireland I discovered the habit of eating pancakes with sugar and lemon, and delighted when the Lemon crepes cafe and its predecessors introduced me to the wonderful world of pancakes with savoury fillings and an unimaginable number of sweet fillings.
Shrove buns, on the other hand, are a Finnish phenomenon. The buns themselves are made of pulla, yeasted brioche-like dough, and often decorated with sugar. Once they are baked and cooled, you cut the top off, perhaps carve a little well into the bun itself, although I wouldn’t usually bother, and then apply a liberal dollop of strawberry jam or marzipan, followed by another generous serving of whipped cream, and then top the whole thing with the hat you originally cut off. They are magnificent with coffee when you return in from an afternoon of sledding and/or skiing, or as a dessert, again with coffee, following another tradition of the day, a dinner of thick peasoup. I defend my decision not to include peasoup in the group of day-specific foods in that while traditional on Shrove Tuesday, for some reason it’s also associated with Thursdays throughout the year. That and three is a nice round number.
My last example of day-specific foods also comes from Finland. Runeberg cakes bear their name in the honour of the poet Johan Ludwig Runeberg and their appearance marks his birthday on the 5th of February. They are solid almond cakes topped with raspberry jam and icing. An extensive blog post discusses their proper preparation here and I am happy to let the writer do so on my behalf, because frankly I have never found these cakes very appealing myself. I find them entirely too dry, although on reading that blog post I am led to wonder whether all the cakes I have ever attempted to eat have simply been too dry to begin with. I have never seen them eaten with whipped cream, ice cream or vanilla sauce (Finland’s answer to custard) and I suspect that application of something vanilla-y like that would improve them considerably in my mind. Having said that, Finns tend to keep their dry cakes and cream cakes very separate.
Three sweet rich things to choose from, ironically, on the day that to some marks a transition to a period of restraint. Me, I’m looking forward to the Chinese New Year.
Shrove buns and Runeburg cakes? Wow. Finland sounds like my kind of place.