Hilltown Families 
Early Spring Food Tradition: Pancakes & Maple Syrup
Living Seasonally & Cooking Seasonally:
Pancakes & Maple Syrup
Did you know that pancakes are over 6,000 years old? Although not in the present form we know today, the predecessors to the modern pancake consisted of ground wheat cooked in a form of a pancake. Even the ancient Greeks and Romans ate a form of pancake sweetened with honey! Later in history, American colonists ate pancakes also known as Johnny Cakes.
Modern day technology and contemporary recipes have added to our cultural repertoire of recipes. Take for instance this demonstration on how to make maple cream:
A pancake recipe to enjoy during the sugaring season with local maple syrup is this recipe given from Sally Loomis, Executive Director of Hilltown Land Trust. A simple recipe that produces a fluffy and yet still flat, pancake:
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups of flour (you can do ½ cup of whole wheat with ¾ cup of white flour and ¼ cup of cornmeal or you can do ¾ whole wheat, ¾ white flour or ½ cup whole wheat, 1 cup white flour…your choice!)
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar (optional)
- 1.5 cups of milk or milk substitute (equal amount to the flour)
- 1 egg
- 1-2 tablespoons of butter or oil
For more recipes passed down through generations and shared by our readers, check out our post, Seasons at Our Table: Maple Sugar.
Download our March/April edition of Learning Ahead: Cultural Itinerary for Western Massachusetts for embedded learning opportunities found in cultural resources that exist within the geography, history, and cultural traditions of Western Massachusetts.
