Lake District restaurant to become Cumbrian Pancake House

A leading Lake District hotel is preparing to add a touch of culinary flair to Pancake Day on Tuesday the 5th of February by turning itself into a gourmet Cumbrian pancake house.

The Famous Wild Boar Hotel at Crook near Windermere is tossing away the usual daily specials menu to make way for a pancake menu with a difference.

Head Chef, Marc Sanders, wants to put some excitement back into Shrove Tuesday by offering diners a range of exotic and local Cumbrian fillings including Wild boar, cider and apple pancakes; Chicken liver pate & Cumberland sauce pancakes; Cajun chicken pancakes; Honey dew melon, champagne sorbet and fruit coulis pancakes; and sticky toffee pudding pancakes.

There are even plans to serve chips, vegetables, cheese and biscuits and chilled soup in pancakes wrapped into cones, to ensure that every course gets the modern pancake treatment.

Back in the 1980’s, the hotel would flambé pancakes in the restaurant on Shrove Tuesday, but is now looking to bring the art of pancake making right up to date.

Head Chef, Marc Sanders, says:

“People are becoming more and more adventurous in their choice of food and are keen to try new combinations of flavours and textures, so we thought we’d give the traditional pancake a modern twist.

“The Cumberland Sausage and damson sauce as well as the sticky toffee pudding used in the pancake fillings will also add a local flavour to our pancake house menu.”

For those with more simple tastes, the pancake menu will also include the classic lemon juice and sugar variety.

Pancake Day diners will also have another chance to try the Squirrel and damson sauce pancakes that caused something of a stir when they were put onto the menu last autumn.

Pancake Day, or Shrove Tuesday, is the traditional feast day before the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday. Lent - the 40 days leading up to Easter - was traditionally a time of fasting. So Shrove Tuesday was the last opportunity to use eggs and fats before embarking on the Lenten fast and pancakes are the perfect way of using up these ingredients.

There are a number of traditions associated with the start of Lent in Cumbria. The Monday used to be known as Collope Monday, a collope being a rasher of bacon, as that was the day when all the meat had to be finished.

On Shrove Tuesday, known in Cumberland as Fasten'een, people then made their pancakes. One of the first recipes to be printed for pancakes actually came from a book called ‘The English Housewife’ that was written in 1610 by Gervase Markham from Westmorland, one of the old counties that are now in Cumbria.

Then on Ash Wednesday, which was sometimes called Fritter Wednesday, people traditionally made vegetable fritters.

The Famous Wild Boar Hotel is currently offering a 50% discount on Shrove Tuesday breaks. Prices start from £60 including B&B.

The English Lakes Hotels group owns The Low Wood, The Waterhead and The Storrs Hall hotels on the shores of Lake Windermere, as well as the Lancaster House Hotel just outside Lancaster.

For further information on English Lakes Hotels visit Elh.co.uk.