Why do they say to bake pancakes and not to fry. Pancakes are fried or baked. Why do they say so
Why do they say so?
The preparation of pancakes came to us from antiquity, and moreover, Russia is not their homeland. Even in ancient Egypt, these pancakes, or rather flat cakes, served to cajole the gods, and in particular, they were intended for Perun.
And so, in the times of paganism, Russia was embraced by pancake baking. On March days, when everyone met spring, pancakes were one of the main dishes. They were treated to everyone and everyone, they were guests with pancakes, and pancakes with yeast were considered the most real. They were required for Maslenitsa, although on ordinary days it was possible to bake from any dough.
So how are pancakes baked?
- Very simple - they were baked in the oven, the heat covered such a pancake from all sides, so there was no need to turn it over.
What are they?
This is when they take the filling for baking, but not just wrap it in a pancake, but put it in a pan and pour it with pancake dough. It turned out something like a modern pizza.
And the fillings for pancakes were the most delicious and varied - these were fish, ham, eggs with green onions, mushrooms, and many others.
- The pancake pan occupied a special place in Russian cuisine, it was the first thing that was given as a dowry to a girl. Nothing could be cooked on it, except for pancakes, and if this suddenly happened, then such a pan was simply thrown away.
Author Elena Ogarkova asked a question in Desserts, Sweets, Pastries
Are pancakes BAKE or FRY?! and got the best answer
Answer from Natalya Troshina[guru]
- Why is it customary to say “bake pancakes”, although in reality pancakes are not baked, but fried? This, perhaps, once upon a time, when there were no gas and electric stoves, pancakes were baked in the oven. And now no one is doing it. As a housewife, I'm just wondering...
- The stable phrase “bake pancakes” has actually lost its literal meaning a long time ago and is used simply out of habit. However, in the old days, pancakes were really baked. In the ovens where the pancakes were cooked, the dough was doused with heat from all sides, and there was no need to turn the pancakes over, as modern housewives do. In addition, cooking pancakes in the oven gave them more aroma and taste. Such pancakes turned out lush and perforated. Due to the fact that pancakes were cooked in ovens, even now, instead of the word “fry”, the word “oven” is used in relation to pancakes, experts explain on the reference site “Why. RU".
Answer from Mariana[newbie]
fry
Answer from VirtulSheremetiev[master]
Bake
Answer from AdMIR[active]
bake)
Answer from Anton Ivanov[newbie]
fry!
Answer from Andrew EN[guru]
each individually decides for himself - democracy
Answer from starik[guru]
Unleavened ones are fried and yeast ones are baked.
Answer from i am yana[guru]
They are wrapped .. with tea))
Answer from Mad Monkey[guru]
if they bake in the oven. if it is fried in a frying pan.))
Answer from Inna[guru]
And the difference? At least fry, at least bake (if you wish, you can even cook - it's a joke) - the main thing is that it is delicious!
Answer from Hashid Gabbasov[guru]
Pancakes are made from yeast dough and are thick enough to be baked. Pancakes are fried from lean. They are thin.
Answer from Yotrekoza[guru]
On this holiday, Sunday,
I bake pancakes for a treat,
I'm waiting for you today
Ask for forgiveness for everything.
Very often, a housewife who cooks pancakes does not think about the word bake or fry pancakes. Many housewives express themselves “Today I baked pancakes” or “I fried pancakes”, because the main thing is the end result in the form of pancakes.
Many of us have thought about how to say correctly: “pancakes are baked or fried”? It would seem that to such a simple question: if pancakes are in a pan, then we fry them, and if in the oven, then we bake them. But, alas, not everything is so simple with pancakes, especially in Russian. Since it is correct to speak Russian, the journalist Tatyana Sinitskaya, four times excellent student of the Total Dictation, will tell us.
Understanding this issue, it is worth starting with a historical background:
Pancakes were the first products made from flour and are rooted in prehistoric times of man. The very history of pancakes is shrouded in mystery. .
Sometime in the recent past, until gas and electric stoves appeared, pancakes were baked in an oven. With the advent of, so to speak: "civilization", pancakes began to be fried in a pan. The new phrase “fry” has entered the everyday life of a modern person, but at the same time it has not supplanted the word “oven”.
Summarizing the above, you can accurately answer the question: "pancakes are baked or fried", then it is correct to say: "pancakes are baked." It is this word that is tried to be used by those who wish to speak Russian correctly. This phrase, most likely, is more used out of habit, although it has long lost its literal meaning.
Previously, our ancestors baked when the dough was kneaded and prepared. For example, boiled eggs with dill, homemade sausage or ham, fish fillet, chopped onions, fried fresh cabbage, mushrooms, berries, apples or other fruits and vegetables. There were quite a few options.
The dough was poured into the pan, the filling was put on top and the dough was poured again. They baked pancakes in the oven, and on the one hand, because due to the heat that poured over them from all sides, they were well baked inside, browned, and there was no need to turn them over.
Interesting fact:
A pancake pan in ancient times was a symbol of wealth, so it was a necessary attribute of the dowry of every girl.
The first pancake is lumpy
Another historical fact can be studied the origin of the word "pancake". Previously, it sounded like “mlyn” (from the verb “grind”) and meant “a product from the ground”. So the words "pancake" and "mill" historically go back to the same root.
Another well-known expression "the first pancake is lumpy" is about an unsuccessful first attempt. There is a tale circulating on the Internet that, in fact, the pancake is not lumpy, but - to whom? - Komam, as bears were supposedly called in Ancient Russia, they just woke up on Maslenitsa from hibernation, and they were given the first pancakes.
This story is complete nonsense. The word "com" in the meaning of "bear" is not found in ancient monuments, and our ancestors were not so stupid as to go with pancakes to hungry bears. So the first pancake is lumpy, through "o".
If you think that such a delicious flour dish as pancakes is the property of only Russian cuisine, you are mistaken! English pancakes, Ethiopian injeres, French crisps, Eastern Slavic palanchinki, Indian dosa, German pfannkuchen, Mexican tortillas and many others are all national types of pancakes.
We will not understand the nuances of other languages, but will try to figure out how to speak Russian correctly: bake pancakes or fry. In order to understand why we fry them, but say we bake them, let's take a short trip to ancient times.
And what is it?
You will be surprised, but it is rather difficult to explain to a person who has never seen pancakes what it is. According to encyclopedias, "pancakes are a culinary product made from liquid dough, poured into a hot frying pan, having a round shape." On our own, we add that modern pancakes can be of very different shapes and thicknesses: from thin lace to “solid” and thick ones. In addition, this is a rather economical dish, for the preparation of which a minimum of flour is used and a maximum of liquid - milk or water.
There are a huge number of pancake recipes: lean and rich, yeast and custard, buckwheat and millet, rice and oatmeal, with fillings and sauces. In addition, modern culinary specialists use them to create pies and cakes.
When did pancakes appear?
Until now, scientists are discussing where and when pancakes appeared. Some researchers consider their homeland China, while others insist that they appeared in Egypt. Archaeological data showed that the very first pancakes were baked on an open fire in small or hot stones. The Egyptians five thousand years ago did not think about whether to bake pancakes or fry, as they could only bake cakes in ovens, prototypes of pancakes mixed with sour milk. The ancient Greeks were happy to make tagenitas from sour milk, wheat flour, honey and olive oil, as they called pancakes. There are references to this dish in poetic works dating back to the 5th century BC. e.
Slavic history of pancakes
Understanding whether to bake pancakes or fry pancakes, let's turn to pagan times. Some Russian historians believe that it was in the 1000s of our era that pancakes appeared in Russia. There is such a version of their origin: while warming up, the hostess got distracted and forgot about him. The excess liquid has evaporated, the jelly has browned - this is how the first pancake turned out by chance.
Until the adoption of Christianity, pancakes were baked all year round, and they were sacrificial bread brought as a gift to the Slavic gods, as well as a ritual memorial meal.
How did the name come about?
It does not matter whether you are going to bake pancakes or fry, you will knead the dough from different products, but always with flour. According to a well-known researcher of gastronomic history and culinary history, the very word "pancake" comes from the distorted "mlyn" or "melin", which meant to grind. That is, a pancake is a dish of ground flour.
Despite the huge variety of national recipes and the fact that pancakes are fried or baked in different countries, the classic yeast sponge pancake described by Pushkin and Chekhov is a national Russian treasure.
Why were they baked?
To answer this question, let us recall that only at the very beginning of the 20th century was industrial production of gas stoves established and centralized gas supply began to be carried out. In 1925, there were only 10,000 gas stoves in St. Petersburg. In other houses, they cooked in a Russian oven or on wood or coal stoves. That is why the question "to bake pancakes or fry - how to do it right" did not arise. In the Russian oven it was possible to bake, but not to fry.
Old Russian "pizza"
Indeed, this is how traditional Russians can be called. What is it? These are pancakes baked with some kind of filling, such as fried mushrooms, fish fillets, or chopped boiled eggs. Prepare them as follows:
- a thin layer of pancake dough is poured into a cast iron pan;
- as soon as the pancake is browned, the prepared filling is laid on top of it - baked;
- Gently flip the pancake along with the filling.
If you are still thinking about whether pancakes should be baked or fried, we offer you another option for making pancakes with baked goods: the first pancake is browned in a heated frying pan, on which the filling is laid out - “baking”, and then everything is poured with dough. The cake is thus located between two pancakes. In order to prevent the bottom layer from burning, such pancakes are baked in an oven or oven at a lower temperature than usual.
pancake pan
Trying to figure out whether pancakes are fried or baked, how to speak correctly, it is worth remembering about the subject without which it is impossible to cook this dish - about the pancake pan. The fact is that until the twenties of the last century, a pan for baking pancakes was more a symbol of wealth and family success than kitchen utensils. It was she who was bought in the first place, starting to collect a dowry for her daughter, wealthy peasants and townspeople. The pancake pan had a special place in the kitchen and was used only for cooking one dish - pancakes. If for some reason something else was cooked on it, then the pan was considered spoiled and simply thrown away.
Can they be fried?
Today, when choosing between baking pancakes or frying, most of us will choose the latter. Indeed, baking this dish in the oven will require more effort and time, which is constantly lacking. It is faster and easier to fry pancakes on the stove, but this also requires a frying pan, even if not cast iron, but high-quality aluminum with pancake dough, butter or vegetable oil for lubrication and a spatula for turning over. Someone will object that pancakes can be turned over just by tossing them from the pan.
Yes, you can, if you have long and hard rehearsed this trick or graduated from a circus school with a degree in juggling. So, the sequence of actions so that the first, and all subsequent pancakes do not come out lumpy: 
Pancakes are fried or baked - which is right?
If you answer this question from the point of view of a historian or linguist, then, of course, they bake pancakes. After all, the expression "bake pancakes" appeared in those days when they could only be baked in a wood-fired oven. So it's correct to say that.
But on the other hand, any technologist will say that pancakes are fried, since the cooking process consists in direct contact heating using hydrocarbon lubricants.
Thus, in fact, we fry pancakes, but in words - we bake. But probably, it is not very important - to bake pancakes or fry. How to talk about this process correctly is a secondary matter, the most important thing is that they are tasty!