Stout and Pancakes

I can't remember the last time I did anything for Pancake Day, or Mardi Gras or Shrove Tuesday or whatever name has been given to the day that celebrates the beginning of lent. When we all get together and indulge ourselves on non essential, luxurious food stuffs. Mardi Gras literally translates to 'Fat Tuesday' which is the most appropriate name for such an occasion. Anyway, this year I decided I was going to make pancakes, blueberry pancakes to be precise. I had the idea to match the sweet and tart blueberry pancakes with a full bodied and hopefully sweet stout.

When it came to making the mix I made a few minor mistakes. I didn't melt the butter so there were globules of it floating around in the mix, not evenly combined throughout. Also the mix seemed a bit wet for the kind of pancakes I'd planned to make. No longer were they the thick fluffy American styled pancakes, they came out thin and flimsy but delicious none-the-less. I bought a bottle of Chocolate and Orange Stout by Brew By Numbers out of Bermondsey, London. I hadn't really read up on it much so thought it would be perfect, better still I used the zest of an orange in my mix so at least something would be right if it all went wrong.

The pancakes were almost a complete disaster. If they didn't taste so bloody good I would have cried. They were thin, floppy and the blueberries clumped together in the middle, then burst and oozed blue/purple goo all over the pan creating a purple burnt crust. The pancakes were unsure of themselves, whether they were thin American pancakes or thick English and French style. However poor the appearance was, they tasted proper. The orange zest was pronounced but not overpowering, they were sweet and when a blueberry burst it scolded your mouth but after that it left a slight sharp tang. That is a lot more than I can say about the beer.

Don't get me wrong, it is a fantastic stout, it just doesn't work with sweet pancakes or anything sweet or fruity. It is far more savoury, full bodied and actually on the bitter dark, almost raw chocolate side. The orange in it was barely noticeable, maybe due to the fact I'd put a lot of zest in my pancake mix. It is a really good stout, I regretfully made the mistake of pairing it with something it didn't match with. At all!

I left the stout to one side to finish off my pancakes, so I could really enjoy it for what it was.

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