Quote Originally Posted by Ash View Post
ISTR hearing that Shrove Tuesday was invented to use up all the remaining food before fasting for the 40 days of Lent.

So any auld grub could have gone in the pancake, which for our ancestors would basically have been turnips, I expect.
Pancakes are associated with the day preceding Lent because they were a way to use up rich foods such as eggs, milk, and sugar, before the fasting season of the 40 days of Lent. In addition, pancakes, in Christianity, symbolize "four pillars of the Christian faith—eggs for creation, flour as the mainstay of the human diet, salt for wholesomeness and milk for purity."

Fish is for Fridays in our world, not Tuesdays.