A Recipe, Returned

Plättar Griddle




We admired the heavy cast iron plättar griddle that Cindy's grandfather made 70 years ago at the Moline Foundry in Minneapolis and Cindy told a story about her dad. “Later on in life he mainly worked in liquor stores as the manager, and he did the ordering. There is something in here I was looking at it this morning,” Cindy opened the church cookbook from my great-great uncle's parish and started leafing through the pages. “It is a pancake recipe and it really brought up some memories. My dad was the one that always made Swedish pancakes and it was not Mom’s job. It was Dad’s.”

He made the pancakes on weekend mornings, she told me, then she tapped her finger on a worn yellowed page.  A newspaper clipping was taped to the page. “And this is the recipe my dad used. This is the one.”

The recipe came from either the Star or the Tribune, Minneapolis dailies that have since merged into the StarTribune. “One time my father was robbed at the liquor store and the man took his wallet. My dad just kept saying to the police officer, ‘Please try to find my wallet! I don’t care about my license; I don’t care about the money. I had a very special Swedish pancake recipe.’ Well it was months later that the police officers did find it. There wasn’t any identification in it but the police officer remembered that my father said there was a Swedish pancake recipe in there so I thought it was very cool.”

I admired the recipe, amazed at its history. “This is the recipe. This paper was in the wallet.”

“Yeah, it was so special that Mom had taped it into the cookbook.” We continued reading the recipe and puzzling why this particular clipping was so important to Cindy’s dad. “And why he carried it around. Why in his wallet?”

“Didn’t he memorize it?” I wondered.

Cindy agreed, “That’s what I was thinking.”

“And what possessed him to start making pancakes?”

I've since tried this recipe, and it produces the kind of eggy cakes that I've come to love.  Beneath the recipe is a blurb by the woman who submitted it.  "I always use the special Swedish pancake fry pan with seven sections."  She goes on to say this recipe is the best method to get her children to digest eggs!
 
Swedish Pancakes
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp melted butter or oil
1 tbsp sugar
3/4 flour, unsifted
1/2 tsp baking powder
 
Beat eggs.  Add half the milk and dry ingredients and beat.  Add remaining milk.