View source for Crempog

{{Use British English|date=April 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Infobox food
| name             = Crempog
| image            = File:Crempog - Anglesey style.JPG
| caption          = Crempogau, made using the Anglesey recipe
| alternate_name   = Ffroes
| country          = [[Wales]], [[United Kingdom]]
| region           = 
| creator          = 
| course           = 
| type             = [[Pancake]]
| served           = 
| main_ingredient  = [[batter (cooking)|batter]]
| variations       = 
| calories         = 
| other            = 
}}

The '''crempog''' (plural: crempogau) is a [[Wales|Welsh]] [[pancake]] made with [[flour]], [[buttermilk]], [[Egg (food)|eggs]], [[vinegar]] and salted [[butter]]. Traditionally made on bakestones or griddles, the {{lang|cy|crempog}} is one of the oldest recipes in Wales. They are also known as {{lang|cy|ffroes}}, {{lang|cy|pancos}} and {{lang|cy|cramoth}} and are normally served thickly piled into a stack and spread with butter. It is [[traditional]]ly served at celebrations in Wales, such as [[Shrove Tuesday]] and birthdays.

==Name==
The word "crempog" has its origins in the [[Welsh language]], but is similar to the [[Breton language|Breton]] word {{lang|br|krampouezh}}, which is also a type of pancake.<ref name="Tudor">{{cite book|title=The Tudor Kitchen: What the Tudors Ate & Drank |first=Terry|last=Breverton|publisher=Amberley Publishing Limited |year=2015 |isbn=9781445648750}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://newspapers.library.wales/view/3476399/3476401/5/crempog|title=Comments and Criticisms by ''Cochfarf''|work=Evening Express|date=4 March 1901|accessdate=3 April 2016}}</ref> Comparisons are often drawn between the two Celtic languages which share ancestry in the [[Brittonic languages|Brittonic language]], though the krampouezh is more dainty than the crempog and is today closer to a [[crêpe]] than a pancake.{{sfn|Davies|Jenkins|Menna|Lynch|2008|p=915}}{{sfn|Freeman|1980|pp=15-16}}

The English word ''[[crumpet]]'' may be derived from crempog or [[Cornish Language|Cornish]] {{lang|kw|krampoeth}}.<ref name="Tudor"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-408-1/dissemination/csv/Lexicon/Celtic_Lexicon_Cornish.csv |title=Celtic Lexicon: Cornish|accessdate=2 April 2016|publisher=University of York}}</ref>

==History==
{{Culture of Wales}}
[[File:Annual Pancake Day Dance at Trewern (8470993092).jpg|thumb|left|250px|Women with crempogau at a traditional Shrove Tuesday Dance in [[Trewern]] (1940).]]
The history of food in Wales is poorly documented, and much of what is known lies in verbal and archaeological evidence. Wales has a long history of baking using a [[bakestone]] (Welsh: maen), a large round portable flatstone.{{sfn|Tibbott|2002|p=80-81}} The flagstone was replaced by a metal plate known as a {{lang|cy|gradell}} ([[griddle]]), and these appeared among the list of objects made by blacksmiths in the [[Cyfraith Hywel|Laws of Hywel Dda]] (13th century).{{sfn|Tibbott|2002|p=81}} Bakestones were commonly used throughout rural Wales for making [[flatbread]]s with evidence of their use found in farmhouses and in the homes of landed gentry.{{sfn|Tibbott|2002|p=81}} Early flat stones were placed on a tripod over an open fire, though in many areas, especially in south-west Wales, a specially designed circular iron frame with a half hoop handle was used.{{sfn|Tibbott|2002|p=81}} By the early decades of the twentieth century built-in wall ovens were common throughout kitchens in Wales, though these would be wood and coal burning.{{sfn|Tibbott|2002|p=86}} The tradition of using a bakestone coexisted with these newer ovens. Heating the large ovens was generally confined to one day a week and was used to make bread and cakes to last the family until the next week.{{sfn|Tibbott|2002|p=86}} These were augmented with whatever could be cooked over the open fireplace using the bakestone.{{sfn|Tibbott|2002|p=86}} Common foods cooked using this method were {{lang|cy|cacen radell}} (griddle cake), {{lang|cy|bara crai'}} (unleavened bread), {{lang|cy|[[cacen gri]]}} (speckled cakes) and {{lang|cy|crempog}}.{{sfn|Tibbott|2002|p=86}}

Although there is no documented evidence of the earliest crempog recipe, the basic ingredients, readily available in Wales suggests a long history. The recipe for {{lang|cy|crempog}} reflects very old cookery traditions that were once common throughout Britain.{{sfn|Freeman|1980|p=153}} Bobby Freeman, writing in 1980, states that {{lang|cy|crempog}}, along with [[cawl]], is the one Welsh ingredient to have endured from past times.{{sfn|Freeman|1980|p=153}} Despite {{lang|cy|crempog}} being a staple of Welsh cuisine due to its ease of preparation in past times, it is also connected to traditional celebrations.{{sfn|Freeman|1980|p=153}} {{lang|cy|Crempog}} was served on [[Shrove Tuesday]] throughout Wales and was associated with birthdays, especially in south Wales, where the stack of pancakes are cut down in wedges and served like a cake.{{sfn|Freeman|1980|p=153}}{{sfn|Tibbott|2002|p=86-87}}

==Preparation==
For the standard {{lang|cy|crempog}} recipe, butter is melted in warm [[buttermilk]] and then poured into a well of flour and beaten. The mixture is meant to stand for a few hours. A second mixture is made using sugar, [[bicarbonate of soda]], vinegar and beaten eggs. The mixtures are then combined to make a smooth, dense [[Batter (cooking)|batter]].{{sfn|Freeman|1980|p=156}}

The thick batter is poured onto a hot bakestone or griddle, over a moderate heat. The {{lang|cy|crempog}} is cooked until golden on both sides and served in a stack with butter spread on each pancake.{{sfn|Freeman|1980|p=153}}

==Variants==
In [[Anglesey]] and [[Caernarfonshire]] {{lang|cy|crempogau}} were prepared as {{lang|cy|crempog furum}}, a pancake made with yeast, or {{lang|cy|crempug wen}} where the normally coarse flour was replaced with [[refined flour]].{{sfn|Tibbott|2002|p=87}} These pancakes were meant for the family of the house with the servants of the house being served {{lang|cy|crempog surgeirch}} or {{lang|cy|bara bwff}}, an oatmeal-based pancake.{{sfn|Tibbott|2002|p=87}}

Although {{lang|cy|crempog}} is the term most commonly associated with Welsh pancakes they were known by different names around the country. {{lang|cy|Crempog}} was the term most often used in north Wales, while in parts of [[Carmarthenshire]] and [[Glamorgan]] they were known as {{lang|cy|cramwythen}} (singular: {{lang|cy|cramoth}}).{{sfn|Freeman|1980|p=153}} In other parts of Glamorgan they were known as {{lang|cy|ffrosen}} (plural: {{lang|cy|ffroes}}), while in [[Cardiganshire]] they were called {{lang|cy|poncagen}} (plural: {{lang|cy|poncagau}}).{{sfn|Freeman|1980|p=153}} In some areas of both Cardiganshire and Carmarthenshire they were known as {{lang|cy|pancosen}}.{{sfn|Freeman|1980|p=154}}

As with most meals there are no specific recipe for {{lang|cy|crempog}}.{{sfn|Freeman|1980|p=154}} The Glamorganshire {{lang|cy|ffroes}} are almost identical to Scottish pancakes ([[drop-scone|drop scones]]), which may have been brought to the region by Scottish labourers during the industrialization of the south Wales coalfields, but the piling of them into a stack smothered in butter harks to Welsh traditions.{{sfn|Freeman|1980|p=154}}

==In poetry==
A Welsh verse<ref>[https://archive.today/20120630212323/http://home.comcast.net/~ariannx/Food/tea_recipes.html King Arthur's Tea Recipes]</ref> sung by children refers to crempogau:

: {{lang|cy|Modryb Elin Enog}}
: {{lang|cy|Os gwelwch chi'n dda ga i grempog?}}
: {{lang|cy|Cew chithau de a siwgr brown}}
: {{lang|cy|A phwdin lond eich ffedog}}
: {{lang|cy|Modryb Elin Enog}}
: {{lang|cy|Mae 'ngheg i'n grimp am grempog}}
: {{lang|cy|Mae Mam rhy dlawd i brynu blawd}}
: {{lang|cy|A Sian yn  rhy ddiog i nol y triog}}
: {{lang|cy|A 'nhad yn rhy wael i weithio}}
: {{lang|cy|Os gwelwch chi'n dda ga i grempog}}

In English:

: Auntie Elin Enog
: Please may I have a pancake?
: You can have tea and brown sugar
: And your apron full of pudding
: Auntie Elin Enog
: My mouth is parched for pancakes
: My mum is too poor to buy flour
: And Sian is too lazy to get the treacle
: And my father's too sick to work
: Please may I have a pancake?

==See also==
* [[Crumpet]]
* [[List of pancakes]]
* [[List of English words of Celtic origin]]
* {{Portal-inline|food}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

; Bibliography
*{{cite book |editor1-first=John |editor1-last=Davies|editor1-link=John Davies (historian)|editor2-first=Nigel |editor2-last=Jenkins | editor2-link=Nigel Jenkins| editor3-first=Baines |editor3-last=Menna|editor4-first=Peredur I. |editor4-last=Lynch |title=The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales |year=2008 |publisher=University of Wales Press |location=Cardiff |isbn=978-0-7083-1953-6}}
* {{cite book |last=Freeman |first=Bobby |title=First Catch Your Peacock, a Book of Welsh Food |year=1980 |publisher=Image Imprint |location=Griffithstown, Gwent |isbn=0-9507254-1-2}}
* {{cite book |last=Tibbott |first=S. Minwel |title=Domestic Life in Wales |year=2002 |publisher=University of Wales Press |location=Cardiff |isbn=0-7083-1746-4}}

==External links==
* [http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1537673 Crempog recipe] at www.everything2.com
*[http://www.llansadwrn-wx.info/garden/recipes.html#crempogs Crempogs Ynys Mon recipe]
{{Welsh Cuisine}}
{{Pancakes}}

[[Category:Welsh cuisine]]
[[Category:Pancakes]]