25 million pancakes are wasted every pancake day

Every Pancake Day in the UK, 25 million pancakes are wasted! It’s flippin’ outrageous.

Archie Lasseter, Utilita Energy’s sustainability lead, said: “It’s ironic that a day that was traditionally created to use-up leftover ingredients, has now resulted in a lot of waste, and all the while, the cooking costs will be adding up.” Source: The Independent

At City Harvest, we couldn’t agree more with Archie. We love a pancake, but we also love to prevent food waste. So use our recipe consciously, and try to create as little waste as possible with out 5 tips below! You can also use this Pancake-ulator (developed by Jamie Oliver) to combat Pancake Day waste. 

3-ingredient pancake recipe

This easy, 3-ingredient pancake recipe is all you need this Pancake Day. To prevent food waste, calculate exactly how much batter you’ll need.

INGREDIENTS (makes 6 pancakes, mulitply measurements for more)

• 50 g plain flour
• 150 ml milk of choice
• 1 large egg
• neutral oil (vegetable) or butter for frying

Method

1. Sift your flour into a large bowl or jug.

2. Add your egg, then slowly add the milk and beat the ingredients together with a fork or whisk until a silky smooth batter has formed.

3. Gently heat oil in a large non-stick frying pan – use a paper towel to dab or spread oil for even coverage.

4. Pour about half a ladle-ful of the batter onto the now-hot pan and use the back of the ladle to swirl the pancake into a large shape, gently. (The first pancake is always a bit temperamental)

5. As the sides of your pancake start to curl up and you feel you can easily move your pancake, flip it by holding the frying pan handle with both hands or use a large spatula to gently turn it over.

6. It should take around 1 minute to cook the pancake on each side.

7. Repeat this method until you have a hot pile of pancakes. Serve them with lemon and sugar, or any topping you fancy, and enjoy!

5 ways to prevent food waste this Pancake Day

1. Buy only what you need. We tend to always buy more food than we need. Most of us will have milk and eggs in our fridge already that we can use up, but if not, try to buy only for the number of pancakes you’re making or people you’re feeding.

2. Make only what you need. 1 in 5 people make too much batter. One of the reasons why so many pancakes end up going to waste on pancake day (25 million in the UK) is because we make too much batter which many will throw away.

Whilst there are ways to use it up, if you don’t want pancakes for the next few days, then consider adjusting the recipe to make the exact amount that you need.

3. Love your leftovers. You can freeze whole pancakes, or pancake batter. If you’ve bought too much milk you can freeze it, or use it in scrambled eggs, smoothies or milkshakes.

Tip: if you freeze your pancake batter in an ice cube tray, you will have perfectly-portioned amounts for your next pancake batch.

4. Keep an eye out. Another reason why pancakes are wasted is because they get burnt or flipped onto the floor (we see you).

The best way to prevent either of these scenarios is by keeping a close eye on them and maybe taking one for the team and having the first (often the worst) pancake yourself.

5. Compost like crazy. You can compost eggshells and lemon skins.

Don’t compost too much lemon peel as it can make your compost overly acidic, so why not grate the zest, candy the peel or create lemon potpourri.