As we all know by now, Queen Elizabeth reigned for over 70 years, and of course, during that time, she must have collected a plethora of interesting stories and experiences to share. After she passed away, people from all over the world began rifling through archives to bring up anecdotes about the beloved monarch to share. One such incident involves U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower paying Queen Elizabeth a visit back in 1960. After his visit, it turns out the Queen wrote him a letter that included a recipe. The letter has been available in the National Archives for a while, but of course, at the Queen’s death has gained more attention than ever before.
According to the letter, it seems that Queen Elizabeth served the President and his wife Mamie some pancakes during their visit to the Queen at her Balmoral estate. The pancakes which are referred to as “drop scones” in the recipe must have been a hit since the recipe was asked for by the President. The Queen mentions in her letter that she had promised to send him a recipe and it had slipped her mind to do so till now.
Along with her famous recipe, she also included some helpful tips she thought the President might need. The ingredients the Queen mentioned were, 4 teacups flour, 4 tablespoons caster sugar (or granulated sugar), 2 teacups milk, 2 whole eggs, 2 teaspoons bicarbonate soda (or baking soda), 3 teaspoons cream of tartar and 2 tablespoons melted butter.
“Beat eggs, sugar, and about half the milk together, add flour, and mix well together, adding remainder of milk as required, also bicarbonate and cream of tartar, fold in the melted butter,” she ended her recipe. While teacup is not an exact measurement, the Queen likely means approximately 3/4 cup per teacup that she mentions in the recipe. But the ‘drop scones’ or pancakes as Americans might call them surely do sound delicious. And if they were good enough for a President to request the recipe of, then they are surely going to be a hit in your family too.
