Pancake

Made with a mixture of cooked and raw potatoes, boxty was created as a way to use a few readily available ingredients to produce different results. It can take shape as bread, pancakes or dumplings. The recipe has been popular for so long that one traditional rhyming song goes, "Boxty on the griddle, boxty on the pan; if you can't make boxty, you'll never get a man." The households that didn't have a store-bought grater improvised by using nails to punch grating holes into a box or flattened tin can. Boxty is most often made as a griddle bread, served with bacon and eggs for a special breakfast treat.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Thick, oversize pancakes that will satisfy even the hungriest eaters.

Active time: 25 min Start to finish: 30 min

This version of blini—a tribute to the Russian communities throughout the New York metropolitan area—is fast because it does not require yeast. If buckwheat flour is unavailable, whole-wheat flour makes a good substitute.

Scottish pancakes are small and typically served not at breakfast but at teatime.

You can use these pancakes for the caviar pancakes and save the remaining batter for breakfast. Active time: 15 min Start to finish: 15 min

These are also a lovely brunch dish. Buying prepared crepes (available in the produce section of some supermarkets) can save time.

We got the idea for these pancakes from The Compound Restaurant in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where hot polenta-mascarpone pancakes were the perfect finale to a delicious dinner. They also make a terrific breakfast. Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 20 min

Swedish cooks use lots of buttermilk, and the lingonberry jam suggested as an accompaniment to these incredibly light pancakes is a typical Swedish condiment.