Blini pan

A small, low-sided pan: yeasted pancakes the size of a palm, cooked one or two at a time.

Also called blini skillet · From Eastern Europe

A small cast-iron blini pan with a golden pancake, a pot of sour cream, and jam.

The journey

Blini want a little pan. Russian and wider Eastern European kitchens still keep a small cast-iron or carbon-steel skillet so each pancake stays thin, lacy, and even. A large skillet makes a crepe that is a different food.

The French crêpe pan is a cousin. This one is smaller and often thicker.

An 1818 map of Poland and neighboring lands — the little pan that still bakes blini. — John Pinkerton, map of Poland (1818) · Public domain. Source

In the kitchen

Heat well. Butter lightly. Pour a ladle, swirl once, flip when the face dries. Stack under a cloth.

Eastern European volumes treat these pancakes as a feast of their own, with sour cream, fish, or jam.

Used in these ComidaTime kitchens

Find a blini pan on Amazon