✝️Ash Wednesday✝️ marks the beginning of Lent, the forty-day period of fasting and sacrifice that Christians observe leading up to Easter. Before this strict austerity descends, households historically faced a culinary deadline to purge their pantries of dairy, sugar, and lard. This necessity birthed a global ritual of deep frying where the goal is caloric density rather than subtle flavor. 🧇🍕🥞🌭🥮🍩🥧🧁🍰🎂🍪🍮🍯🥃🥂🍻🍹🍷🍾
This caloric panic kicks off on Fat Thursday, the last Thursday before Lent, a day that treats gluttony as a virtue. In Central Europe, the consumption of heavy, alcohol-laced dough is less about dessert and more about superstition, where eating these sweets is believed to ward off bad luck. The frenzy peaks on Fat Tuesday, the final explosion of excess before the fasting begins. It is the last gasp of winter indulgence designed to leave you satisfied enough to endure the silence of the season that follows
