What Are Ployes?

At first glance, it looks like a misspelling of “ploy” (it’s pronounced the same way), but in the simplest terms, a ploye is a cross between a pancake and a crumpet, made with buckwheat flour, which gives them a nutty flavor. The texture is generally light and crispy on one side, with lots of little bubbles, called eyes.

How Do you Eat Them?

Ployes are very versatile. Top with fruit, add some maple syrup, jam, whipped cream, or even a couple of eggs, and you’ve got breakfast. At lunch and dinner, serve them in place of bread. You can dip them in soups and stews, add some homemade baked beans inside and roll them up for the perfect snack. Ployes are sometimes topped with cretons, which is a pork spread, similar to pate.

Ployes were meant to be inexpensive but filling. That is why the ingredient list is always so basic — just buckwheat, flour, water, and perhaps a bit of salt and baking powder. Eggs, oils, milk and other expensive ingredients were precious among early settlers, usually reserved for special occasions or dishes that really needed the extra ingredients.

A Brief History of Ployes

Ployes started as a French tradition that came to North America with the French Acadians. In the 1700s, they settled in Nova Scotia, making ployes with a slightly altered ingredient list compared to similar foods made in Europe. In the Americas, Japanese buckwheat was used because the black buckwheat common in Europe was not available to Acadian settlers.

In 1783, the Acadians settled along the St. John River Valley, which would become the Canadian-American border. With them came ployes, the recipe for which was passed down from generation to generation, resulting in the traditional dish that people of northern Maine enjoy today.

Why Are They Called Ployes?

No one is quite certain exactly how this name came about but it is thought that the name could come from the word “plier,” which means to fold or bend, the way ployes are traditionally eaten. It could also be onomatopoeia; the word “ploye” sounding similar to the sound that is made when one mixes batter.

Ployes Recipe

(Acadian Buckwheat Pancakes)

Ployes Recipe

Amber Kanuckel is a freelance writer from rural Ohio who loves all things outdoors. She specializes in home, garden, environmental, and green living topics.

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