THe Dutch make small pancakes called poffertjes. I think the pans are usuallylarger, but perhapsyou coulduse this pan for a single serving.

Aebleskiver pan for making some type of apple dish (Danish)

it could be a small pancake pan, see

http://www.fantes.com/aebleskiver.html#poffertjes

I'm sticking with the Swedish pancake theory, although I'm sure there are lots of different applications this pan could be used for. I like the rosti idea! But it only makes 4 whatever's at a time - not too practical unless you are cooking for 1 or 2.

Thanks, betteirene, I've sent my question off to Mr. Kimball!

Vote for pancakes. Whoopie Pie cakes are baked in the oven on a cookie sheet. I recently acquired 2 cookbooks devoted exclusively to whoopie pies and looked through them with my 16 y/o daughter, a whoopie pie fiend.

Interesting, your Plett pan theory seems plausible, but TiggyBee's suggestion of a Rosti pan also looks like it could be correct. My two cents, maybe its for making Whoopie Pie cakes.

I don't know what it is, but if you send this question to Cook's Illustrated and if it is andswered in print, you will receive a complimentary one-year subscription. It's worth a shot: [email protected]

I guess a plett pan is pancake then? I think I was thinking of Swiss rather than Scandinavian maybe, because when I just googled '4 compartment pancake pan' this blog came up:
http://tofufortwo.net/2008/03/26/spicy-potato-rosti/ Not sure if it's the same pan, but looks similar.
It's a neat looking pan, is it antique?

Thanks everyone! I didn't see any markings at all. My first thought was eggs, too. But the plett pan seems more logical. This reminds me I have a Swedish Food cookbook. In it, there is a recipe for Swedish Pancakes that says "Heat Swedish pancake pan and butter well....pour by tablespoon fuls into sections of pan and fry on both sides until nicely brown." I wonder why this one only has 4 sections?

I think it's a plett pan. The indentations look too shallow for eggs, at least from what I can see in the photo. But there's no reason you couldn't try it with eggs and see what happens.

How about a crumpet or English Muffin baking pan?

I think it looks like a pancake pan. I've seen them before in Scandinavian cookbooks if I remember correctly.

thought it might be a plett pan: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=plett+pan&x=0&y=0 but all of those pans have at least 6 indents. I'm going w/lastnightsdinner and shooting for eggs. any mark on the back?

Looks like something for cooking eggs, perhaps?