For the benefit of Americans, instructions for a good English pancake, and for Yorkshire puddings as well. Note that some Americans call them "flapjacks" - this has no relation to the Scottish flapjack which is an inch-thick biscuit made from oats, margarine and sugar. Anyway:-

Get 1 egg per person (more if you're piggy! ;-), and mix with _plain_ flour (using a whisk) until you've got a stiff paste (kind of Playdoh consistency). Don't add any more flour after this, or it'll go lumpy!

Add 1-2 tablespoons or so of milk, and stir well with the whisk until the paste's a bit thinner. Do this 3 or 4 times until the paste is more of a thick liquid. This is essential to make the mixture smooth. Then add more milk to the right quantity. For Yorkshire puddings it should be a bit thicker (so it'll coat the back of a spoon nicely), for pancakes it should almost be the consistency of the milk. This will give a lump-free mixture every time.

Then add flavourings. I like Yorkshire puddings with salt, pepper, rosemary and thyme added - it gives it a nice savoury taste which is better than just plain flour-and-water. And pancakes are much improved with a couple of largish spoons of sugar in there, and a pinch of salt. Whisk up the mixture for Yorkshire puddings, or stir it with a spoon for pancakes.

Cooking your pancake, heat a frying pan up to a good temperature (usually about 4 on a cooker) and put in half a teaspoonful of oil. When it's up to temperature, get a good pad of paper towel and wipe the oil round the pan until there's practically none left on the pan. Trust me, any more gives you a greasy pancake. Then drop in a ladle-fun of mixture, and roll the pan around quickly until the mixture covers the whole pan before it sets. You've got a window of about 10 seconds to do this! If you've not quite got enough, drop on strategically-placed drips quickly to fill in the holes. When the pancake starts to go brown at the edges, loosen off the edges with a spatula if required, wiggle the pan a bit to shuffle the pancake around to ensure it's loose, then turn it over (either flip it over in mid-air if you're feeling brave, or use a spatula). It then takes about 30 seconds at most to do the other side. If you like, you can melt stuff on at this stage - drinking chocolate (for sweet pancakes) or cheese (for savoury) are good. The traditional accompaniment for English pancakes is lemon and sugar though - lots of both.

Graham.