BS: Pancakes

27 Sep 01 - 03:57 PM (#560121)
Subject: Pancakes
From: Morticia

A little help from my American friends here? My son and I are in a debate regarding the thorny subject of pancakes. He contends that american pancakes must be made to a different recipe because they taste different, I say they are simply made smaller and thicker but the batter, i.e. eggs, flour, milk is the same either side of the Atlantic.Which of us is right?

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27 Sep 01 - 04:07 PM (#560137)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: Liz the Squeak

Different sort of flour maybe??

LTS with cat sitting on keyboard.... now mouse mat has gone....

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27 Sep 01 - 04:18 PM (#560142)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: wysiwyg

Baking powder, or you have crepes.

~S~

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27 Sep 01 - 04:19 PM (#560144)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: GUEST,Kim C no cookie

I don't recollect if I ate pancakes across the pond or not. It's been a long time ago.

My dad made The Best Pancakes in the World. They were a little sweet, and a little salty. Sounds weird, I know, but lemme tellya, they were awesome. And he was one of those people that didn't use a recipe, it was all in his head.

And while I cook like that most of the time myself, I have not ever been able to replicate his pancakes. The pancake dynasty died with him.

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27 Sep 01 - 04:26 PM (#560148)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: Bert

Yep that's right WYSI, American pancakes have baking powder, English pancakes are like crepes.

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27 Sep 01 - 04:32 PM (#560152)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: Morticia

My son is now cackling triumphantly....thanks everso *BG*.How much baking powder?

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27 Sep 01 - 04:51 PM (#560171)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: Allan C.

Baking soda is used also when buttermilk is included in the recipe. Have a look here. I suspect you could make a blackberry sauce for them using the same recipe that is incuded with the pancake recipe.

BTW, there are many different names that are used for pancakes here. Flapjacks, griddlecakes and hotcakes are some. Can anyone think of others?

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27 Sep 01 - 04:52 PM (#560172)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: wysiwyg

*G* "Enough"!

I never measure...

Oh let's see, about a knife-tip full for a start. Play with it. Make it HIS problem!

Then there's cooking style. I thought everyone made them like my grandmother-- a littl on the solid side, and fried in a black iron pan swimming with LOTS of bacon grease, so the edges got lacy-cruncy-- fat half as deep as the pancakje, I suppose. Almost deep fried but not quite.

But they don't...

And how much liquid, how fluffy-- come on over to this side of the pond and take a pancake tour, for everyone has THE way. ~Susan

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27 Sep 01 - 04:53 PM (#560174)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: MMario

approx 1 teaspoon baking powder per cup (1/2 pint) of flour. if using buttermilk - replace 1/4 of the baking powder with baking SODA

I suspect your batter is made thinner then US pancake batter as well - I've just checked a couple recipes and the flour and liquid are about equal - whereas in crepe recipes there is usually more liquid then flour.

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27 Sep 01 - 05:06 PM (#560188)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: wysiwyg

Yeah, a crepe is really a thickened diluted egg, a fragile, thin omelette.... in a pancake the main food value is in the flour. A sauce with a crepe silkens it; a sauce or maple syrup on a pancake soaks in.

Maple syrup? You have maple syrup in the UK? Oh you have to have it... Please tell me you have THAT!

Although honey and cinnamon is quite nice too.

There are deeper, thicker ones yet... baked... chopped apples and sugar and cinnamon on the bottom if the pan, stiff dough piled on, more topping, bake.... we do this outdoors in the black iron dutch over, coals below and coals on top... Mmario, come on over...

We should hire Hardi to cook for a MudGather....

Oh and then there are grilled sandwiches made with French Toast as the base...

~S~

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27 Sep 01 - 05:06 PM (#560189)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: Amergin

One of my dear departed uncles used to make hotcakes with sausage gravy every morning...and he did it all from scratch...and oh my god they were wonderful....my gramma has the recipe now...perhaps one day I'll get it from her....

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27 Sep 01 - 05:24 PM (#560208)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: mousethief

I thought pancakes-with-gravy was my family's secret: it sure seemed so for many, many years. Everybody looked at me like I was crazy. I keep packets of instant gravy just for putting on pancakes on Saturday mornings (who has time any other morning? (I mean if you go to church Sundays)). Not as good as home-made, but when you got the itch, you gotta scratch it.

My basic pancake recipe is one cup flour, maybe scant 1/2 tsp salt, 1 generous tsp baking powder, one egg, 1/3 cup oil, one cup milk. On really inspirational mornings I'll add some bran (for health's sake and for the nutty flavor), and a tiny bit of arrowroot.

But mostly I just use the just-add-water stuff. Krusteaz, from beautiful downtown Kent, Washington, USA. The working chef's friend. :)

Alex

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27 Sep 01 - 05:33 PM (#560213)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: Mrs.Duck

Our pancakes are 1/2 flour to milk so 4oz flour needs 1/2 pint milk and one egg. We also use a similar recipe for yorkshire pudding cooked in the oven and eaten with lots of onion gravy. mmmm

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27 Sep 01 - 05:43 PM (#560219)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: Bill D

as my daddy used to say, "It's the same, only different."

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27 Sep 01 - 05:59 PM (#560232)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: catspaw49

Hey Mort.....got buckwheat flour? Really fine! I also am a big fan of corncakes using half the flour as corn flour and the other as wheat flour. Add a can of creamed corn and then the milk to the proper consistency. Good corncakes with real maple syrup can't be beat.

Spaw

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27 Sep 01 - 06:29 PM (#560255)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: Jeri

At some point in my life, I ordered my mother to start writing down her recipies so I could have them. This was her recipe for pancakes, which probably came straight out of a cookbook, but who cares?

1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 Tblsp salt
1 Tblsp baking powder
1 Tblsp sugar
1 beaten egg (For a thicker pancake, use 2 eggs)
1 cup milk
2 Tblsp melted shortening (or bacon fat, or sausage drippings)

Sift flour with salt, baking powder and sugar.
Combine egg, milk, shortening and add to dry ingredients, stirring until flour is moistened. Batter will be lumpy. Bake on hot, ungreased griddle.

So your son is making breakfast tomorrow?

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27 Sep 01 - 07:40 PM (#560301)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: Gloredhel

Buckwheat pancakes are great, but my favorite is still the regular flour with regular milk kind, with a little cinnamon in the mix and bannanas put in the bottom of the pan before the mix is poured in. Blueberrries, blackberries or currents also work well, for added flavor.

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27 Sep 01 - 07:45 PM (#560302)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: Morticia

My son is unaware there is life before 10 am....I suspect I will be sent to the supermarket in search of ingredients tomorrow though....thanks for all your help everyone.

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27 Sep 01 - 07:48 PM (#560304)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: catspaw49

I had a current in my batter one thime and the damn thing got stronger and stronger and all the batter got to sloshin' around and then washed right out of the bowl! Really made one helluva' mess. I think it was the Humboldt Current.

Spaw

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27 Sep 01 - 07:53 PM (#560310)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: wysiwyg

Lumpy batter, now-- not smooth like crepes-- big bumps of undissolved flour-- I dunno why but they make a better batch. Just stir enough to combine, let it rest a few minutes, and go for it.

Make enough for the rest of us-- we'll be right over!

~S~

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27 Sep 01 - 08:12 PM (#560318)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: CarolC

One or two tablespoons full of cider vinegar can add sweetness and just a little bite to a regular pancake recipe. Kim C, maybe that was what your dad was doing.

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27 Sep 01 - 08:28 PM (#560325)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: bill\sables

In the U.S.A. you have pancakes available every day for breakfast in most of the diners I have visited, but when I was a kid we only had pancakes on Shrove Tuesday (The day before Ash Wednesday which is the start of Lent) My father learned how to make them from a Chinese cook in the Royal Navy and his were the best. This was probably the only day in the year that my father ever used the stove. Toppings were always buter, sugar and lemon juice. He would pour a little oil or lard into a hot pan to grease the pan then pour off any excess, then he would pour in the batter mix and of course toss them to turn them over, he never stuck one to the cieling or dropped one on the floor much to our dog's disapointment. The tradition of eating pancakes only on Shrove Tuesday is still upheld in out family.
Bill

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27 Sep 01 - 08:33 PM (#560326)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: Art Thieme

Carol always puts popcorn in the pancake batter------so they'll flip themselves. (I can see two stuck to the ceiling from where I'm sitting right now as a matter of fact.)

Art Thieme

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27 Sep 01 - 08:36 PM (#560330)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: Jeri

Popcorn is a lot of fun in turkey stuffing as well.

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27 Sep 01 - 08:42 PM (#560339)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: catspaw49

Okay Mort....Go shopping and have the pancakes on Saturday morning....and tell your son that a few hours later and 4 thousand miles away, we'll be having Toad in the Hole. (I'm willing to bet that we are the only family in this county who eats Toad on a regular basis...or at all)

Spaw

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27 Sep 01 - 09:03 PM (#560351)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: wysiwyg

Don't flip them till the air bubbles around the outer edges form and pop and new ones stop forming, or you will have a nice mess all over. On an electric stove, start at top heat till the fat sizzles, then turn it down to a medium high as you add the batter, or the bottoms will burn before you flip them.

I hate it when my bottom burns, don't you?

~S~

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27 Sep 01 - 09:47 PM (#560379)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: sophocleese

Don't put the batter in the pan until the pan is hot enough, otherwise it sticks.

bill/sables, my mother used to make thinner english pancakes when I was a very young child on Shrove Tuesday, as I read what you wrote I remembered that we had them with sugar and lemon juice.

Another breakfast that I remember from childhood was the first time I had crepes. We were staying with friends the night before we sailed across the Atlantic. In the morning they fed us crepes with fresh strawberries, whipped cream and maple syrup. It was a truly divine experience.

My favourite recipe for getting a lot of dairy products into a reluctant child is cottage cheese pancakes.

I cup cottage cheese
I cup sour cream
4 eggs
3/4 cup flour
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt

In a blender mix up the cottage cheese, sour cream and eggs. Add flour, sugar and salt. Let sit for a couple of minutes then cook and eat like regular pancakes. Delicious.

If your son is anything like mine you need to monitor the syrup level. If I turn my back half of its gone from the bottle and there's a lake on his plate.

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27 Sep 01 - 10:36 PM (#560417)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: Hagbardr

Due to a recent unsuccessful attempt at making grape jelly, I am now in possession of 9 pints of grape syrup. It's good on pancakes though.

Hagbardr

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28 Sep 01 - 02:08 AM (#560510)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: JohnInKansas

Having consulted with a fair number of commercial "chefs" at various 'greasy-spoon' establishments, I can assure you that commercial restaurants in my part of the US almost universally use a "mix" called "Bisquik."

This abomination provides flour, with a small amount of grease, and leavening, so that all that must be added is some milk and (optionally) an egg or two.

The recipe for pancakes - or for "waffles" - is on the box.

If, perchance, you can find this product, it would be the most certain method of producing a "standard average ordinary mediocre American" pancake.

Actually, a slight increase in the amount of liquid permits one to produce a serviceable "crepe" as well, although the directions on the box do not acknowledge such "unAmerican" frivolity.

The secret to full enjoyment of the standard American pancake - which I have attempted to introduce to numerous of my friends, with limited success - is a topping of sardines (oil sauce - not the fancy tomato or mustard), covered with a generous slathering of light corn syrup (a truly midwestern American product).

Since the pancakes themselves are usually somewhat "doughy," and have a tendency to stick in your throut, and the usual (even good maple-) syrup further gums up the digestive tract, the addition of the slight amount of oil, and the nuance of dead fish flavor added by the sardines, makes them slide down harmlessly.

Seriously, the "family recipes" given above are all fairly representative. The advantage of the mix is that it permits one to easily produce a consistent, average, and representative end result.

And also seriously, for my American friends - suck a dead fish with your pancakes. You'll probably like it.

John

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28 Sep 01 - 02:19 AM (#560513)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: Liz the Squeak

Hagbardr - boil your grape syrup up again with something sharp, like black currant, lemon or sour apple juice. It sounds like there wasn't enough pectin in the mix. You can get pectin separately too, if you have a good winemaking/home baking store near you.... I made jelly that set like road tar once... kept its shape, but was decidedly rubbery! Tasted fantastic though!

Morty, I'll be over for breakfast on Saturday..... I've got some maple syrup and some homemade sloe, apple and blackberry jam with port, to see how that tastes.....

Do I feel the stirrings of a pancake fest at Llanstock??

LTS

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28 Sep 01 - 04:26 AM (#560547)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: sian, west wales

Morticia, I've seen Bisquick in Tesco's in Wales - my mother swore by it, but I do mine from scratch. There's a passable recipe in the first of the (most recent?) Delia Smith books - the white one with the eggs on the front. (Who'd ever think of giving a cook book a white cover??? Obviously someone who's a tidy cook. Not me.)

Oh, and WYSIWYG's points - particularly about watching for the bubbles, are spot on!

sian

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28 Sep 01 - 05:50 AM (#560574)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: Allan C.

Funny that the "Farting In Public" thread would appear at about the same time as this one. Nothing can place me in a higher likelihood of doing that very thing than a satisfying quantity of pancakes. Usually, they are well worth the risk.

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28 Sep 01 - 07:14 AM (#560592)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: catspaw49

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa...........Hold up on that Bisquik!! I mean like John is right, but notice he says "mediocre." I'll take that a step or two further and tell you that a pancake is a pancake, but a Bisquik pancake is a Bisquik pancake. It has a "distinctive" Bisquik flavor and should you even slightly overcook them, they will also make a serviceable Frisbee. Thicken the batter a bit too much and make small ones that you can then sell for hockey pucks. Frisbee, hockey puck, Bisquik pancake......all taste about the same.

Spaw

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28 Sep 01 - 09:42 AM (#560695)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: MMario

- yeuchk! even my mother didn't make bisquik pancakes! (though she used it for a heck of a lot of other things)

Hagbard - also onn the bisquik box is a recipe for dumplings - try cooking a batch of them up in your grape syrup - serve the dumplings with the syrup spooned over them - blue teeth for a week - but delicious!

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28 Sep 01 - 10:01 AM (#560709)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: jeffp

Hey Spaw! I make a mean Toad in the Hole too. Blew the kids' minds when I told them what was for brunch. (Takes too much time to prepare for breakfast.) It's a special treat, but one everybody loves. Hmmmm.......maybe this weekend........

jeffp

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28 Sep 01 - 10:10 AM (#560718)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: sian, west wales

Hey, Bisquick is like, ummmmmmm, like Kool-aid. No one ever said it was real food - but it was one of those Definitive Experiences of growing up in the 50s and 60s. I'll hear no slander of it!

Actually, I even have a recipe *for* Bisquick (would you believe!)

sian

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28 Sep 01 - 10:21 AM (#560724)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: MMario

hmmmmmm- just checked the recipe for Toad in the Hole - never actually had it, but during the Great Corn Meal Fiasco (Dad bought a 100 lb. sack for $1) we frequently had sausages baked into corn bread - maybe "Frog in a Bog"?

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28 Sep 01 - 12:32 PM (#560824)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: Mrs.Duck

We often have Toad in the Hole for tea with mashed potato and baked beans but like Bill Sables we only ever have pancakes on pancake day ie Shrove Tuesday - Mardi Gras

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28 Sep 01 - 01:17 PM (#560843)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: catspaw49

HOLY KEERICED!!!!! Lemmee get this right......You have Toad with MASHED POTATOS AND BAKED BEANS????

Think y'all got enough starch there Mrs. D?

LMAO!!!!!! Sounds like some of my meal plans!!!MMMMMM..MMMMM....GOOD!!!!

Spaw

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28 Sep 01 - 01:47 PM (#560861)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: Wesley S

A little off subject, but in my college days I spent a few months cooking at an IHOP { International House of Pancakes }. They had a little device full of pancake batter and we just had to give one little squirt to get a regulation sized pancake. What suprised me however was that the recipe for an omlette was three eggs { small } with a squirt of pancake batter mixed into it. I thought it was disgusting but it did make for a large omlette. Strange but true.

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28 Sep 01 - 02:27 PM (#560880)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: MMario

so THAT's how IHOP gets that texture in their omelets!

I've always wondered - as I spent a number of years as a short order cook and I never could get my omelets like theirs (not necessarily a bad thing)- but I would never have added pancake batter to my omelets either...

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28 Sep 01 - 02:32 PM (#560886)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: catspaw49

Yaeh Mario....No offense to your old employer Wes, but IHOP omelettes are real Hoovers. I love good omelettes....and if you're ever on I-24 out of Chattanoga, I got one helluva place for you.........

Spaw

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28 Sep 01 - 04:24 PM (#560966)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: Dani

OK, enough dissing the Bisquik already! It may make lousy pancakes (I'd go hungry first), but it makes the BEST dumplings for stew (add a little chopped parsley), and the ONLY shortcake I can eat with strawberries. It's just right -- none of that spongysweet cakey stuff for me.

When we get to know each other better I'll share the secret for dumplings in chicken stew.......

Dani

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28 Sep 01 - 04:33 PM (#560968)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: MMario

Dani- ever do "fruit" dumplings? (we make them with the standard dumpling recipe cooked in thickened fruit juices - usually grape - but others are good too!)

try them with a spiced cider - or for a REALLY good treat - a rum/raisen sauce.

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28 Sep 01 - 04:41 PM (#560972)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: wysiwyg

Bisquick apple pancake in the dutch oven-- camping convenience, pure luxury.

Where is Morty's REPORT????

~S~

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28 Sep 01 - 04:56 PM (#560980)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: Wesley S

Please Spaw - you can dis on IHOP all you like - I'm right behind you { say - what's that odor ?? }

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28 Sep 01 - 04:59 PM (#560981)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: Dani

"Bisquick apple pancake in the dutch oven"

Sounds like maybe pancake mix with canned apples? Mixed together? One on top of the other? I'm thinking dinner tonight.... might be worth building a bonfire for.

Dani

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28 Sep 01 - 05:34 PM (#561003)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: wysiwyg

CAMPING DAD'S DUTCH OVEN APPLE PANCAKE

Get a cast iron Dutch oven made for camping-- three iron legs underneath, and a lipped lid that is made to hold coals. Lodge makes the most reliable. This recipe presumes an already-seasoned one.

Hardiman always used the coals left over from the dinner course, and re-used the oven the stew had been in, letting it cool just enough to handle and wiping it out inside... Re-grease the inside of the oven and the underside of the lid. Bacon grease is wonderful.

Make a sorta stiff Bisquick dough, kinda gluey. Hardiman sez it's been awhile but he thinks he recalls the dough going in first (maybe a 2-inch thick wad of dough?). Let it be as lumpy on the top as it wants to be.

Over top of the dough scatter whatever you please-- baking-type apples sliced, brown sugar, maybe some nuts if you want to be wild, maybe some butter crumbled with the sugar-- just make a mess.

On goes the lid.

The coals go on top, he says, not top and bottom. (I suppose if it cooked too slow you'd put them under next time, too.) How many coals depends on the oven diameter and depth, whether you are re-using coals, how cold the day is, etc. And if one has never dutched before, this may not be the thing to start off with. Maybe 15 coals if they were all fresh ones started just for the pancake, for a 12-inch, regular-depth oven.

Bake till it smells done, and is done when you open it up to check.

Doesn't hurt to have sour cream or whipped cream or just plain heavy cream on hand to drizzle on it. Or ice cream....

Once in awhile the contents of the dutch oven, for a quickbread type thing like this or a cake mix, will swell up so much the lid comes up. Not a problem. Let it cook and let the runny stuff burn all over the outside if it wants to. May not come out purty, but always edible unless burnt to a crisp.

Don't forget to use a lid lifter to minimize the ash falling in and to save you getting burnt. A crow bar makes a nice lid hook and lifter if you didn't get one with the oven.

Be sure to report. I'd be tempted to put a layer of apples on the bottom too-- not sure tho.

~Susan

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28 Sep 01 - 05:52 PM (#561011)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: Morticia

Morty's report.....belchDelicious....difference is that american pancakes are cakey and brit pancakes are thin...my son is triumphant, I am humbled and we are both very full....many thanks, you've come up trumps again!

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28 Sep 01 - 06:18 PM (#561031)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: wysiwyg

But what did you put ON them? Butter and....

Tell tell tell!

~S~

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28 Sep 01 - 06:57 PM (#561051)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: Liz the Squeak

You bugger, you didn't wait....

LTS

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28 Sep 01 - 07:16 PM (#561061)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: Nancy King

Damn, I'm hungry.

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28 Sep 01 - 07:41 PM (#561079)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: catspaw49

Say .... Anybody know about the flour that was developed during WWII by George Kistiakowsky (who also perfected the implosive, shaped charge at Los Alamos which made the plutonium bomb work)? Brilliant and humorous character who was a chemist to the soul. He came up with a formula for an explosive that resembled flour and could be baked or cooked or used as you would any flour and you could eat the stuff too! No word on the taste, but it was smuggled into occupied countries as cakes, cookies, brownies, and of course just flour. Worked quite well, although I fear that lighting a fart might uh.......Anyway, it needed a detonator to work but it was used by the French underground a lot.

Spaw

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28 Sep 01 - 09:52 PM (#561144)
Subject: RE: BS: Pancakes
From: wysiwyg

Vegemite or Marmite?

~S~

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