I’ve often pondered the humor behind many of our now traditional meals and wondered if the cooks who originally had the culinary mishap would be laughing at us now. Today, the answer to why we love pancakes is multi-layered.
Pancakes can be fluffy or chewy, depending on your taste. They can be smothered in syrup or stuffed with cream cheese. Add toppings or mix them into the batter. The truth is, at some point in history, somebody’s meal didn’t turn out as planned, they turned it into a new dish and we have all been hooked ever since.
Around the world, every culture has a flat bread that is culturally centric to their cuisine.
Being American, I have naturally borrowed everyone else’s cuisines and now through ‘fair use’ of those recipes have declared my cultural flat breads to be a hodge-podge of the rest of the world’s foods.
Growing up, we ate a lot of oatmeal. I believe I’ve mentioned this before. Someday I’ll share our method of turning old boiled oatmeal into fried slabs of syrup drenched crispiness.
However, on Saturdays, the breakfast menu miraculously changed and pancakes were the rule. There were some weeks in my childhood where the weekend pancake ritual was the only thing keeping me going. Pancakes matter.
Over the years, the family recipe has evolved quite a bit. When I was going through cooking school, this favorite recipe was subjected to experimentation based on new things I had learned about chemistry and cookery.
At one point I decided to add more sugar and yesterday I made the executive decision to increase the butter by 2 T. I am tired of measuring butter and why shouldn’t I be able to just toss the whole stick in? I should be able to and I did. The result was actually an even more delicious pancake, so I’m keeping it.
This recipe has morphed into my own personal reflection of what a perfect pancake looks and tastes like. As you can tell, I’ve spent considerable time obsessing over pancake batter in real life and now I’ve also spent a good hour typing about it here.
If you don’t love pancakes yet, you will soon.
For those of you who can’t fathom the idea of pancakes without a side of bacon, I suggest you start a batch of Bakin’ Bacon before you start on these now famously chatted-up pancakes.
Happy Saturday Pancake Day!