I brake for tradition

Pancakes have been around since prehistoric times. Earliest written accounts of them date back to the 5th century BC, and you bet your ass they did not refer to anything made out of a box — for that you’d have to jump forward more than 2,000 years when the first pancake mix (did you guess Aunt Jemima’s?) was introduced at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.¹

You could say it’s been downhill for pancakes ever since. Oh, don’t get me wrong. They’ve never been as popular as they are now, but for something that is so easy (and much cheaper) to make from scratch, you have to ask yourself if there’s any justification to buying pre-made mix at all. On the other hand, if you’re the type who doesn’t bat an eyelash paying premium for the pancake at Maple (Pancake House’s ritzy sibling), then you clearly can’t be bothered to. Read on, anyway. Long as you’re here, you just might learn something (or at least be enlightened/scandalized enough to think twice about getting your pancake fix someplace fancy).²

So what’s in a pancake? Flour, baking soda, baking powder, milk (or water), butter (or margarine),³ sugar, salt, egg: common kitchen items all. It does not take any more effort to make pancake from scratch than when using pre-made mix. Mix dry and wet ingredients separately before combining the two. For really fluffy pancakes, do not overwork the batter. It should be lumpy, with specks of flour here and there.⁴ And start cooking as soon as the batter is mixed (do not let it rest). I’ll leave it to others to explain the science,⁵ but what it means for us mere mortals is simple enough:

Don’t sweat it. It’s just pancake.

Now go forth and show off.

Homemade Pancakes

For every cup of flour, use an equal amount of buttermilk and one egg. That should be easy to remember, no? If you don’t have buttermilk, add a teaspoon of vinegar (or kalamansi juice) per cup of regular milk and let sit for 15 minutes before using. If you’re allergic to milk, go ahead and use plain water, but don’t forget the vinegar.

The ingredients that stay constant, amount-wise: baking soda, baking powder, and butter (or margarine/vegetable oil).

The ingredients you can use less or more of (within reason, of course): sugar, salt, and vanilla extract.

• 2 cups flour
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt


• 2 cups buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted and at room temp
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1. In a bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Set aside.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together buttermilk, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla extract.
3. Heat up a griddle (or any broad flat pan) and brush with a thin coat of oil. Meanwhile, stir the wet mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients until just combined. The batter should be lumpy, not smooth, with specks of flour not fully incorporated.
4. Pour ¼ cupfuls of batter onto the griddle and cook until pancakes have set somewhat and bubbles form on the surface. Flip them over and cook until golden brown. Serve with butter, syrup, and sugar (or your topping of choice).

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¹ Over a million Aunt Jemima-brand pancakes were sold during the fair. The event also secured Daniel Burnham’s and Frederick Law Olmsted’s places in architectural history, saw the invention of the ferris wheel, and, on a more grim note, provided a steady supply of victims for Dr. H.H. Holmes, the serial killer. For a fascinating and detailed account, I can’t recommend Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City (2003) highly enough. «

² I have no vendetta against Maple, BTW. I knew their prices going in. But I had not had pancake in a pancake house in decades and wanted to refresh my memory. «

³ I spent decades in retail, so let me share a typical scenario. Customer walks in, looking for butter. He’s shown to the dairy section, where he looks around, picks up some items, puts them back, and looks some more before settling on Buttercup. “Excuse me,” the clerk would say, “that’s not butter.” And customer would reply, “Oh, that’s okay. It’s cheaper.” I may not get this chance again, so to reiterate: Buttercup is not butter — it’s margarine. Same with Dari Creme. «

⁴ This is a case where a food processor actually works to your disadvantage. I learned that the hard way. «

⁵ If it’s got anything to do with cooking and science, it’s bound to have Kenji López-Alt in it. But his post had nothing to do with my making pancakes (I was not even aware of it until today). See, I bought this “perfect” pancake pan at TruValue and was raring to break it in. Well, what do you think? «