In the mid ‘sixties I discovered a restaurant devoted to
pancakes. I sampled my way through the
menu over the course of many weeks, and I came to the conclusion that some
pancakes are better than others. Not
just at that restaurant, but anywhere I had a pancake. What is so difficult about making a pancake?
I decided to find out.
The first batch of pancakes I ever made was from the memory
of watching my grandmothers making them.
Did I ever have a lapse of memory!
I couldn’t call them pancakes, but I did have another name for
them. Into the trash they went. My next batch was from a box with the
picture of someone’s aunt on it. It was
much better, but my pancake cooking skills needed developing, so I began to
make a lot of box mix pancakes. Finally
I reached a place of being comfortable with the cooking process. Now I needed a good recipe.
I tried to make pancakes the way my grandmother’s did, but I
just couldn’t get it right. I had
watched them for years, and I knew I had the right ingredients and about the
right proportions, but something wasn’t right.
I asked my grandmothers about this and even made pancakes right beside
them, but theirs were good, and mine were not good. Mine looked as good as theirs, but the taste was completely
different. They both said they made
pancakes by ‘feel.’
I’ve heard this many times by seasoned cooks. A recipe is just a guideline, after that
it’s intuition. After all these many
years of cooking, I finally understand.
And I’ve developed several kinds of pancakes I really like. One of my favorites is a cornmeal pancake.
Cornmeal Pancakes
Serves 6.
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup blue cornmeal
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons Home Made Pecan Flavoring*
2 cups milk
3 tablespoons melted and cooled butter
3 tablespoons corn or canola oil
In a large bowl, combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking
powder and salt. In another bowl, whisk the eggs, Home Made Pecan Flavoring,
milk butter and oil; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.
Pour batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto a lightly greased hot
griddle. Turn the pancakes over when bubbles form on top, and cook until the
second side is golden brown.
I serve these with butter only or butter and jam. Occasionally honey or molasses finds its way
onto the pancakes, but never syrup.
*Home Made Pecan Flavoring:
Fill a jar with pecan halves or pieces.
Cover with inexpensive vodka.
Tighten the lid on the jar and set aside in a cool dark place for about
6 months. Shake the jar from time to
time. Strain through several layers of
cheesecloth into a clean jar and allow to settle for a few days. Strain again being careful not to disturb
the sediments. It's ready to use. Do not try to use the pecans for anything
else. Just toss them. They’ve done their job.
I’ve tried this pancake recipe with vanilla extract, pecan-butter flavoring, and no flavoring at all. There is no substitute for the Home Made Pecan Flavoring.