February 27, 2020 • 44 mins
As an American breakfast food, pancakes are a specifically fluffy, sweet dish that wasn’t possible until the Industrial Revolution. Anney and Lauren explore the predecessors to and science behind the breakfast pancake.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hello, and welcome to Savor production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Anyeries and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. And today we're talking
about pancakes. Yeah, the specifically I guess American style, right,
the kind of usually breakfast food pancakes, right, Because there
are a lot of a lot of different types of
(00:27):
pancakes around the world, and we'll talk about some of them.
And there are savory pancakes, which we will return to
at some point, but not today, not today, No, but
gosh we will, Oh my gosh, we will. Um pancakes
actually make me nauseated, and I have a friend they
make her nauseated. Okay. See, I have a theory about this,
(00:47):
and that that intersects with the thing where you had
never had real maple syrup before, because I feel like
the scent of fake maple syrup along with the scent
of like margarine, like fake butter flavor together produces this
like little scent, right, because it's very rare that you're
(01:07):
having pancakes without those types of things. It depends on
your pancake experience. I'm very choosy about my pancakes for
this reason. I really prefer to make them at home.
So that I know that I'm not doing that thing
because it doesn't smell good. It smells like cloying and
weird and kind of a little yeah. And you know,
(01:27):
I was looking at I was hoping to get to
the bottom of this because I was like, is this
a thing? And the Internet was very unhelpful and basically
told me I'm a terrible person because I don't like
pancakes or whatever. I like them. They just make me
a little nacated. Internet, Why you always so mean to me.
I do prefer waffles. Yeah, there's a there's extra crispy texture,
(01:50):
right right, Yeah, but you can definitely have a bad
waffle and you can have a wonderful pancake. I did
like when I was growing up. Um, blueberry and chocolate
chip pancakes separately, not together. Oh but what about a
blueberry and chocolate chip pancake? That does sound good. I mean,
the world is ready for experimentation. It is rife for
pancake experimentation. That is true. I've seen so many types
(02:14):
of pancakes in my day. Um, I am terrible at
making them. I'm selling more on before this. I am
notoriously really really really really bad at making pancakes. I
think I can help you out here. Okay, alright, in
in a minute. But you have but you have a few.
I don't. I don't have that many, like like deeply
held pancakes stories. Yeah, I'm like, oh man, I guess
(02:37):
I've had some. They were fine. One time I attempted
to eat eyehops never ending pancakes and I ate like
the normal like three pancakes, and I was like, I'm
basically done. Yeah, I'm good. Yeah, yeah, that was That
was an event in my because I grew up in
a small town. So when they started doing that, it
was like people were cutting class in high school to go. Wow.
(02:58):
It was intense. So there was an eyehop. It was
like a twenty minute drive from us, but again very
small town, so that was like, oh my gosh, yeah,
I gotta get there. And um, when I think when
I was in eleventh grade in high school, I had
a job along with a friend of mine, working on
Black Friday at Osh Gosh Bagosh Slash Carter's Inc. At
(03:22):
the Outlet Mall in Dawsonville, Georgia, which some of you
might know because for some reason it always comes up
on things to do in Georgia Sins Outlet mall but
not worth it. Not on Annie's list, not on my list.
But if you really like shopping in particularly that kind
of shopping, maybe sure. Anyway, I was working from eleven
(03:43):
pm that night until eight am the next day. Yeah,
and we went to one of the only places that
was open, which was the Eyehop, and my friend, who
doesn't handle lack of sleep very well, she would have
to agree with me because it is just true. She
ended up under the table randomly shouting Hash Browns and
(04:04):
her sister's name, and I was assuring the waitress, like where,
she's just tired. I know how this looks. It's just
the wait stuff at eyehop has seen way worse. You're right,
You're right, probably absolutely true. But that's what capitalism will
get you, you know what I mean. Just somebody's shouting
Ash brown from under the table. Dangerous of capitalism. Yeah,
(04:27):
it's true. Um. And then I have another eye Hop
story where it was a really taxing experience to get
home from Australia for me a couple of years ago.
I think I had no money and I had no
way to charge my phone, and I was in the
airport for over seventy two hours, and I was kind
of depending on Sandbi. It's a long story, but basically
(04:49):
I've been in Australia almost a month longer than I
should have been because of strikes. Oh yeah, so all
right out of money. But my parents somehow, I guess
they were just waiting around at the airport um when
the flight started again. And so I landed at four
am in Atlanta and they were there, and I tried
and relieve I was just got finally made home and
(05:10):
we went to I Hop and I was just crying
as the sun rose and I was putting blueberries syrup
on my pancaches, like, oh my god. Odd yeah, and
my one of my nicknames is Flapjack. I'm not sure why. Yeah,
(05:31):
and uh yeah, this is sort of timely, oddly enough
because when Lent begins, Marty gra Um, which as we
record this is tomorrow, Um, several British Commonwealth countries celebrate
Shrove Tuesday slash Pancake Day. It's a way to basically
a bunch of carbs and then use up things like
dairy and eggs or that's used to be kind of
(05:52):
the impetus for it, right, sure, sure things that you're
not supposed to consume during lent exactly use them all
up the day. But for yes, yeah, it's also white
donuts have been a thing, right. We've talked about that
in our Oh Gosh in our jelly donut episode and
also in the Marty grap episode from New Orleans. We've
(06:14):
mentioned it before, but now we should get to our question. Yes,
all right, pancakes what are they? Well, a pancake is
a fluffy, slightly sweet sort of cake made in a pan,
there you go, but not like a cake pan, like
(06:35):
a like a stovetop pan, or or a grittle. A
pancake is a not an oven cake. Okay, not an
oven cake. Yeah. A pancake is a flat but puffed
up sort of cake that is so quick rising that
it can be cooked without the time and the all
enveloping heat involved when you put something in the oven. Um.
(06:56):
It's also browned on both the top and bottom, unlike
oven cakes, which are typically only exposed to the heat
of a cooking surface on one side. And you achieve
this in pancakes by flipping the cakes some halfway through cooking.
Two more or less success, mostly failure on my part,
gets on the side, you know, and then it kind
of sound and you have all this remaining batter. I
(07:21):
need to get your spatul Okay, Okay, first thing, okay,
because pancakes are some really interesting chemistry and physics at work,
and if you understand those a little bit better, then
you might have better success with this whole pancake thing,
all right, Okay, So for contrast, like like when when
you make an oven cake, you've got all kinds of
(07:43):
processes at work to create and fix bubbles in the batter,
so you can really create a dense but airy sponge. Okay,
But when you're making a pancake, you gotta do it
quick and dirty, right, So basic pancake recipe here. Uh.
You mix your dry stuff, your flour plus leveners, plus
(08:03):
seasonings like salt and sugar, um, and separately mix your
wet stuff milk, eggs, melted butter and maybe seasonings. And
then you combine the dry and wet with a minimum
of stirring minimum just just to incorporate h huh yeah yeah. Um.
You let the resulting batter rest and rise about half
an hour, and then ladle it into a hot pan.
(08:27):
Bubbles will form up big and firm within a few minutes.
And uh and and once they're kind of set, you
flip the cakes and uh and cook the second side
until golden brown. Okay, okay, So so you're looking at
me like I do all of this and I fail. Well,
(08:49):
I've not had success ever, so okay, all right, Um, well,
perhaps let's let's talk a little bit about how those
bubbles occur. Okay. To allow those bubbles to form quickly,
you are starting with a looser that is, a wetter batter,
more of your wet ingredients than dry ingredients. That's about
a cup of milk product and one egg per cup
(09:12):
of flour product. And you add one or two types
of chemical leavening agent to your dry ingredients. Things that
will create air bubbles when they first interact with wet ingredients. Um.
That's your baking soda mostly. And things will create even
more air bubbles when they heat in the pan, and
that's your baking powder mostly. Um. And those leavening agents
(09:33):
are why you don't want to over stir, because since
those leveners are your primary sources of lift, and there
are a one shot deal, uh if you destroy the
bubbles that they make by stirring them up too much,
they're not coming back and you'll wind up with these
like flat, dense, sort of soggy pancakes. Yeah, not what
you want. Um. In oven cake recipes, you can whip
(09:55):
air into eggs or into sugar and butter um and
then use that to help create lift. But you don't
have time for that in pancakes right now. Yeah. Um. So,
like the proteins and the eggs will help solidify the
leavener's bubbles along with proteins and the flour, but that's
about it. And the sugar and butter are just there
too to help keep the cakes tender. Okay. And the flipping. Oh,
(10:21):
all you need is a good big flat spatula and
you just get it, get it under the very center
of the pancake, and just in a smooth motion you
just boop. You don't, you don't, You don't really mess
with the side of the pan that hard. You just
get it right under the center and just boop it. Well,
that could be the problem. I'm not very smooth. I'm
(10:41):
not frequently described that way. I might have understated how
bad I am. People have given me those things. That's
so that I can control the amount of that that
that that is another important factor. You can't pour in
too much batter. It's probably less badder than you expect,
is it definitely is? So I have those and then
(11:02):
I have a specific someone gave me again, a pancake flipper.
It's as Bachelor designed four pancakes. Um, I have. I like,
I don't know if this is a thing, but I
always thought I was taught that the pancakes get kind
of crispy on the outside. Not crispy, but there's like
gets it gets a little bit bround, yeah, but almost
(11:24):
like lacy. Yeah, and the texture changes and then some
bubbles start appearing and then I flip it. But I
feel like it just it might work for the first match.
But that ah see. The heat in the pan is
also important. I suspected something with the heat. Yeah, there's
probably multiple things. I also, I think I've said this
(11:45):
on the show before. I did not know that baking
soda baking powder or two different things. Yeah. This is
a very important distinction that we will get into in
detail later on. Um, but that could be your problem.
I was. I had just started this job twenty eleven
when I found that out, and I thought like it
(12:05):
was just they were marketing issues. Yeah. Yeah, anyway, they
are multiple areas that could be falling down in this
pancake business. Yeah, I'd really have to observe what you're doing.
I love that you come with like goggles and a lab. Yeah,
and I just hear you back there like I see
(12:28):
maybe one day. Yeah that sounds that sounds like I'm
not going to say fun time, but certainly a time
and be educational. And if we got pancakes out of
it in the end, well they probably wouldn't be good,
but that's part of the problem eventually. Right, it is
a process we you know, we experiment, we self correct,
and then create delicious, tender, fluffy pancakes. I mean that
(12:52):
sounds good. My whole life has been leading up to this.
You're putting a lot of emphasis on this. Um, let's
let's move on perhaps to the to the nutrition. Okay, yeah,
let's talk about the nutrition. Oh gosh, let's not. Let's
it's it's a cake. It's a I mean, it's a
(13:12):
low sugar yeah, prior to the syrup, prior to any
syrup and toppings that you put in, right, And I mean, yeah,
that's the thing is there's so many types of pancakes
in the American tradition. If anyone is listening from elsewhere
and it's never had this type of dish served to them, um,
pancakes are usually served several like like I don't know.
(13:33):
They can be anywhere from like the size of your
palm to like the size of a salad plate and
or bigger. I've seen wild things wild y'all um, And
usually serve them in a stack of like at least
two or three, like sometimes more if you're real fancy
or they're real small, with pats of butter in between them,
and then you pour maple syrup down over top of them. Yeah, yeah,
(13:57):
it's a it's a pretty sweet that I forgot to mention.
My favorite pancakes in Atlanta are from Rhea's Bluebird. Oh oh,
they make lovely ones, but they are just they're huge.
They're the size of a dinner plate, and a large
dinner plate at that. If you ever have the opportunity
to get them with the caramelized bananas, it's amazing. Oh yeah, man,
all all kinds of toppings can be involved. Usually it's
(14:18):
a warm fruit compoach sort of situation. But I don't know,
like chocolate syrups, whipped cream. Oh yeah, pretty much anything
you can imagine. I know one place that we've been
to in Disney World just has like chocolate chips, Eminem's,
RUC's feet, like all kinds of fillings in there. Uh.
And I have made a Dutch baby before. A Dutch
(14:39):
baby is a separate type of pagad pancake, right, but
it's it's also like really huge and I love how
it just I had success with that. Oh really, that's
so much harder. It doesn't make sense. Lore and it's
a conspiracy. Oh and that guy of segues into the
(14:59):
next thing want to talk about, which is in our
numbers section. Yes, okay, So the Annals of Improbable Research
found that Kansas was, in fact flatter than a pancake.
It is a super goofy article. They got so into
the weeds. I love it. There's like charts and graphs
(15:20):
and formulas. Delightful. It really really really is. Look it up,
very highly recommended. There's a decent amount of pancake science
out there. There really is. There really is. On a
Pancake Day show Tuesday in Britain, over fifty two million
eggs are used, which is over twenty million more than
is the norm. Yeah, oh I love this too. Pancake races, yes,
(15:42):
these are part of the celebration. Essentially races where people
flip pancakes in a pan as they race, and there
are points for hyps speed number. But I can't flip
one at home. Amone so top and they're racing, very
very impressive to me. It's it's like a it's like
(16:04):
a skateboard trick, but but in a pan. Yeah, it's
it's just a very specific motion. I I was really
impressed and people, well I gets. Well, let's talk about
some world records, because there are a lot when it
comes to pancakes. The largest pancake three tons or six
thousand six pounds. Yeah, most flips of a pancake in
(16:24):
a minute one and forty flips, Oh my gosh. Yeah,
a record made by Australian chef Brad Jolly. Highest pancake
toss of nine point four seven ms are about one
in thirty one feet, completed by Dominic Cuscrea. And my
personal favorite, okay, fastest marathon completed while continuously flipping a
(16:50):
pancake Mike Cuscrea is time of three hours and two
minutes and twenty seven seconds. That's better a time that
I got, and I wasn't flipping pancakes, of course, that's
a record that exists. Oh wow, twenty six point what
miles flipping it? That's a lot in your arm. I'm
(17:14):
assuming he was flipping signs or something. Oh you have
to be, because I was about to say before, like
that's also like a like a tiring gesture. You have
to have pretty good arm strength for that. Humanity very
impressive in certain areas, in in very particular areas, specific records.
(17:37):
Um yeah, yeah. So people do love their pancakes, they do, um,
and they have loved them for a minute, and we
will get into some of that history. But first we're
going to get into a quick break for a word
from our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsored, Yes,
(18:03):
thank you. So. Basic precursors of pancakes, a mixture of
ground grains mixed with a protein heavy binder than cooked,
have been around for a long time. Even our prehistoric ancestors,
like over thirty years ago, made some version of pancakes
combining a ground flower of ferns and cattails, most likely
mixed with water and baked on hot rocks. This was
(18:25):
probably closer to something like hardtack, but the foundations were there. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
And I mean the pancake definitely predates the Ovan cake
because ovens, even just burying something in the ground to
bake it, are a little bit more complicated, yeah, than
just having a rock and beating it up putting your
pancakes on. Yeah, it's very clever. Let's talk about Yeah.
(18:52):
The mag he may have eaten an early form of
the pancake as one of his last meals, as evidenced
by the mains in his stomach. Apicius wrote about a
combo of water, milk, eggs, and flour fried than finished
with pepper and honey, which seems to be how these
early versions of pancakes were primarily enjoyed in ancient Greece
(19:13):
and Rome. As we move into Elizabethian times, records indicate
folks added things like spices, apples, rose, water, and sherry. Oh.
No reason not to put alcohol in a cake, I suppose, So,
I mean, it depends on the amount of alcohol. So
I was like, I think that might mess up my pancakes,
probably even more, but maybe be more fun. Um. Most
(19:38):
of the alcohol is probably going to cook off. Well yeah,
but you know, sit for the chef or whatever. Drink
responsibly everybody. Early versions of pancakes, more in our understanding
of them, date back to the fifteenth century, and they
were made circular to symbolize the sun, meant to summon
feelings of spring and the warmth that came with it.
Now for sure of Tuesday that possibly originated with Slavic
(20:02):
pagan festivals, meant to ward off demons of cold and darkness.
The four pillars of Christianity were represented by the four
ingredients in proto pancakes, milk symbolizing purity, eggs as creation,
flour as the foundation, and salts as wholesomeness. It was quick, easy,
and it used up those eggs and milk before Lent.
(20:22):
As we said earlier, Yes, the races, the pancake races
allegedly have been going on since fourteen Yes, first comprised
of all female competitors, and there are multiple legends about
how and why it's got started, but the one people
tell the most is that it originated in a town
(20:45):
called Only in England, when a woman was making pancakes
and realized she was going to be late for mass,
so she rushed from her house, pan in hand, flipping
the pancake. Um. Now people like to say it's sort
of a funny representation of hurrying to church to confess
your sins. Yes, and speaking of the word strove derived
(21:07):
from the Old English word shrive meaning confess all sense.
So yes, that makes sense. The first British pancake recipe
popped up in but it wasn't until the sixteen hundreds
that recipes became more widespread, after they'd become more accepted
by the upper class. These recipes often called for wine
(21:30):
or brandy as the liquid in the batter. It wasn't
until the seventeen hundreds that milk and possibly cream became
more than norm and then in sixteen eleven, flat as
a pancake enters the discordse yes, but flat as a
flounder was much more common, yes, and this was primarily
used to describe women. I m heavy sigh. However, I
(21:58):
guess it makes sense that at a certain time and
place the whole flounder would have been a more recognizable
object than a pancake, which involves some kind of milled
grain which is kind of pricey, especially if it's like
nice enough to like get a nice delicate pancake out of,
and sugar certainly was pricey. So yeah, and I just
(22:20):
feel like when I think of pancakes, I don't think
of flat first. It's one of the first few things.
But flounder, I'm like flat. I tried, and I almost
caught one that one time, and it got away too
flat for you. His name is Dr Evil, and I
think he still haunts the Gulf of Mexico telling his
(22:41):
flounder friends how he escaped. Anyway, I'm not bitter about
that at all. We can all tell, yeah, that much
is obvious. Yes, Anyway, back to the pancake. In the
early days of the New World in North America, Columist
called these things why Jack's hot cakes and Johnny Cakes.
(23:02):
They were typically made with corn meal and buck wheat.
In Amelia Simmons book American Cookery had two recipes for
these early pancakes. There. As we said before, this is
largely considered the first cookbook in the United States, so
first in the within the first wave, people were kind
of eating them. Um. Thomas Jefferson adored them, though he
(23:25):
may have been eating something closer to crepes. Um. Thicker
and fluffier pancakes were being called grittled cakes at the time,
and he did not use that word. Mystery's history. But
here's something I was wondering, why our pancakes breakfast food?
It is there a reason they go well, bacon? Why
(23:46):
is bacon and breakfast food? Oh, that's a that's an
Edward Burnet's answer, and that's a different episode. It is
which we have done, and you should go listen to. Okay,
this one is more about convenience. Um. Prior to the
American Revolution, pancake for viewed as in any time food,
often served at dinner. However, these pancakes at the time
(24:06):
they were much thinner than what we're used to these days,
closer to something like a crape. During the seventeen eighties,
American cooks began adding pearl ash to their pancake batter
to serve as a chemical leavener, transforming this thinner pancake
into the thicker, fluffier variety that we are more familiar
with today, which didn't translate well to dinner for a
(24:27):
lot of people. Some didn't like the chemical after taste
of the pearl ash, and they thought it clashed with
all other foods um. Since cooks had all day to
prepare for the later afternoon meals, they would avoid making
something that would be more convenient but came with an
after taste you didn't want because you had the time.
Yeah sure, yeah, yeah, Why why make a convenience food
(24:48):
when you can make a yeah, convenience food with an
after taste I just don't like. Also, pancakes were easier
and faster in a lot of cases than making something
like a morning bread and essentially filled the same purpose.
According to Slate, some people still taste a soapy after
taste and products leavened chemically. It depends on the leavener
(25:09):
and the amount you add and the heat that you
subject it to. But for sure it is best to
use the right levener for your purposes and the right
amount for your desired use. And now let us have
a quick sidebar about leveners. Let's yeah. So, pearl ash,
or potash as it is sometimes called. This is a
(25:30):
substance made with ashes like wood fire ashes a k a.
With lie, because when you soak the ashes of a
wood fire in water, that water will be lie infused,
and if you mix that line fused water with an
acid like a like a buttermilk or citrus juice. It
will produce bubbles of carbon dioxide which provide lift. Yes um,
(25:55):
And this was sort of the poor baker's solution to
the previous expensive leavener called heart's horn um also sometimes
called baker's ammonia, now sold as ammonium carbonate UM, which
when heated will produce ammonia and carbon dioxide gases. But
if you've ever smelled lie or ammonia, you know that
(26:18):
neither of these are ideal in your baked goods. No um,
and that ammonium carbonate is actually what they were using
in like Victorian smelling salts to like startle people awake.
Oh no, so not ideal, no no um. However, it
does demonstrate the two basic methods of chemical leavening, and
(26:39):
that's stuff plus acid equals bubbles or stuff plus heat
equals bubbles. Okay, alright. So so in the mid eight hundreds,
researchers worked out how to industrially produce a better stuff
plus acid levener what we now know as baking soda,
which is also known as sodia by carbonate. And this
(27:02):
was a revelation for bakers. It will add a little
bit of a salt flavor, but is otherwise a fairly
neutral tasting compound that, when combined with an acid will
produce carbon dioxide bubbles lift. Meanwhile, there was another stuff
plus heat leavener that was coming up in the world,
cream of tartar a k A. Potassium by tar trait um,
(27:26):
and combining that with the aforementioned baking soda gave us
the first double acting baking powder. Double acting is acid
plus stuff and heat plus stuff. Got it. Yeah, Yeah. However,
for a long time, cream of tartar was only industrially
produced as a byproduct of the wine industry. Right, so
(27:46):
it was pretty expensive, so looking for a cheaper alternative,
In eighteen fifty six, an American chemist created modern baking powder,
which substitutes the then cheaper stuff plus levener mono calcium
phosphate in for the expensive cream of tartar. Okay, okay,
all right, so so so yes, so you've got You've
(28:11):
got these two products, and most modern pancake recipes will
use a little bit of both plain baking soda and
also baking powder, which are different um and the presence
of both acid and heat Leveners in the mix. Is
why so many recipes call for buttermilk, which of course
is milk that has been soured with an acid. Acid
(28:33):
can work with stuff. Yeah, uh so yeah. Um. Without
all of the advancements in chemistry and industrial production that
we're happening during the Industrial Revolution, we might not have
pancakes as we know them. Science science. Yes, I will
say it was a game changer. I mean for obvious reasons.
When I learned that baking soda and baking powder or
(28:56):
not the same thing. And I remember looking at recipes
and it would have both separately. And I don't know.
The human brain is so interesting. I don't know why
in my head I assumed I was right in my understanding,
and all of these recipes encarntering yeah that we're incorrects.
(29:18):
I don't know. I what's that the the something done
bar effect? Okay, Oh, I don't know, but I would
be interested. It's just funny to be that I went
so long, so hard. You were just you were just like, no,
this assumption is clearly right, and all of these recipe
writers are foolish, right, And I'll just combine this, I'll
(29:38):
combine it together. It's all right. For For the record,
you can substitute just baking soda UM for baking powder
um by looked up online. It's it's a little bit complex.
You need to baking soda is stronger than baking powders,
so you need to kind of adjust your formula and
make sure you're adding enough acid to activate it. And
(29:59):
it will provide a little bit of lift when um
you subject it to heat, though it can get bitter
eventually if you've got it the other around. If you
only have baking powder and a recipe calls for just
baking soda, that's that's not really a math that you
can do at home. Um. So I wouldn't. I wouldn't
try to do that because you're gonna wind up with
something like real, real weird. Okay, the look on your
(30:25):
face is I strongly don't think you should try it. Yeah, yeah,
probably real bitter and and right and actually kind of soapy. Yeah,
you might get get some soap flavors in there. That
Oh yeah, that makes sense. Um. I Also, I know
I've talked about it before. I had a notorious and
very ill founded dislike of butter milk, which I now
(30:47):
like it. But I think if I ever saw butter milk,
I was like, never, and I would just use milk.
So again appreciating the science behind it. Yeah, yeah, I
see the air in my ways. Yeah. Also that time
that we got to have really buttermilk and it was
amazing and delicious. Oh it was so good, which is
funny because they see that episode, but a lot of
the buttermilk I was avoiding is not. Actually yeah, it's
(31:10):
chemically Yeah, sickened, weird. Yeah, cr Butter episodes and video. Yeah,
for more on that, visit butter, which is so cool
and it was so much butter. It was like Volkswagen
made of butter. And it smelled really amazing. Oh gosh
it did it did anyway? Anyway, Yes, pancakes pancakes and
(31:32):
they're wonderful chemical leavening exactly. In nine, the RT. Davis
Milling Company hired a woman um for their first Aunt
Jemima a K. Her name was Nancy Green, as in yes,
Aunt Jemima, the syrup and pancake mix. They debuted the
first pre made pancake mix in um over on stuff
(31:56):
I've never told you those show I do. We did
a whole episode on that's Mrs Butterworth and Betty Crocker.
Oh wow, yeah, yeah, it's it's cool, especially I think
to to talk about the Butterworth in Jemima. Yes kind
of stories, because that entire Mammy trope is really ugly
(32:18):
and goes into our very complex American black history. Yes
it does, and we talked all about that, all about that.
But yeah, they were the first pre made pre mix
pancake mix um and then in one Biscuick's Box pancake
mix was introduced, although it was primarily marketed more as
a biscuit mix, and from what I understand, Americans were like, oh,
(32:41):
this is easier than what I was doing. It just
started for pancakes. That sounds about right. That sounds about
right in a little restaurant named I hop as an
International House of Pancakes. Yes, that one debuted in Los Angeles.
And yes, when I debut, it was International House of Pancakes,
like the sign didn't say. The company claims that they
(33:06):
were a hot spot for celebrities. At the time sales
crossed the one billion dollar mark. They reached over three
billions dollars in sales, and this they think was in
part of a result of when they did that burger
marketing stunt became I Hobb International House of Burgers, and
(33:29):
everyone was like what, But apparently it worked. They made
funny Okay, you know, I guess whatever whatever you need
to do, I hop or however you need to do,
I hop a rob identity crisis. I yeah, I will
say both. Both words are funny now that I think
(33:50):
about it. But I Hobb maybe because I'm not as
used to it. Yeah, um, yeah, it sounds like it
sounds like a very strange iPhone accessory. Um Students at
the University of Sheffield created an online calculator that'll let
you plug in the number of pancakes you want to serve,
(34:12):
how thick you want your pancakes to be, and the
diameter of your pan, and it will give you the
exact amount of batter that you need and the exact
ingredients that you need to put into that batter. Oh
that's nice. That's a very helpful. Like scientifically speaking, they
(34:36):
figured this out and they wrote up some some equations
and you can do the math yourself if you so choose,
but they have a hand calculator. I love it. Maybe
that will help me so much. Fascinating pancakes. I so
you got Kansas flat, flatter than pancakes. They actually later
returned to that project and did all the states and
(34:58):
compared which one's I think Florida is actually the flattest. Really,
it's flatter than Kansas. This is all from memory, but
I'm pretty sure I'm not surprised because having grown up
in Florida. Um. One of the statistics that they kind
of throw at you as a child in Florida is
that the highest natural point is very low. It's like
(35:20):
ten ft or something like that above sea level. The
highest point period is definitely a landfill. Really yeah. Oh
my aunt, she has lived in Florida for most of
her life, and she came and visited my old house
in Delonaga. And Delonaga, for those who don't know, it's
(35:42):
very mountain, lots of mountains there. And um, she had
but I could not fathom. But it was it wasn't
a panic attack, but it was like she couldn't there
are too many hills. She was like, they keep got
this more hills. Yeah. Hill. Then when she saw the
like the leaves change color, Oh sure, yeah, yeah, I
(36:06):
had a I had a sort of opposite effect to
some of my cousins when I went to visit them. Um,
I was talking about Christmas in Florida and they were
living in New Hampshire. Uh and and I was like, yeah,
you know, it doesn't snow down there, and they were
like wait never. I was like, yeah, no, snow. They
were like hold on. They were to be fair like
(36:26):
under ten at the time, so, like overall, life experience
was relatively limited. It is. Yeah, it is interesting. I
was with somebody when she saw snow for the first
time and and she was like, in college, oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
it's it's a it's a magical experience. And then you're like, oh,
(36:49):
this is a cold and why I love I actually
love snow here because when it does, everything shuts down
and it's just expected you'll stay home and it doesn't
happen that often. So I I like snow. But if
I was having to do with it every day. This
is coming from someone from Alaska. Um, oh yeah. Yeah,
when you're a young kid, or it was exciting when
I was a young kid, or for like two days
(37:10):
a year maybe time, it's very exciting as an adult
who has to like shovel it, and that's terrible yes, agreed,
but you know what is nice on a snowy day, pancakes.
I do think that is true. There you go, Yes,
and that we're about at the end of our pancake episode.
We are, we are, and we do have a little
bit more for you. But first we've got one more
(37:32):
quick break for a word from our sponsor, and we're back.
Thank you sponsored, Yes, thank you. We're back with listen man,
lip pancake flip. Yeah. And I did want to say
(37:54):
before we get into this, because I know I brushed
through a bunch of names for pancakes early on the
history section. Most of those went and became different things
that will be different episodes in case people want to
write in oh where, But at the time they were
kind of used interchangeably. But okay, let's get the current
(38:15):
listener mail. Yes, Camilla wrote, I talked myself out of
writing in about your Ambrose episode, but your recent listener
mail about Hungarian fruit soup convinced me to do so.
My great grandparents were Hungarian, so my family traveled there
when I was fifteen. As a teen who never liked meat,
traveling in a country where various compressed meat cold cuts
feature and breakfast was a challenge. I lived off of
(38:36):
cheese sandwiches and of course, chilled fruit soup. I'm sorry
to admit that one of my favorites from a touristy
restaurant in Budapest featured not cherries or peaches, oh no,
but canned fruit cocktail. My parents were appalled, and my
adult self is loath to admit that I enjoyed such
a thing. Fast forward to me moving to New York
(38:58):
with my now husband. I planning an Easter supper when
we found out his cousin would be in town that weekend,
so naturally I invited her. She offered to bring something,
but I had the menu all carefully planned out. I
was spicing and making a ham, making homemade biscuits, a
goat cheese, and pizzu, flame fresh shell peas with moral mushrooms,
and floating island for a dessert, so I insisted she
(39:18):
didn't need to bring anything. My husband let her know
and came back saying she very much wanted to contribute
a salad. I figured, a nice crisp green salad is
a welcome addition to an emil, so I said yes.
I was in the kitchen a whipping egg whites, and
she walked in with a grocery bag and pulled out
a cartain of whipping cream, walnuts, pineapples, and marchino cherries.
(39:40):
I was livid, but could hardly object when she explained
it was their grandmother's jespe. Needless to say, there was
plenty leftover, and she gleefully ate it all. The next day,
I guess my taste of changed, eating fruit cocktail soup
for dinner. This salad confusion is one of my favorite things.
It is epic. I love it so much. You don't
(40:03):
know what are you going to get? Yeah? I always
ask up questions. Oh yes, apparently this is the lesson
we have learned when it comes to salad. Always ask
indeed okay, Matt wrote, as a master procrastinator, I have
been meaning to send to you the story for roughly
two years. It isn't related to any particular episode, but
it seemed like it was right up your alley. Back
(40:25):
in my wife and I were fortunate enough to take
a trip to Japan to visit a friend who was
in the Navy. We live in New England. While we
were there, we all took a trip to Kumamoto and
stayed at a traditional on sen, which is an old
timey roadside in with hot springs. That night, our stay
included a very fancy multi course dinner with lots of small,
unidentifiable by me dishes. Just before the main course, we
(40:47):
were brought a large plate of some kind of meat.
My friend told us that this was called basaeshi, and
that after we tried it, he would tell us what
it was. I was obviously suspicious, but did as I
was told an eight apiece. It very chewy and marinated
in some kind of sweet soy sauce. After we finished
our bites, he told us this story. Kumamoda Castle is
one of the three most famous castles in Japan, and
(41:10):
its fame lies mostly in the fact that it is
the only castle never taken during Japan's internal wars. The
last time the castle came under siege was in eighteen
seventy seven, and the entire interior structure was burned down.
The walls, however, held after a lengthy siege. Both armies
were running out of food. The supplies inside were gone
(41:31):
and the army outside had eaten all the food in
the area. There were two wells inside the castle so
they had water but no food. They also had nothing
to burn for fires because the keep had already burned down.
Knowing that they only had to outlast the outside forces
for a little longer, they ate their horses raw, and
that is what basashi is, marinated raw horsemeat. The story
(41:55):
says that this is what allowed the castle to survive
the siege and remain uncaptured. While this may well all
be apocryphal, it is at least a good story. Yeah, yes,
that is a very good story. Oh that's great. I
actually had a similar experience with the horse meat um
where somebody was like, I want you to try this.
(42:15):
I'm not gonna tell you what it is until after
you tried it. I tried it. It's fine. Yeah, I
mean food is food. I mean I don't know, you know, yeah, yeah.
And there's definitely, uh, just based on where you are,
different ways of I don't know, foods that are quote
(42:36):
normal or not normal, right, right, And there's a lot
of like like class and culture issues and kind of
designating a whole category of things like gross or like unacceptable.
And you know, I mean like in around the world
people got to eat as as Checkers always reminds us
the great philosopher about times. And you know, when Checkers
(42:59):
is unavailable, you still have to eat, and uh and
and whatever is there is food and the things that
people do with that food are beautiful and you know
are always intended to be nutritious in both to your
body and to you know, like your your mind and
spirit and whatever else you want to say about that.
(43:19):
So your's all, uh so, Yeah, so I don't know,
don't don't don't harsh people's food buzz. Yeah, try try
a thing when someone gives you a bite of it.
If you don't like it, that's fine too, completely fine. Yeah.
Or if you just don't want to eat meat, don't
eat it. And I'm not gonna get mad at you. Yeah,
that's not what we're here to do. There are very
(43:40):
few food related things that can make me mad at you.
We try to be you know, we just want to
purvey the information. Yeah. Most of them involved bagels. So
outside of that, we're having bagels here at work tomorrow.
Who knows what will happen. I'm concerned. I was concerned
when I read about it. I was like, oh, oh, Lauren,
(44:06):
we'll see how it goes. I'm sure it's gonna be fun.
We're a very opinionated office when it comes to food,
so I think you'll fit in perfect. Yes. Anyway, if
you want to know how that goes, you can always
email us and ask. Thanks to the two people who
have already wrote in. If you would like to email
us that you can. Our email is Hello at savor
pod dot com. We're also in social media. You can
(44:27):
find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at savor pod
and we do hope to hear from you. Savor is
production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio,
you can visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as always
to our super producers Dylan Bagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks
to you for listening, and we hope that lots more
good things are coming your way.
Hello, and welcome to Savor production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Anyeries and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. And today we're talking
about pancakes. Yeah, the specifically I guess American style, right,
the kind of usually breakfast food pancakes, right, Because there
are a lot of a lot of different types of
(00:27):
pancakes around the world, and we'll talk about some of them.
And there are savory pancakes, which we will return to
at some point, but not today, not today, No, but
gosh we will, Oh my gosh, we will. Um pancakes
actually make me nauseated, and I have a friend they
make her nauseated. Okay. See, I have a theory about this,
(00:47):
and that that intersects with the thing where you had
never had real maple syrup before, because I feel like
the scent of fake maple syrup along with the scent
of like margarine, like fake butter flavor together produces this
like little scent, right, because it's very rare that you're
(01:07):
having pancakes without those types of things. It depends on
your pancake experience. I'm very choosy about my pancakes for
this reason. I really prefer to make them at home.
So that I know that I'm not doing that thing
because it doesn't smell good. It smells like cloying and
weird and kind of a little yeah. And you know,
(01:27):
I was looking at I was hoping to get to
the bottom of this because I was like, is this
a thing? And the Internet was very unhelpful and basically
told me I'm a terrible person because I don't like
pancakes or whatever. I like them. They just make me
a little nacated. Internet, Why you always so mean to me.
I do prefer waffles. Yeah, there's a there's extra crispy texture,
(01:50):
right right, Yeah, but you can definitely have a bad
waffle and you can have a wonderful pancake. I did
like when I was growing up. Um, blueberry and chocolate
chip pancakes separately, not together. Oh but what about a
blueberry and chocolate chip pancake? That does sound good. I mean,
the world is ready for experimentation. It is rife for
pancake experimentation. That is true. I've seen so many types
(02:14):
of pancakes in my day. Um, I am terrible at
making them. I'm selling more on before this. I am
notoriously really really really really bad at making pancakes. I
think I can help you out here. Okay, alright, in
in a minute. But you have but you have a few.
I don't. I don't have that many, like like deeply
held pancakes stories. Yeah, I'm like, oh man, I guess
(02:37):
I've had some. They were fine. One time I attempted
to eat eyehops never ending pancakes and I ate like
the normal like three pancakes, and I was like, I'm
basically done. Yeah, I'm good. Yeah, yeah, that was That
was an event in my because I grew up in
a small town. So when they started doing that, it
was like people were cutting class in high school to go. Wow.
(02:58):
It was intense. So there was an eyehop. It was
like a twenty minute drive from us, but again very
small town, so that was like, oh my gosh, yeah,
I gotta get there. And um, when I think when
I was in eleventh grade in high school, I had
a job along with a friend of mine, working on
Black Friday at Osh Gosh Bagosh Slash Carter's Inc. At
(03:22):
the Outlet Mall in Dawsonville, Georgia, which some of you
might know because for some reason it always comes up
on things to do in Georgia Sins Outlet mall but
not worth it. Not on Annie's list, not on my list.
But if you really like shopping in particularly that kind
of shopping, maybe sure. Anyway, I was working from eleven
(03:43):
pm that night until eight am the next day. Yeah,
and we went to one of the only places that
was open, which was the Eyehop, and my friend, who
doesn't handle lack of sleep very well, she would have
to agree with me because it is just true. She
ended up under the table randomly shouting Hash Browns and
(04:04):
her sister's name, and I was assuring the waitress, like where,
she's just tired. I know how this looks. It's just
the wait stuff at eyehop has seen way worse. You're right,
You're right, probably absolutely true. But that's what capitalism will
get you, you know what I mean. Just somebody's shouting
Ash brown from under the table. Dangerous of capitalism. Yeah,
(04:27):
it's true. Um. And then I have another eye Hop
story where it was a really taxing experience to get
home from Australia for me a couple of years ago.
I think I had no money and I had no
way to charge my phone, and I was in the
airport for over seventy two hours, and I was kind
of depending on Sandbi. It's a long story, but basically
(04:49):
I've been in Australia almost a month longer than I
should have been because of strikes. Oh yeah, so all
right out of money. But my parents somehow, I guess
they were just waiting around at the airport um when
the flight started again. And so I landed at four
am in Atlanta and they were there, and I tried
and relieve I was just got finally made home and
(05:10):
we went to I Hop and I was just crying
as the sun rose and I was putting blueberries syrup
on my pancaches, like, oh my god. Odd yeah, and
my one of my nicknames is Flapjack. I'm not sure why. Yeah,
(05:31):
and uh yeah, this is sort of timely, oddly enough
because when Lent begins, Marty gra Um, which as we
record this is tomorrow, Um, several British Commonwealth countries celebrate
Shrove Tuesday slash Pancake Day. It's a way to basically
a bunch of carbs and then use up things like
dairy and eggs or that's used to be kind of
(05:52):
the impetus for it, right, sure, sure things that you're
not supposed to consume during lent exactly use them all
up the day. But for yes, yeah, it's also white
donuts have been a thing, right. We've talked about that
in our Oh Gosh in our jelly donut episode and
also in the Marty grap episode from New Orleans. We've
(06:14):
mentioned it before, but now we should get to our question. Yes,
all right, pancakes what are they? Well, a pancake is
a fluffy, slightly sweet sort of cake made in a pan,
there you go, but not like a cake pan, like
(06:35):
a like a stovetop pan, or or a grittle. A
pancake is a not an oven cake. Okay, not an
oven cake. Yeah. A pancake is a flat but puffed
up sort of cake that is so quick rising that
it can be cooked without the time and the all
enveloping heat involved when you put something in the oven. Um.
(06:56):
It's also browned on both the top and bottom, unlike
oven cakes, which are typically only exposed to the heat
of a cooking surface on one side. And you achieve
this in pancakes by flipping the cakes some halfway through cooking.
Two more or less success, mostly failure on my part,
gets on the side, you know, and then it kind
of sound and you have all this remaining batter. I
(07:21):
need to get your spatul Okay, Okay, first thing, okay,
because pancakes are some really interesting chemistry and physics at work,
and if you understand those a little bit better, then
you might have better success with this whole pancake thing,
all right, Okay, So for contrast, like like when when
you make an oven cake, you've got all kinds of
(07:43):
processes at work to create and fix bubbles in the batter,
so you can really create a dense but airy sponge. Okay,
But when you're making a pancake, you gotta do it
quick and dirty, right, So basic pancake recipe here. Uh.
You mix your dry stuff, your flour plus leveners, plus
(08:03):
seasonings like salt and sugar, um, and separately mix your
wet stuff milk, eggs, melted butter and maybe seasonings. And
then you combine the dry and wet with a minimum
of stirring minimum just just to incorporate h huh yeah yeah. Um.
You let the resulting batter rest and rise about half
an hour, and then ladle it into a hot pan.
(08:27):
Bubbles will form up big and firm within a few minutes.
And uh and and once they're kind of set, you
flip the cakes and uh and cook the second side
until golden brown. Okay, okay, So so you're looking at
me like I do all of this and I fail. Well,
(08:49):
I've not had success ever, so okay, all right, Um, well,
perhaps let's let's talk a little bit about how those
bubbles occur. Okay. To allow those bubbles to form quickly,
you are starting with a looser that is, a wetter batter,
more of your wet ingredients than dry ingredients. That's about
a cup of milk product and one egg per cup
(09:12):
of flour product. And you add one or two types
of chemical leavening agent to your dry ingredients. Things that
will create air bubbles when they first interact with wet ingredients. Um.
That's your baking soda mostly. And things will create even
more air bubbles when they heat in the pan, and
that's your baking powder mostly. Um. And those leavening agents
(09:33):
are why you don't want to over stir, because since
those leveners are your primary sources of lift, and there
are a one shot deal, uh if you destroy the
bubbles that they make by stirring them up too much,
they're not coming back and you'll wind up with these
like flat, dense, sort of soggy pancakes. Yeah, not what
you want. Um. In oven cake recipes, you can whip
(09:55):
air into eggs or into sugar and butter um and
then use that to help create lift. But you don't
have time for that in pancakes right now. Yeah. Um. So,
like the proteins and the eggs will help solidify the
leavener's bubbles along with proteins and the flour, but that's
about it. And the sugar and butter are just there
too to help keep the cakes tender. Okay. And the flipping. Oh,
(10:21):
all you need is a good big flat spatula and
you just get it, get it under the very center
of the pancake, and just in a smooth motion you
just boop. You don't, you don't, You don't really mess
with the side of the pan that hard. You just
get it right under the center and just boop it. Well,
that could be the problem. I'm not very smooth. I'm
(10:41):
not frequently described that way. I might have understated how
bad I am. People have given me those things. That's
so that I can control the amount of that that
that that is another important factor. You can't pour in
too much batter. It's probably less badder than you expect,
is it definitely is? So I have those and then
(11:02):
I have a specific someone gave me again, a pancake flipper.
It's as Bachelor designed four pancakes. Um, I have. I like,
I don't know if this is a thing, but I
always thought I was taught that the pancakes get kind
of crispy on the outside. Not crispy, but there's like
gets it gets a little bit bround, yeah, but almost
(11:24):
like lacy. Yeah, and the texture changes and then some
bubbles start appearing and then I flip it. But I
feel like it just it might work for the first match.
But that ah see. The heat in the pan is
also important. I suspected something with the heat. Yeah, there's
probably multiple things. I also, I think I've said this
(11:45):
on the show before. I did not know that baking
soda baking powder or two different things. Yeah. This is
a very important distinction that we will get into in
detail later on. Um, but that could be your problem.
I was. I had just started this job twenty eleven
when I found that out, and I thought like it
(12:05):
was just they were marketing issues. Yeah. Yeah, anyway, they
are multiple areas that could be falling down in this
pancake business. Yeah, I'd really have to observe what you're doing.
I love that you come with like goggles and a lab. Yeah,
and I just hear you back there like I see
(12:28):
maybe one day. Yeah that sounds that sounds like I'm
not going to say fun time, but certainly a time
and be educational. And if we got pancakes out of
it in the end, well they probably wouldn't be good,
but that's part of the problem eventually. Right, it is
a process we you know, we experiment, we self correct,
and then create delicious, tender, fluffy pancakes. I mean that
(12:52):
sounds good. My whole life has been leading up to this.
You're putting a lot of emphasis on this. Um, let's
let's move on perhaps to the to the nutrition. Okay, yeah,
let's talk about the nutrition. Oh gosh, let's not. Let's
it's it's a cake. It's a I mean, it's a
(13:12):
low sugar yeah, prior to the syrup, prior to any
syrup and toppings that you put in, right, And I mean, yeah,
that's the thing is there's so many types of pancakes
in the American tradition. If anyone is listening from elsewhere
and it's never had this type of dish served to them, um,
pancakes are usually served several like like I don't know.
(13:33):
They can be anywhere from like the size of your
palm to like the size of a salad plate and
or bigger. I've seen wild things wild y'all um, And
usually serve them in a stack of like at least
two or three, like sometimes more if you're real fancy
or they're real small, with pats of butter in between them,
and then you pour maple syrup down over top of them. Yeah, yeah,
(13:57):
it's a it's a pretty sweet that I forgot to mention.
My favorite pancakes in Atlanta are from Rhea's Bluebird. Oh oh,
they make lovely ones, but they are just they're huge.
They're the size of a dinner plate, and a large
dinner plate at that. If you ever have the opportunity
to get them with the caramelized bananas, it's amazing. Oh yeah, man,
all all kinds of toppings can be involved. Usually it's
(14:18):
a warm fruit compoach sort of situation. But I don't know,
like chocolate syrups, whipped cream. Oh yeah, pretty much anything
you can imagine. I know one place that we've been
to in Disney World just has like chocolate chips, Eminem's,
RUC's feet, like all kinds of fillings in there. Uh.
And I have made a Dutch baby before. A Dutch
(14:39):
baby is a separate type of pagad pancake, right, but
it's it's also like really huge and I love how
it just I had success with that. Oh really, that's
so much harder. It doesn't make sense. Lore and it's
a conspiracy. Oh and that guy of segues into the
(14:59):
next thing want to talk about, which is in our
numbers section. Yes, okay, So the Annals of Improbable Research
found that Kansas was, in fact flatter than a pancake.
It is a super goofy article. They got so into
the weeds. I love it. There's like charts and graphs
(15:20):
and formulas. Delightful. It really really really is. Look it up,
very highly recommended. There's a decent amount of pancake science
out there. There really is. There really is. On a
Pancake Day show Tuesday in Britain, over fifty two million
eggs are used, which is over twenty million more than
is the norm. Yeah, oh I love this too. Pancake races, yes,
(15:42):
these are part of the celebration. Essentially races where people
flip pancakes in a pan as they race, and there
are points for hyps speed number. But I can't flip
one at home. Amone so top and they're racing, very
very impressive to me. It's it's like a it's like
(16:04):
a skateboard trick, but but in a pan. Yeah, it's
it's just a very specific motion. I I was really
impressed and people, well I gets. Well, let's talk about
some world records, because there are a lot when it
comes to pancakes. The largest pancake three tons or six
thousand six pounds. Yeah, most flips of a pancake in
(16:24):
a minute one and forty flips, Oh my gosh. Yeah,
a record made by Australian chef Brad Jolly. Highest pancake
toss of nine point four seven ms are about one
in thirty one feet, completed by Dominic Cuscrea. And my
personal favorite, okay, fastest marathon completed while continuously flipping a
(16:50):
pancake Mike Cuscrea is time of three hours and two
minutes and twenty seven seconds. That's better a time that
I got, and I wasn't flipping pancakes, of course, that's
a record that exists. Oh wow, twenty six point what
miles flipping it? That's a lot in your arm. I'm
(17:14):
assuming he was flipping signs or something. Oh you have
to be, because I was about to say before, like
that's also like a like a tiring gesture. You have
to have pretty good arm strength for that. Humanity very
impressive in certain areas, in in very particular areas, specific records.
(17:37):
Um yeah, yeah. So people do love their pancakes, they do, um,
and they have loved them for a minute, and we
will get into some of that history. But first we're
going to get into a quick break for a word
from our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsored, Yes,
(18:03):
thank you. So. Basic precursors of pancakes, a mixture of
ground grains mixed with a protein heavy binder than cooked,
have been around for a long time. Even our prehistoric ancestors,
like over thirty years ago, made some version of pancakes
combining a ground flower of ferns and cattails, most likely
mixed with water and baked on hot rocks. This was
(18:25):
probably closer to something like hardtack, but the foundations were there. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
And I mean the pancake definitely predates the Ovan cake
because ovens, even just burying something in the ground to
bake it, are a little bit more complicated, yeah, than
just having a rock and beating it up putting your
pancakes on. Yeah, it's very clever. Let's talk about Yeah.
(18:52):
The mag he may have eaten an early form of
the pancake as one of his last meals, as evidenced
by the mains in his stomach. Apicius wrote about a
combo of water, milk, eggs, and flour fried than finished
with pepper and honey, which seems to be how these
early versions of pancakes were primarily enjoyed in ancient Greece
(19:13):
and Rome. As we move into Elizabethian times, records indicate
folks added things like spices, apples, rose, water, and sherry. Oh.
No reason not to put alcohol in a cake, I suppose, So,
I mean, it depends on the amount of alcohol. So
I was like, I think that might mess up my pancakes,
probably even more, but maybe be more fun. Um. Most
(19:38):
of the alcohol is probably going to cook off. Well yeah,
but you know, sit for the chef or whatever. Drink
responsibly everybody. Early versions of pancakes, more in our understanding
of them, date back to the fifteenth century, and they
were made circular to symbolize the sun, meant to summon
feelings of spring and the warmth that came with it.
Now for sure of Tuesday that possibly originated with Slavic
(20:02):
pagan festivals, meant to ward off demons of cold and darkness.
The four pillars of Christianity were represented by the four
ingredients in proto pancakes, milk symbolizing purity, eggs as creation,
flour as the foundation, and salts as wholesomeness. It was quick, easy,
and it used up those eggs and milk before Lent.
(20:22):
As we said earlier, Yes, the races, the pancake races
allegedly have been going on since fourteen Yes, first comprised
of all female competitors, and there are multiple legends about
how and why it's got started, but the one people
tell the most is that it originated in a town
(20:45):
called Only in England, when a woman was making pancakes
and realized she was going to be late for mass,
so she rushed from her house, pan in hand, flipping
the pancake. Um. Now people like to say it's sort
of a funny representation of hurrying to church to confess
your sins. Yes, and speaking of the word strove derived
(21:07):
from the Old English word shrive meaning confess all sense.
So yes, that makes sense. The first British pancake recipe
popped up in but it wasn't until the sixteen hundreds
that recipes became more widespread, after they'd become more accepted
by the upper class. These recipes often called for wine
(21:30):
or brandy as the liquid in the batter. It wasn't
until the seventeen hundreds that milk and possibly cream became
more than norm and then in sixteen eleven, flat as
a pancake enters the discordse yes, but flat as a
flounder was much more common, yes, and this was primarily
used to describe women. I m heavy sigh. However, I
(21:58):
guess it makes sense that at a certain time and
place the whole flounder would have been a more recognizable
object than a pancake, which involves some kind of milled
grain which is kind of pricey, especially if it's like
nice enough to like get a nice delicate pancake out of,
and sugar certainly was pricey. So yeah, and I just
(22:20):
feel like when I think of pancakes, I don't think
of flat first. It's one of the first few things.
But flounder, I'm like flat. I tried, and I almost
caught one that one time, and it got away too
flat for you. His name is Dr Evil, and I
think he still haunts the Gulf of Mexico telling his
(22:41):
flounder friends how he escaped. Anyway, I'm not bitter about
that at all. We can all tell, yeah, that much
is obvious. Yes, Anyway, back to the pancake. In the
early days of the New World in North America, Columist
called these things why Jack's hot cakes and Johnny Cakes.
(23:02):
They were typically made with corn meal and buck wheat.
In Amelia Simmons book American Cookery had two recipes for
these early pancakes. There. As we said before, this is
largely considered the first cookbook in the United States, so
first in the within the first wave, people were kind
of eating them. Um. Thomas Jefferson adored them, though he
(23:25):
may have been eating something closer to crepes. Um. Thicker
and fluffier pancakes were being called grittled cakes at the time,
and he did not use that word. Mystery's history. But
here's something I was wondering, why our pancakes breakfast food?
It is there a reason they go well, bacon? Why
(23:46):
is bacon and breakfast food? Oh, that's a that's an
Edward Burnet's answer, and that's a different episode. It is
which we have done, and you should go listen to. Okay,
this one is more about convenience. Um. Prior to the
American Revolution, pancake for viewed as in any time food,
often served at dinner. However, these pancakes at the time
(24:06):
they were much thinner than what we're used to these days,
closer to something like a crape. During the seventeen eighties,
American cooks began adding pearl ash to their pancake batter
to serve as a chemical leavener, transforming this thinner pancake
into the thicker, fluffier variety that we are more familiar
with today, which didn't translate well to dinner for a
(24:27):
lot of people. Some didn't like the chemical after taste
of the pearl ash, and they thought it clashed with
all other foods um. Since cooks had all day to
prepare for the later afternoon meals, they would avoid making
something that would be more convenient but came with an
after taste you didn't want because you had the time.
Yeah sure, yeah, yeah, Why why make a convenience food
(24:48):
when you can make a yeah, convenience food with an
after taste I just don't like. Also, pancakes were easier
and faster in a lot of cases than making something
like a morning bread and essentially filled the same purpose.
According to Slate, some people still taste a soapy after
taste and products leavened chemically. It depends on the leavener
(25:09):
and the amount you add and the heat that you
subject it to. But for sure it is best to
use the right levener for your purposes and the right
amount for your desired use. And now let us have
a quick sidebar about leveners. Let's yeah. So, pearl ash,
or potash as it is sometimes called. This is a
(25:30):
substance made with ashes like wood fire ashes a k a.
With lie, because when you soak the ashes of a
wood fire in water, that water will be lie infused,
and if you mix that line fused water with an
acid like a like a buttermilk or citrus juice. It
will produce bubbles of carbon dioxide which provide lift. Yes um,
(25:55):
And this was sort of the poor baker's solution to
the previous expensive leavener called heart's horn um also sometimes
called baker's ammonia, now sold as ammonium carbonate UM, which
when heated will produce ammonia and carbon dioxide gases. But
if you've ever smelled lie or ammonia, you know that
(26:18):
neither of these are ideal in your baked goods. No um,
and that ammonium carbonate is actually what they were using
in like Victorian smelling salts to like startle people awake.
Oh no, so not ideal, no no um. However, it
does demonstrate the two basic methods of chemical leavening, and
(26:39):
that's stuff plus acid equals bubbles or stuff plus heat
equals bubbles. Okay, alright. So so in the mid eight hundreds,
researchers worked out how to industrially produce a better stuff
plus acid levener what we now know as baking soda,
which is also known as sodia by carbonate. And this
(27:02):
was a revelation for bakers. It will add a little
bit of a salt flavor, but is otherwise a fairly
neutral tasting compound that, when combined with an acid will
produce carbon dioxide bubbles lift. Meanwhile, there was another stuff
plus heat leavener that was coming up in the world,
cream of tartar a k A. Potassium by tar trait um,
(27:26):
and combining that with the aforementioned baking soda gave us
the first double acting baking powder. Double acting is acid
plus stuff and heat plus stuff. Got it. Yeah, Yeah. However,
for a long time, cream of tartar was only industrially
produced as a byproduct of the wine industry. Right, so
(27:46):
it was pretty expensive, so looking for a cheaper alternative,
In eighteen fifty six, an American chemist created modern baking powder,
which substitutes the then cheaper stuff plus levener mono calcium
phosphate in for the expensive cream of tartar. Okay, okay,
all right, so so so yes, so you've got You've
(28:11):
got these two products, and most modern pancake recipes will
use a little bit of both plain baking soda and
also baking powder, which are different um and the presence
of both acid and heat Leveners in the mix. Is
why so many recipes call for buttermilk, which of course
is milk that has been soured with an acid. Acid
(28:33):
can work with stuff. Yeah, uh so yeah. Um. Without
all of the advancements in chemistry and industrial production that
we're happening during the Industrial Revolution, we might not have
pancakes as we know them. Science science. Yes, I will
say it was a game changer. I mean for obvious reasons.
When I learned that baking soda and baking powder or
(28:56):
not the same thing. And I remember looking at recipes
and it would have both separately. And I don't know.
The human brain is so interesting. I don't know why
in my head I assumed I was right in my understanding,
and all of these recipes encarntering yeah that we're incorrects.
(29:18):
I don't know. I what's that the the something done
bar effect? Okay, Oh, I don't know, but I would
be interested. It's just funny to be that I went
so long, so hard. You were just you were just like, no,
this assumption is clearly right, and all of these recipe
writers are foolish, right, And I'll just combine this, I'll
(29:38):
combine it together. It's all right. For For the record,
you can substitute just baking soda UM for baking powder
um by looked up online. It's it's a little bit complex.
You need to baking soda is stronger than baking powders,
so you need to kind of adjust your formula and
make sure you're adding enough acid to activate it. And
(29:59):
it will provide a little bit of lift when um
you subject it to heat, though it can get bitter
eventually if you've got it the other around. If you
only have baking powder and a recipe calls for just
baking soda, that's that's not really a math that you
can do at home. Um. So I wouldn't. I wouldn't
try to do that because you're gonna wind up with
something like real, real weird. Okay, the look on your
(30:25):
face is I strongly don't think you should try it. Yeah, yeah,
probably real bitter and and right and actually kind of soapy. Yeah,
you might get get some soap flavors in there. That
Oh yeah, that makes sense. Um. I Also, I know
I've talked about it before. I had a notorious and
very ill founded dislike of butter milk, which I now
(30:47):
like it. But I think if I ever saw butter milk,
I was like, never, and I would just use milk.
So again appreciating the science behind it. Yeah, yeah, I
see the air in my ways. Yeah. Also that time
that we got to have really buttermilk and it was
amazing and delicious. Oh it was so good, which is
funny because they see that episode, but a lot of
the buttermilk I was avoiding is not. Actually yeah, it's
(31:10):
chemically Yeah, sickened, weird. Yeah, cr Butter episodes and video. Yeah,
for more on that, visit butter, which is so cool
and it was so much butter. It was like Volkswagen
made of butter. And it smelled really amazing. Oh gosh
it did it did anyway? Anyway, Yes, pancakes pancakes and
(31:32):
they're wonderful chemical leavening exactly. In nine, the RT. Davis
Milling Company hired a woman um for their first Aunt
Jemima a K. Her name was Nancy Green, as in yes,
Aunt Jemima, the syrup and pancake mix. They debuted the
first pre made pancake mix in um over on stuff
(31:56):
I've never told you those show I do. We did
a whole episode on that's Mrs Butterworth and Betty Crocker.
Oh wow, yeah, yeah, it's it's cool, especially I think
to to talk about the Butterworth in Jemima. Yes kind
of stories, because that entire Mammy trope is really ugly
(32:18):
and goes into our very complex American black history. Yes
it does, and we talked all about that, all about that.
But yeah, they were the first pre made pre mix
pancake mix um and then in one Biscuick's Box pancake
mix was introduced, although it was primarily marketed more as
a biscuit mix, and from what I understand, Americans were like, oh,
(32:41):
this is easier than what I was doing. It just
started for pancakes. That sounds about right. That sounds about
right in a little restaurant named I hop as an
International House of Pancakes. Yes, that one debuted in Los Angeles.
And yes, when I debut, it was International House of Pancakes,
like the sign didn't say. The company claims that they
(33:06):
were a hot spot for celebrities. At the time sales
crossed the one billion dollar mark. They reached over three
billions dollars in sales, and this they think was in
part of a result of when they did that burger
marketing stunt became I Hobb International House of Burgers, and
(33:29):
everyone was like what, But apparently it worked. They made
funny Okay, you know, I guess whatever whatever you need
to do, I hop or however you need to do,
I hop a rob identity crisis. I yeah, I will
say both. Both words are funny now that I think
(33:50):
about it. But I Hobb maybe because I'm not as
used to it. Yeah, um, yeah, it sounds like it
sounds like a very strange iPhone accessory. Um Students at
the University of Sheffield created an online calculator that'll let
you plug in the number of pancakes you want to serve,
(34:12):
how thick you want your pancakes to be, and the
diameter of your pan, and it will give you the
exact amount of batter that you need and the exact
ingredients that you need to put into that batter. Oh
that's nice. That's a very helpful. Like scientifically speaking, they
(34:36):
figured this out and they wrote up some some equations
and you can do the math yourself if you so choose,
but they have a hand calculator. I love it. Maybe
that will help me so much. Fascinating pancakes. I so
you got Kansas flat, flatter than pancakes. They actually later
returned to that project and did all the states and
(34:58):
compared which one's I think Florida is actually the flattest. Really,
it's flatter than Kansas. This is all from memory, but
I'm pretty sure I'm not surprised because having grown up
in Florida. Um. One of the statistics that they kind
of throw at you as a child in Florida is
that the highest natural point is very low. It's like
(35:20):
ten ft or something like that above sea level. The
highest point period is definitely a landfill. Really yeah. Oh
my aunt, she has lived in Florida for most of
her life, and she came and visited my old house
in Delonaga. And Delonaga, for those who don't know, it's
(35:42):
very mountain, lots of mountains there. And um, she had
but I could not fathom. But it was it wasn't
a panic attack, but it was like she couldn't there
are too many hills. She was like, they keep got
this more hills. Yeah. Hill. Then when she saw the
like the leaves change color, Oh sure, yeah, yeah, I
(36:06):
had a I had a sort of opposite effect to
some of my cousins when I went to visit them. Um,
I was talking about Christmas in Florida and they were
living in New Hampshire. Uh and and I was like, yeah,
you know, it doesn't snow down there, and they were
like wait never. I was like, yeah, no, snow. They
were like hold on. They were to be fair like
(36:26):
under ten at the time, so, like overall, life experience
was relatively limited. It is. Yeah, it is interesting. I
was with somebody when she saw snow for the first
time and and she was like, in college, oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
it's it's a it's a magical experience. And then you're like, oh,
(36:49):
this is a cold and why I love I actually
love snow here because when it does, everything shuts down
and it's just expected you'll stay home and it doesn't
happen that often. So I I like snow. But if
I was having to do with it every day. This
is coming from someone from Alaska. Um, oh yeah. Yeah,
when you're a young kid, or it was exciting when
I was a young kid, or for like two days
(37:10):
a year maybe time, it's very exciting as an adult
who has to like shovel it, and that's terrible yes, agreed,
but you know what is nice on a snowy day, pancakes.
I do think that is true. There you go, Yes,
and that we're about at the end of our pancake episode.
We are, we are, and we do have a little
bit more for you. But first we've got one more
(37:32):
quick break for a word from our sponsor, and we're back.
Thank you sponsored, Yes, thank you. We're back with listen man,
lip pancake flip. Yeah. And I did want to say
(37:54):
before we get into this, because I know I brushed
through a bunch of names for pancakes early on the
history section. Most of those went and became different things
that will be different episodes in case people want to
write in oh where, But at the time they were
kind of used interchangeably. But okay, let's get the current
(38:15):
listener mail. Yes, Camilla wrote, I talked myself out of
writing in about your Ambrose episode, but your recent listener
mail about Hungarian fruit soup convinced me to do so.
My great grandparents were Hungarian, so my family traveled there
when I was fifteen. As a teen who never liked meat,
traveling in a country where various compressed meat cold cuts
feature and breakfast was a challenge. I lived off of
(38:36):
cheese sandwiches and of course, chilled fruit soup. I'm sorry
to admit that one of my favorites from a touristy
restaurant in Budapest featured not cherries or peaches, oh no,
but canned fruit cocktail. My parents were appalled, and my
adult self is loath to admit that I enjoyed such
a thing. Fast forward to me moving to New York
(38:58):
with my now husband. I planning an Easter supper when
we found out his cousin would be in town that weekend,
so naturally I invited her. She offered to bring something,
but I had the menu all carefully planned out. I
was spicing and making a ham, making homemade biscuits, a
goat cheese, and pizzu, flame fresh shell peas with moral mushrooms,
and floating island for a dessert, so I insisted she
(39:18):
didn't need to bring anything. My husband let her know
and came back saying she very much wanted to contribute
a salad. I figured, a nice crisp green salad is
a welcome addition to an emil, so I said yes.
I was in the kitchen a whipping egg whites, and
she walked in with a grocery bag and pulled out
a cartain of whipping cream, walnuts, pineapples, and marchino cherries.
(39:40):
I was livid, but could hardly object when she explained
it was their grandmother's jespe. Needless to say, there was
plenty leftover, and she gleefully ate it all. The next day,
I guess my taste of changed, eating fruit cocktail soup
for dinner. This salad confusion is one of my favorite things.
It is epic. I love it so much. You don't
(40:03):
know what are you going to get? Yeah? I always
ask up questions. Oh yes, apparently this is the lesson
we have learned when it comes to salad. Always ask
indeed okay, Matt wrote, as a master procrastinator, I have
been meaning to send to you the story for roughly
two years. It isn't related to any particular episode, but
it seemed like it was right up your alley. Back
(40:25):
in my wife and I were fortunate enough to take
a trip to Japan to visit a friend who was
in the Navy. We live in New England. While we
were there, we all took a trip to Kumamoto and
stayed at a traditional on sen, which is an old
timey roadside in with hot springs. That night, our stay
included a very fancy multi course dinner with lots of small,
unidentifiable by me dishes. Just before the main course, we
(40:47):
were brought a large plate of some kind of meat.
My friend told us that this was called basaeshi, and
that after we tried it, he would tell us what
it was. I was obviously suspicious, but did as I
was told an eight apiece. It very chewy and marinated
in some kind of sweet soy sauce. After we finished
our bites, he told us this story. Kumamoda Castle is
one of the three most famous castles in Japan, and
(41:10):
its fame lies mostly in the fact that it is
the only castle never taken during Japan's internal wars. The
last time the castle came under siege was in eighteen
seventy seven, and the entire interior structure was burned down.
The walls, however, held after a lengthy siege. Both armies
were running out of food. The supplies inside were gone
(41:31):
and the army outside had eaten all the food in
the area. There were two wells inside the castle so
they had water but no food. They also had nothing
to burn for fires because the keep had already burned down.
Knowing that they only had to outlast the outside forces
for a little longer, they ate their horses raw, and
that is what basashi is, marinated raw horsemeat. The story
(41:55):
says that this is what allowed the castle to survive
the siege and remain uncaptured. While this may well all
be apocryphal, it is at least a good story. Yeah, yes,
that is a very good story. Oh that's great. I
actually had a similar experience with the horse meat um
where somebody was like, I want you to try this.
(42:15):
I'm not gonna tell you what it is until after
you tried it. I tried it. It's fine. Yeah, I
mean food is food. I mean I don't know, you know, yeah, yeah.
And there's definitely, uh, just based on where you are,
different ways of I don't know, foods that are quote
(42:36):
normal or not normal, right, right, And there's a lot
of like like class and culture issues and kind of
designating a whole category of things like gross or like unacceptable.
And you know, I mean like in around the world
people got to eat as as Checkers always reminds us
the great philosopher about times. And you know, when Checkers
(42:59):
is unavailable, you still have to eat, and uh and
and whatever is there is food and the things that
people do with that food are beautiful and you know
are always intended to be nutritious in both to your
body and to you know, like your your mind and
spirit and whatever else you want to say about that.
(43:19):
So your's all, uh so, Yeah, so I don't know,
don't don't don't harsh people's food buzz. Yeah, try try
a thing when someone gives you a bite of it.
If you don't like it, that's fine too, completely fine. Yeah.
Or if you just don't want to eat meat, don't
eat it. And I'm not gonna get mad at you. Yeah,
that's not what we're here to do. There are very
(43:40):
few food related things that can make me mad at you.
We try to be you know, we just want to
purvey the information. Yeah. Most of them involved bagels. So
outside of that, we're having bagels here at work tomorrow.
Who knows what will happen. I'm concerned. I was concerned
when I read about it. I was like, oh, oh, Lauren,
(44:06):
we'll see how it goes. I'm sure it's gonna be fun.
We're a very opinionated office when it comes to food,
so I think you'll fit in perfect. Yes. Anyway, if
you want to know how that goes, you can always
email us and ask. Thanks to the two people who
have already wrote in. If you would like to email
us that you can. Our email is Hello at savor
pod dot com. We're also in social media. You can
(44:27):
find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at savor pod
and we do hope to hear from you. Savor is
production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio,
you can visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as always
to our super producers Dylan Bagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks
to you for listening, and we hope that lots more
good things are coming your way.
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Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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