Measuring flour for baking should be done by weight. It avoids the issues of whether it is packed or not, which changes how much flour is in a cup, which is bad.
Do yourself a favor. Get Quebec maple syrup. Whatever the cost, it’s worth it.
I will commit heresy here. Maple syrup is overrated. Sure, it’s good, but if it is the defining factor of you pancakes, then your pancakes are too sweet.
The key of course, is to use buttermilk and ensure that your batter is thin and runny.
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 milk
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 /2 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon sugar
Mix it all together and cook in frying pan flipping once. They should be light brown outside and moist inside. If they rise tall and are dry and cakey, add more milk. (Amazingly, some strange people like their pancakes thick. I try to recommend mental health care to those people.)
Ideally they are cooked in enough bacon grease to get them golden brown and crunchy on the bottom. Toppings can be whatever trips your trigger… syrup, sugar, jam, butter, etc.
I have done my part. Now please freeze some little mutton pies and mail them to me.
Nevertheless it is not the common practice in the US. If a very specific volume is needed then recipes often specify volume after sifting , however, the things most Americans bake all the time – like chocolate chip or oatmeal cookies or simple cupcakes-- are extremely forgiving so it doesn’t matter much. Volumetric measures work well enough for most people.
Mm, pancakes. BTW, we call the ones you make “crepes,” and they are considered a bit posh, while “normal” pancakes are just down-home cookin’ you can get at any place that serves breakfast.
No, I’m saying the US traditional system originated in England. It’s actually a minor thing that the actual metric values associated with those in the UK and those in the US are slightly different.
Or are you saying that it’s just coincidence that the US system just happens to have inches, feet, yards, miles, cups, bales, rods, etc. just like the former UK system?
In the opinion of this Canadian, Maple syrup is overrated and too thin. Soaks into the pancakes.
I second this.
Just go buy a box of bisquick and follow the recipe on the back. ive seen it in the u.k…
The thing with maple syrup is, the stuff usually sold is the lightest grade, sometimes called “fancy,” and doesn’t really have much taste. It was originally intended as a substitute for white sugar. For something with real flavor you need the kind called dark amber, or even Grade B. The “lower” grade doesn’t mean it’s poor quality, just that it is very dark, with a lot of maple flavor, and is not suited for more delicate uses. I’ve gotten the best maple syrups direct from the individual makers, both at craft shows and while traveling in New England.
Bingo.
That watery stuff is useless. I’m telling you, if people knew just how good the right maple syrup is, Aunt Jemima would have to file for bankruptcy.
I’m going to sound like an old curmudgeon here, but the pity is once upon a time we all did know. That was what you got. Log Cabin used to be maple syrup. Eventually it got to be maple *flavored * syrup, with at most a few percent maple. I don’t think it has any now. Most of the stuff on the grocery store shelf is called pancake syrup and is just vaguely maple-flavored corn syrup and thickeners. And even the 100% m.s. is not the really good stuff.
I absolutely agree. Took it for granted to the extent that I didn’t even mention it. There’s no such thing as “maple flavored syrup.” There’s 100% maple syrup, and there’s inedible abominations. And I also agree that grade B is more flavorful than grade A. Grade A is more “refined,” which means it’s more bland. I buy mine by the Costco jug.
A “cup” as a precise measurement is apparently a relatively modern, and American, invention. The definition of “cup” as 8 fluid ounces does not appear in the original edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, or its 1933 supplement. This site says that Fannie Farmer was an early promoter of that definition with her bestselling cookbook, first published in 1896.
Yep, that’s the ticket. Now you’ve got me thinking about Maple Sugar Candy!
But as I said earlier, if the pancakes are good, you don’t need syrup. Lots of butter, and you’re in pancake heaven. Syrup is just for disquising the taste of bad pancakes.
Wow! I wasn’t expecting that much of a response, especially not so quickly. Thanks so much, I’m going away for the weekend so I don’t now how soon I’ll be able to make them, but when I do, I will post a full review. One thing I’m not sure about though is the actual cooking process, what stops them from running to the sides of the pan (I don’t have a griddle)? Do they have enough tension to stay in one place?
As for the whole ‘cup’ thing, I’m not an expert but I do like to cook and I an only tell you what I’ve found. Things tend to be measured differently according to whether they’re wet or dry. A lot of modern recipes use ml, grams etc. as well as Tbsp and Tsp but some give both the metric and the old Lb, Oz etc measurements, and you can still find lots of recipes with just old measurements in. I can’t say I’ve made tons of very old recipes, but even when I have looked at antique cookbooks I haven’t seen cups used. I think we were supposed to learn how to convert between the two systems when we were in school but I never did, as it’s not really worth it. Thanks so much for your help converting it into something I understand, I will be writing this down for future reference!
As for maple syrup, seem to have caused major controversy. If I have inadvertently caused WW3, I am deeply sorry.
Hello again, what I make are like crepes, but thicker. Crepes are French and very thin.
As you’ve all shared your lovely recipes, here’s my favourite way to make pancakes.
Follow this recipe:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/pancakes_1292.shtml
with one alteration: chop up some spinach into tiny pieces and add it to the batter. The other thing is using only 1tbs of batter seems like not enough, I might be tempted to add some more, bearing in mind I don’t usually use a recipe so I’m not an expert on this particular one. When cooked, roll some mature cheddar and if you really hate your arteries some fried mushrooms inside. Yummy!
Also, (I feel very embarrassed about this) when I was searching on the BBC food site for the above, I found this recipe: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/americanpancakes_72753.shtml
Don’t know why I couldn’t find it before, or if it’s any good.
One last thing (sorry this is so long), saoirse, thanks for pointing out that my name abbreviates to a tree. This brilliant!
everyone loves monkeys: Do those recipes still give the gas stop numbers for the range dials?
This one’s probably better suited to Cafe Society since it’s about cooking.
samclem General Questions moderator
Use a cast iron skillet if you don’t have a griddle for making pancakes American style. You want as flat a surface as possible, also you want good heat conduction/management. Here is a Wikipedia article on pancakes, apparenly you might already have eaten them as “Scotch Pancakes” or “Drop Scones”. Here is a “how to” guide which explains how to tell when to flip a pancake too. Hope you enjoy them, I like blueberry pancakes with butter, plain pancakes with butter and syrup, or pancakes flavored with bacon grease, butter and syrup. I like Maple syrup, but am also fond of the thicker kind as well, or home made syrup which is thinner.
How does one easily measure by weight rather than volume? It sounds very complicated and messy. I have a fancy scale where you can set something (a bowl, a glass, a plate) on it, then zero it out so that whatever you pour into the something adds the weight up. It still seems a hassle, especially if weight needs to be precise (take a little bit out, put a little bit back in…oops, too much, take a little bit out, then a little more…ooops, too much, put a little bit back in…blah!), so is that why the Americans invented the “cup” measure? Another form of rebellion?
AFAIK, we didn’t invent it, we brought it across the sea with us before we rebelled. 
It might be that we standardized it to mean 8 ounces though.
Monty, I’m not entirely sure of the question, are you talking about an aga or a normal gas cooker?
Zabali_Clawbane, this was really useful! I’ve made drop scones before and they turned out ok, so I’ll just try using the same cooking method.
Equipoise, yes, that’s exactly what I do. I’ve never thought of it as a hassle I suppose its because it’s the only thing I’ve ever used, it would also seem that you can be more specific (mine have 25g marks on it) with them than you could be on working out what half a cup is buy guesstimating. But using a ‘cup’ is probably much more quick and simple.