The best way to eat pancakes, in my humble opinion, I learned from my Dad. Stack 'em up with butter between and a fried egg on top - over-easy so the yellow runs all over the pancakes. Add copious amounts of maple syrup, and enjoy. It's best not to look too closely at this dish as you're eating it because it has the appearance of something gone very wrong. But, it tastes sublime.
Others, I have learned, have very different ideas of what makes the ideal pancake. In college, I happened to live with a number of people who were very passionate about their pancakes. I suggested that thinner pancakes were great because 1) you can stack more of them on your plate (giving a greater surface are available for butter application), or 2) you can roll them up like an American-style crepe. My best friend, Noel, was appalled. She strongly corrected my assertion with her own view that pancakes must be thick, fluffy, and golden brown, made from scratch with real buttermilk. Yet another friend was adamant that pancakes should be made with potatoes, slathered with sour cream, and topped with tart homemade applesauce. Well, we decided to have a taste test. There was tough competition, but it wasn't really a fair contest. Noel's pancakes were such melt-in-your-mouth fluffy goodness, and so perfectly evenly browned that she won hands down.
The pancakes I'm making for breakfast today are not homemade, but from a mix. And, they will not be an even golden brown. Noel would cringe, but I am pleased. I am making my Grandma's version of pancakes, which she called hotcakes. The thick batter is poured onto a sizzling hot griddle, where they nearly instantly start bubbling up, ready to flip. The result is a dark, toasty pancake with white splotches with radiating tendrils where the batter bubbled as it hit the pan. These are the Jackson Pollock version of pancakes, and they are ideal for cooking while sailing. You can be rest assured that no matter the angle of heel of the boat, these pancakes will stay in the pan until you tell them to do otherwise. The fried egg is a much trickier accomplishment.
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