How did they used to make pancakes?

Jonny69

Jonny69

Jonny69

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Hopefully nobody missed pancake day yesterday and got their full fill of battery goodness.

When standing at the hob yesterday, frying them in butter, I remembered the question that pops into my mind every year: how did people cook pancakes in the days before non-stick pans?

I can categorically say that I have never successfully managed to fry anything in a pan that isn't non-stick without it permanently attaching itself to the bottom. A pancake would be much much worse than an egg or a rasher of bacon, so how the hell did they do it?

Maybe this is a question for grandma.
 
Most, if not all cookware, would have been cast-iron, and once that's been properly seasoned you're left with a coating on the metal that's as good as non-stick.

If anything it's even better that non-stick in some cases as food will actually stick to the surface of the pan while cooking and then 'release' at the point when it's ready. I guess non-stick is just the easier, quicker and more consumer-friendly way.
 
My non stick frying pan was fine yesterday, the pancake stuck until it was cooked then became moveable. Not the easiest to flip but a spatula did the job. I know thats a bit fail but i got my pancakes :)
 
Greenlizard0 said:
I'm guessing it's like a lot of things where they used more grease/butter/marg/oil etc.
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I would guess it'd be this/these, i also remember seeing on one of the cookery programmes where they fried off sugar then wiped it to prevent stuff sticking to a non non-stick pan.
 
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When my mum cooked them she coated the pan with butter waited for it to stop sizzling and then cooked them. They never got stuck.

Cooking on non-stick pans is not rocket science, everybody managed with them very easily. We still use a couple of non-stick pans at home and don’t have a problem with “sticking”.
 
glitch said:
Most, if not all cookware, would have been cast-iron, and once that's been properly seasoned you're left with a coating on the metal that's as good as non-stick.
Click to expand...
I have tried that method unsuccessfully. In fact the first time someone boasted about how non stick their skillet was, was the time I managed to make the worst mess of a fried egg and other food I've ever seen. All the food literally glued itself to the bottom and was never going to come free :D
 
I have a non stick pan, but i still pre coat it in oil. while i was cooking the last side on my pancake last night, i put a line of milkyway buttons down the middle of the pancake while still in the pan, needless to say it tasted awesome with melted white chocolate in it!


my workmate put too much oil in his pan on his third pancake, proceeded to flip it and covered himself in hot oil. idiot.
 
Fish slice is a spatula. Those stupid plastic things are only a spatula if you're a rubbish tv chef. :mad:

More oil, more skill with non stick.
I had no problems using an old fashioned cast iron pan yesteday, flipping like a motherbeast.
 
my mother makes pancakes using some sort of circular black disc which is about an inch thick, and she doesnt use oil. im sure its about 20 years old aswell because we've had it since i can remember
 
glitch said:
Most, if not all cookware, would have been cast-iron, and once that's been properly seasoned you're left with a coating on the metal that's as good as non-stick.

If anything it's even better that non-stick in some cases as food will actually stick to the surface of the pan while cooking and then 'release' at the point when it's ready. I guess non-stick is just the easier, quicker and more consumer-friendly way.
Click to expand...

Exactly this. My parents have some fantastic thick heavy cast iron pans, and they are great to cook on (they've had them 20+ years!). Then again I tend to use some kind of nut oil to cook with anyway as it doesn't get affected by hight heat, so cooking's never been a problem on those pans. I know it's psychological, but I always felt they tasted better from a cast iron pan too! :o
 
My nan uses a big metal pan (I fail at remembering what it's called) and does 3 or 4 pancakes at a time.

Secret is coat with butter, then drain in to a cup, cook, apply melted butter, drain, cook...
 
When I was in scouts an eternity ago we used to have a pancake stall at the shopping centre every year and used old cheap battered aluminium frying pans. After the first panacke there was no issues.
 
I wondered this last night as my mum took over pancake making duty and welded the first to my pan, then gave up.
 
I think a lot is to do with how the pan is heated and what it's made of. I had an old iron wok that had been heated til blue and rubbed with bacon fat until it was black. Nothing ever stuck to it when I used a gas hob but it was unusable on a new halogen hob.

I have to resort to non stick coated aluminium pans to cook with as a result.
 
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