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Comment by saalweachter | Hacker News Reader

It was life changing when I learned that if you set the stove correctly, it's almost impossible to make a bad pancake.

what? whether it's a great or only a good pancake is decided in the batter phase. bad pancakes come from whatever that flavor of instant cake mix is called, cake-plasticine.

No, you can definitely ruin perfectly good batter on a griddle that's too hot or too cold.

Yeah, if you've ever heard jokes about "the first pancake"[0] or burnt your pancakes when you get distracted by the rest of breakfast, do yourself a favor and set your griddle to 325F/160C.

Your pancakes can sit at 325F for a long time before they burn, and that alleviates the fear of burning that leads you to flip that first pancake too fast.

[0] https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=The%20First%...

I always make "test pancakes" until my griddle is just right, as I don't have a fancy temperature control. A drop of batter will behave just like a full-size pancake if you know what to watch for, a teaspoon if you don't.

I don't have a fancy temperature control, but I had just moved from gas stove to glass top electric* and and I got tired of waiting sooo long to hopefully get to a good cooking temp, only to ruin things by finding out the answer was no.

So a bought a hand-held laser-pointer-temperature gun at the hardware, wow, it's fantastic. Now I know what temps are for what (it's remarkably similar to the oven, 325 to 450) and I know how to find them and how quickly on my stove.

*what is with Miele appliances, they all suck, range, convection oven, microwave. the UIs are impossible.

Great idea; I've used an electric hob my whole life and hate my glasstop electric for everything but cleaning it.

there is no first pancake problem if you only use your griddle for pancakes, that comes from having to use a pancake to get off whatever horrible things you've put on there in between uses. (and btw, your eggs will cook much easier if you dedicate an egg pan)

325's a good number but I prefer a 350 to 375 with a little urgency, it better gets that "deep fried crispy" around the outside, and stops the already flipped side from just getting steamed to death.

It’s just like the first kid often comes out a little wonky, subsequent offspring are better.

325 is great for plain pancakes, but around 360 works better for me if I load them with blueberries.

Also, if you've never tried a recipe with vinegar and baking soda you need to.

Ah yeah slow heat for longer trick. Like if I cook a steak in the oven for an hour at 250 then throw it on the grill people think I’ve become some master chef.

whhaaat? i cook a steak for 1/2 hour in the oven on 200, and sear it in a pan (don't have a grill, am jelly) and sometimes risk over-cooking it?

with pancakes, while you don't want it tooo too hot, you do want a hot pan to sizzle fry some crispy edges on there. i like a little "crack" of the crust, not a steamy on the outside cake.

Once I figured out that cooking is mostly optimizing water while hitting the desired through-doneness and char points, my food markedly improved. Everything about low and slow makes a lot more sense then!

Adding water to pan for Bacon is a new hack. One guy did a bunch of experiments to see what worked and scientific reasons why.

https://youtu.be/PCW6dlBD-_g

I'll have to try. I've had pretty good luck with the Spruce oven method: https://www.thespruceeats.com/perfect-oven-cooked-bacon-how-...

Tl;dr - Put cold bacon in cold oven. Turn on oven to 400°F. Cook 17-20 min.

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