I make manicotti, which might be considered a savory pancake. I make a crepe out of flour, water and egg and I fill it with a ricotta/mozz mixture. Topped with red sauce and baked in the oven. I know some people use boiled, premade, boxed pasta tubes, but Grandma did it this way. Of course, she called it "gravy". not red sauce. She's probably turning in her grave right now. Sorry, Grandma.

@roxsolid omg I had no idea that was a thing...I saw this quite a while ago and I thought it was just something this woman made up! I love this little bird:

https://youtube.com/shorts/9nKAo9JYL0w?si=hyz5tssGOi89JcHq

Olychick, my daughter started me on that song one Christmas morning when we were making a whole mess of pancakes for family. We laughed ourselves silly singing it.

Faftris can you please post your recipe. I have heretofore used boxed pasta but you are such a good cook (and I'm sure Grandma was as well) I'd love to know how you do it.

plllog, my vegetarian comment about my recipes was because they make a nice, hearty, non-breakfasty vegetarian dinner. The snarky comment about that was from someone who obviously doesn't know that vegetarians do eat butter. 'Often wrong, but never in doubt!'

Rox, my Canadian DH makes flapjack but it is not what I expected. I thought flapjacks were a kind of pancake, but he makes what I see as granola rolled out in a jellyroll pan.

bpath, is your husband of British Isle background? Or from Newfoundland?

Canada has very different customs, sayings etc. depending on what part of the country you are from. I know the USA is that way as well. No one shoe fits. Keeping an open mind is how you learn.

It’s all good, as you said.

It's not much of a recipe, but here goes.1 cup of flour, pinch of salt, 2 eggs, 1 cup water. I use my hand mixer to get it smooth. I use a 8 inch nonstick pan, rub a very small amount of olive oil on it and heat it.. 1/4 cup of batter and swirl it aound. Grandma had the knack of flipping it, but I did not inherit that gene.. I have a larger nonstick pan on another burner, also rubbed and heated, and when I think the crepe is almost done, I turn the pan over so that the crepe falls onto the second pan. The second side takes just a minute. That amount of batter makes 8 crepes. I always make 18. We eat 6, and I freeze the others in baking dishes. I have a freezer in the garage. My best friend.

The filling for 18 is a two pound container of ricotta, 2 eggs,salt, pepper , a bit of nutmeg, and 1/2 lb of mozzarella diced small. Polly-O is really the best, but very pricey. To assemble, put some "gravy" in the bottom of a ceramic pan. Take a crepe, put about two nice soupspoonsful of filling in the middle, and fold it up like a business letter, putting it in the pan solid side up. After you have done them all, spoon a little more gravy on top. Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes on 350. We like extra gravy on top upon serving.I make my own, but I think that Rao's tastes pretty close to homemade.

The other trays freeze well--money in the bank. If you want to just make a smaller batch, just scale down on the filling. I myself am a big fan of cooking once and eating twice. Have fun with it. I laugh, because this recipe will die with me. One kid doesn't like any kind of cheese, and the other can't eat any kind of cheese!

I laugh, because this recipe will die with me.

No, now that you have published your recipe here, I'm sure it will continue because some of us will make it Thank you.

Yes to savory pancakes. For me it's mostly just leaving the sugar out and adding savory in. A fave is to herb them up and serve with cheese. Or use pickled jalapeno juice in the batter and add in ham or bacon. Sour cream pancakes are good with a fried egg or some smoked salmon or maybe a kipper on top. Or made with buttermilk and pepper, fried in bacon or ham grease unless I'm frying up the ham first, then served with redeye gravy. Cheesy grits on the side. Or maybe a short stack of savory instead of making biscuits to smother with sausage gravy.

My most fun experience with pancakes was when my ex and I were staying in a B&B on the north coast of Scotland and when the hostess learned we were Americans-seriously out of the way as never having happened before- they got some packaged pancakes from the store to serve us for Tea. We were surprised but explained that pancakes for Americans was mostly breakfast but we appreciated their effort. Very funny all together. They were small but definitely pancakes and came packaged like English Muffins. Amazing spot where we saw an otter and when reporting this to the daughter of the house caused her to bolt out the door to the area we saw it.

Pancakes aka griddle cakes could easily qualify as flat breads if you took a universal view. There is no reason to take a limited view of what they can be.

Wednesday at our house is sourdough pancake day for my DH.

Breakfast for dinner is one of my favorite things, especially when I am out of ideas. I LOVE the sour cream pancake recipe from my old Joy of Cooking, and I make another kind with cornmeal base and a pumpkin pancake too. All sweet, I am afraid. I would never be able to eat that much at breakfast OR get up early to make them.

" There is no reason to take a limited view of what they can be. "

I don't think it's that I had in mind, but rather, the word "pancake" is almost a proper name. Something specific, whether sweet or not. Other things are similar or related but have other names.

Pancakes for breakfast about once every 10 days here. We add our pear sauce to the batter (~20%) which makes them more moist and a bit fruity. Apple sauce is also a good additive. When sweet cherries are in season we'll add diced cherries to the batter too. Plus, butter, maple syrup, bacon & sausage of course ;-)

oops, eta, we always add our blueberries to the mix too, keep them in the freezer year round.

The pancakes I make have no sugar, butter or water in the batter. They're just egg, milk and flour. Flapjacks are entirely different. They contain oats, butter and syrup and are far thicker.

Patriciae, I wonder if what you were served were 'Scotch pancakes' aka drop scones. My mum made them directly on the solid plate of her old electric cooker. They're smaller and thicker than our normal pancakes and they have a little sugar and baking powder in them.

https://parks.canada.ca/culture/gourmand-gourmet/recette-recipe04

This is a Canadian flapjack recipe. Well, for some Canadians 🤠🤷

A Curious Flapjack

Ingredients:

• 4 oz | 115 g butter or margarine
• 4 oz | 115 g light brown sugar
• 2 tbsp | 30 ml golden syrup
• 8 oz | 225 g porridge oats
• 2 oz | 60 g shredded coconut
• ½ tsp | 2.5 ml ground ginger
• Pinch of salt

Directions:

• Place the butter or margarine, sugar and golden syrup in a saucepan and stir over low heat until the butter and sugar have melted. Add the oats, salt, coconut and ginger; blend thoroughly.
• Press into a well-greased 9-inch pan. Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Score into slices while still warm. Cool completely before removing from pan. Enjoy squares while hiking or on outdoor picnics!

Pancake is descriptive though. It is a cake cooked on a pan vs in an oven. Historically speaking most people had no ability to bake unless they did it in a closed pot since ovens were rare as hens teeth for the average household. If you lived in town you could take your baking to a bake house. A surprising number of households in town did not even have a fireplace as surprising as that was. Cake was not synonymous with sweet. So the issue is whether or not a batter cake is bread vs flat bread which is a dough. I dont see why not.

And then there are griddle cakes.

@faftris, thank you so much for your recipe. I used to make a similar version of manicotti for years; it's so out of the world delicious - I could never go back to pasta for it ever again. But after my husband died (in the 1990's), I didn't make it much and I've lost the recipe I used. It's probably in a file someplace, because I don't think it was from a cookbook. I've looked online to try to replicate it and never found one, but yours looks almost like the one I used, except there were more eggs in the batter-the crepes were quite eggy.

I, too, never managed to flip them but always lifted an edge with a turner, then grabbed them with my fingers and flipped.

I'm so happy to have it again, I can't wait for an occasion to make a big pan of it.

I actually don't care for pancakes (in the traditional American sense) or waffles at all. Not. At. All.

Just gently giving an FYI to: "I thought standard pancakes are always vegetarian, unless butter is put on."......... even with butter on them, they are vegetarian (and, btw, they do contain eggs, which I'm sure you know). Perhaps you're thinking of vegan. Vegan pancakes would have no butter, no eggs.

Vegetarian pancakes are to vegetarian dinner as pancakes in general are to breakfast for dinner. Lots of people eat pancakes for dinner. Perhaps many do it because there are staples in the house, but not much else. At banquets with only a couple of choices, I always get the chicken, but if there's only beef or fish, where I find the former inedible and the latter likely poisonous to me , I'll do the vegetarian option (almost never vegan, but I'd eat that and it might be better). Many places, it's kind of awful food, like frozen giant ravioli barely warmed. Still more edible than the beef or fish, but pretty awful. I would have been fine with some kind of pancake and eggs or TVP thing.

Faftris, that's great! Thank-you for sharing.

Our Italian friend of the family made manicotti somewhere in the middle. She made flat pasta rectangles, then rolled them up around the filling. It looked a lot like the tubes on first look, but weren't at all like them, and I have never had anything near to such good manicotti since, though I was still in college, when I last tasted them and don't really know what was in the filling that made it so much better.

You may have guessd that Grandma was a Nonna. Her lasagne( an Easter staple) was made with her own homemade pasta noodles. She had a wooden pastry board that was the size of her kitchen table, and she would go at it using her hands. . And we are talking about probably twenty-five people to eat it, in a one bedroom apartment.. I always remember how she put all the little scraps of dough on the top of the lasagne. Nothing was ever wasted. When she made ravioli, same procedure. My job was to go around the ravioli with a fork to seal the edges.

I have no such talent. I am, however, fortunate enough to have found a wonderful store in NYC, where they make the most amazing ravioli, and have for over 100 years. Twice a year, we drive in and buy boxes and boxes. Thank you, garage freezer.

My ancestors are Germans from Russia. They came to the U.S. and most of those I knew/know about settled in the north and south Dakotas. They brought their recipes with them and we still enjoy most of them. I love most of the German dishes Mom made. Dad's favorite was called Sterum (pronounced as if there is an "h" between the s and the t. It was a dinner pancake. Eggs, baking powder, milk, salt and flour. Fried in shortening. When it was done, Mom would use her spatula to chop approximately 1" squares. Then she sliced cucumbers, added a touch of salt, a dash of wine vinegar and a few dollops of sour cream. She put that on top of the chopped pancake. I did NOT love the pancake, but I dearly loved the cucumber topping. And of course we ate what was on the table. DH loves the sour cream cucumber salad, and asks for it often.

So I have this whole wheat pancake recipe that calls for adding fruit after you pour the batter and before you flip it. I imagine any number of other add-ins could be subbed, and sugar reduced or omitted. I wish I could remember where it came from - they come out nice and fluffy...

Fruit Pancakes makes 18-20 pancakes

Blueberries, chopped bananas, or other fruit of your choice

2 eggs, beaten

1 3/4 c. milk

2 c whole wheat (or other) flour

2 Tbs. light brown sugar

1 Tbs. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

3 Tbs. melted butter or oil

Blend eggs, butter/oil & milk in a large bowl.

In another bowl, blend dry ingredients, then add to liquid mixture. If it seems too thick, add more milk.

Drop in 3" circles on lightly greased hot griddle.Add fruit as soon as batter is poured; sprinkle into freshly poured batter, then turn/flip when ready. (Bubbles that form have popped)

You know how to serve 'em = )

P.S. I like to sub fine cornmeal for some of the flour.

OMG, flapjacks. I had bought myself a tin of Lyle's Golden Syrup, and I have been looking for a good recipe. Thank you roxsolid.

I think of Okonomyaki as a savory pancake with vegetables in it.

My first thought was oh heck no -- was thinking of traditional breakfast pancakes, I wouldn't muck those up with anything in or on but syrup.

But then after reading the posts, I realized all the other types of things that can be consider "pancakes". Definitely like latkes and the scallion cakes at dim sum. DH likes okonimyaki but I don't. Do crab cakes count as pancakes? Oh how I enjoy a good crab cake!

(I haven't had any breakfast pancakes in years, and of course now I want some because of this post LOL! )

People do make breakfast sandwiches with american style pancakes instead of muffins or bread. I though there was a Canadian stack of savory items with pancakes --- thought I saw it on a menu once.

Anyway, was in a hotel eating breakfast this week, in Italy, and a older French mother asks her son/grandson "what's that?" (they were very overdone pancakes, made in a too hot pan). And they proceeded to try it, without syrup, as it was put next to the bacon, eggs, omelettes, etc..

Porkchop, I'd say that with crab cakes and similar, they're cake-like, but not pancake like. When fried in a pan, they're more pancake-ish, but lots and lots of things are pan fried that are not pancakes. Perhaps, the defining thing is a pancake is made with a batter, and bubbles up, which makes it incontrovertably a pan fried cake. Whereas, I've made just about every kind of latke there is (not the beet ones--they don't taste good enough to be worth the mess), and they're kind of halfway between a pancake and a crabcake. They don't rise, but they do start with a batter, as do egg pancakes. So maybe the bubble up isn't 100% required. Crabcake is a bunch of crab squished together with binders and jewels (i.e., veg bits), therefore more like a fig cake, which is figs squished together with jewels (i.e., almond slices). And the whole point of this is that I like investigating words. Call it whatever you want. :)

Laceyvail, I am leaving for Japan in less than a week (first time!) and looking forward to trying Okonomyaki. I love pancakes of any kind- savory buckwheat galettes and classic sugar crepes are some French favorites. My husband made the most delicious blueberry buttermilk pancakes from scratch. He passed away 15 years ago today, and we miss him- and his wonderful cooking, too.

@porkchop_z5b_MI you can put the blame on nicole for posting that photo of a yummy looking pancake from Kodiac mix a while back!!😝

A crepe is not a pancake just like a bagel is not a donut. That's my opinion. Pancakes have always gone with savory as well as sweet. Pigs in blankets are mix of sweet and savory. I can't eat a stack of pancakes as a meal. I have to eat them with other things. Pork sausage, linguica, chorizo, kielbasa, bacon,hash, always a savory protein to go with them.

Wildchild, I guess one could say a classic American pancake is a leavened version of a crepe, and that a crepe is an unleavened French pancake, a latke is a potato pancake, blintzes are made with filling inside rolled eggy pancakes, okonomyaki is a type of pancake….etc. I like them all.

"And the whole point of this is that I like investigating words. Call it whatever you want."

LOL! It has "cake" in the name and it's fried in a pan so it must be a pancake, right?

Not Fried. Griddle cooking (or alternately pan cooking) is not frying. Frying has a depth of fat, maybe not deep but a depth. Not that it matters.

I can see crab cakes as griddle cakes because that is how they are cooked.

I would think when the label Pancake was made it was because they could be baked. Batter cake? That might illuminate.

What we are talking about here is old methods of cooking things. Not a definite rule and obviously flexible in what it means.

To me--perhaps not technically so, but in my mind--when you have to oil the pan even just a little more than just to prevent sticking, it's frying...

Well they do fry eggs on flat grills in old fashioned cafe's. I concede the point.

I’m just watching the first episode of this season of Call the Midwife.

It’s Pancake Day, and they’re having pancakes with sprinkled sugar and lemon. 🤠

So...I've seen the posts about pancakes with savory foods, which I get. But... What's next? What about unsweet pancakes with sausage gravy instead of biscuits? What about savory flavors in the pancakes? Last week's bread I made had Kimchi and black pepper in it. it was really good! One could substitute kimchi for water in the Kodiak Cakes add-water-only mix, but would it interfere with the baking powder? I'm not sure from scratch, will the pancakes taste like pancakes and cook like them without milk? Or, I suppose some powdered milk or cream might work...

Of course, one could use any dry spices. People put cinnamon sugar on panckes, and maybe in them. And blueberries in pancakes are delightful. So no sugar, yes cumin and corriander, and little pieces of Anaheim chili. Served with crema rather than butter. Maybe a dab of hibiscus (jamaica) marmalade. Or Ras al Hanout, with bits of olives, preserved lemon, dried apricot and almonds, served with Greek-style yoghurt & parsley sauce.

What do y'all think?

I'm making myself hungry and I just ate...

One of the most memorable meals I've ever had was a Christmas morning when I was probably 10 and we used to go to our neighbor's for breakfast (it was just my mom and me. The neighbor was her best friend with 2 kiddos close in age to me and were almost like siblings to me). They must have had turkey for Christmas Eve dinner because there was turkey gravy served with pancakes for breakfast. It was SO delicious that I've never forgotten it. I don't think I've ever tried to replicate it for fear of ruining the memory.

I've been trying for years to make a decent crepe. Mine stick in the pan and rip apart. Any helpful hints would be appreciated. (I did see Call the Midwife where they were sitting down to pancakes with lemon juice and powdered sugar. Trixie explained that Americans eat pancakes with maple syrup. )

English pancakes and french crêpes are the same thing. Perhaps a crêpe is a little thinner and bigger than a pancake as here, they're cooked on a very big hotplate (bilig) but in homes, they're the same as British pancakes.

American, fat and fluffy pancakes are different. I love and eat them all LOL

For savoury American pancakes, my favourite is the Yotam Ottolenghi green pancake. https://cuisinedaubery.com/recipe/green-pancakes/ Spinach, spring onions, slathered with a lime and coriander butter that is SO good.

Pancakes (ours) can be sweet or savoury. I don't add sugar to the batter so I can choose how to use them when I'm ready. You can use the same pancake for your savoury course then dessert. Then here, savoury pancakes are buckwheat, called galettes.

Good question, and one I wondered about last month, so I did some heavy reading on the savory tasted buds, the triggers ( glutamates ), why it triggers protein rich saliva flow along with ingredients rich in umami.

I thought our banana bread was always great but I tried to enhance it with a little glutamate kick to see what extra flavor I could extract. Rich thick saliva did flow, but the combination didn't work, and we didn't like it.

Experiment with pancakes, (I will at a later date) and add savory ingredients high in natural glutamates to get a umami pancake bomb. I looked at Asian savory pancake recipes but the savory ingredients are some I'd never try, like scallions. I'll experiment with combination of ingredients high in glutamate I do like when I get around to it.

Cured meats, aged cheeses ( Parmesan is very rich in glutamate), dried mushrooms, soy sauce and tomato paste are all high in glutamate and won't gross me out like Kimchi, sauerkraut and Tempeh.

Janice, I don't know if this will help, but I learned to make blintz pancakes at my mother's knee, and have made great crepes the same way. I can't say as to French autheticity, but it works. First, you have to have a quick pan, if you're making them in a pan. Aluminum works, and I have DeBuyer carbon steel crepe pans. You need turned up edges to do it this way, though the French crepe maker does not. The pan needs to be polished smooth and if carbon steel it also needs to be well seasoned. After you make the batter, let it set while you heat a puddle of oil or butter in the pan. Many recipes call for this fat to be added to the batter, so pour it in, if so, else pour into a bowl. Then return the pan to the heat and oil generously, but not a puddle, adding any excess to the discard bowl, and pour or ladle in the batter, swirl it around and pour the excess back into the batter jug. Use a thin edged wood or silicone spatula (not metal which is more likely to stick or cause tears), while lifting the pan away from the heat, to worry the pouring edge away from the side of the pan and gently slide under the crepe towards the middle, tilting the pan so the side you're opening is lower. Once you have a goodly separation, angle the pan further over your cloth covered board and let gravity help, letting the crepe fall gently so it lays flat. Even if you're a master, the first one or two will be wonky, and if you're making a big batch there may be an end point before the batter is done when they stop behaving. Better two smaller batches. I'm not a video maker, but you might check for some videos if this isn't helpful. Good luck!

So this conversation got me curious, and I found this Jacques Pepin video on how he makes crepes. He's using a nonstick pan

There's a longer one too, with him making crepes 2 ways.

Love Jacques Pepin, I think he's 90 now - if anybody sees another special where they celebrate him, let me know , hope he's doing well !

I love crepes, it's a fun spread to make as a 'crepe bar' so some can be sweet, fold 'em or roll them up, everybody gets what they want ! I think my favorite is spinach, bacon, and brie. And asparagus fit so nicely rolled up...

I use Giada de Laurentis' recipe, so simple - I think it's 4 eggs, 1/2 cup flour, 1 cup milk, pinch of salt, fry in butter, swirl around - I use my 9-inch french skillet although last time I used a deBuyer carbon crepe pan, smaller diameter -

When the children were growing up we did Sunday pancakes pretty consistently - sweet ones with wild blueberries and real maple syrup - we cooked up the extras to take on hikes and eat with peanut butter and apples.

And I make buckwheat blinis with mushrooms and cream, sooo good - my Russian language professor in Fairbanks had all of us students over to learn 40 years ago !

I have my best luck turning out successful crepes when I make the batter ahead and let it rest for an hour or so.

I used to make savoury crepes for dinner. I would roll them up with savoury ingredients like chicken or ham, mushrooms, broccoli etc, all bound together in a bechamel sauce, which I would make with shredded spring onions and mixed herbs added at the butter melting stage. I would serve them rolled up with a good dollop of the filling inside and sometimes a bit of extra bechamel drizzled over the top. When DH and I were first married I would make him seafood crepes, which were rolled up with a filling made of chopped white fish, scallops and large prawns, bound together with a curry sauce and baked in the oven with more of the sauce poured over them. DH really liked them.

One restaurant I worked in had crepes Suzette on the menu for dessert, which we premade the crepes for in the afternoon. I would make a huge batch and just churn them out, pouring and swirling the batter, waiting until the top was nearly dry, then snatching them out with my fingers and turning them over for a brief finish before adding them to the pile on a plate at the side of the stove. It was in its way, relaxing.

@colleenoz YUM!

I have a crepe pan and can turn out a decent crepe, although I don't particularly care for them. The grandkids love them, though, especially filled with Nutella or a cream cheese and fruit filling.

I like the traditional American pancake with syrup, I like the cornmeal based "hoe cakes" which can also be served with syrup but Elery likes them with ham and cheese and they can be used as a sandwich that way. I also make the oat "farls" that my grandmother used to make for breakfast.

I make Sol's zucchini pancakes and they are sometimes used as a wrap for whatever filling suits us and I've been known to make a potato pancake, also known as a latke in other families.

Annie