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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be shocked that anyone buys ready made batter, let alone horrible cold ready-cooked pancakes

93 replies

SebbysMum · 23/02/2009 20:48

Pancakes contain eggs, flour, milk and butter. They require one bowl, one pan and one fork to make. Quick, easy, cheap and fun. Why would anyone want to pay for ready-made, heavily packaged batter or pancakes for tomorrow?

Is this the final proof that part of our population has lost all connection with real food?

Growing up I remember pancake day cooking better than any other evening of food. If kids don't see their parents making pancakes what hope is there that they will grow up feeling able to tackle cooking themselves?

OP posts:
BarcodeZebra · 23/02/2009 21:21

Don't fancy you vs. Mrs Zebra TBH nappyzone. I'd go into crepe-eating hiding if I were you. It's not worth getting her dander up about this.

duckyfuzz · 23/02/2009 21:23

I cook them and the DTs/DH eat them as they're cooked, I thought everyone did that

Would love to know the secret of getting homemade shepherds pie on the table in 10 mins though

chegirl · 23/02/2009 21:25

I bought two packets. I cant make them. Last year I got so upset I cried. Yes I am going to go on about my DD AGAIN but she loved pancake day, I dont need the bloody stress of her not being here AND not being able to make the sodding things.

So I bought some and thats what we will have. So frickin what.

I can do other stuff.

nappyzonehasastroppytoddler · 23/02/2009 21:26

but would you fry and toss them wuss scottish fat things?

chegirl · 23/02/2009 21:28

Can I just check? This IS 2009 isnt it?
Shall I start an AIBU thread about AIBU to get overly peed off about this AIBU thread

BarcodeZebra · 23/02/2009 21:28

Nah you flip 'em with a pallet knife and you cook 'em on a girdle. (NOT a gridle - a girdle. I actually says that underneath.)

Seriously, don't take her on she's got hooves like razors.

paolosgirl · 23/02/2009 21:32

My home made shepherds pie has been cooked tonight, so will chuck it in the oven when I get home tomorrow. I'm feeling uber smug tonight

duckyfuzz · 23/02/2009 21:35

but doesn't it take about half an hour to hear through? My oven takes more than 10 mins just to approach a decent temp

FairLadyRantALot · 23/02/2009 21:36

whilst I get ya....if dh would not be there tomorrow, I would opt for easy option ready cooked and reheat...etc...because, I can't do thin pancakes....I just can't...I make wicked Yorkshore puddings though and generally cook most things from scratch...it's just pancakes that I can't seem to master

Original poster
SebbysMum · 23/02/2009 21:36

Ah, another interesting cultural difference is emerging here. Not only fat vs thin pancakes but also mention of other foods to be cooked alongside the pancakes. In my family pancakes was dinner on Shrove Tuesday. That reduces the hassle of the evening a whole lot.

I like cooking but do go a bit crazy putting two lots of dinner on the table night in night out. To me, pancake day is like a night off cooking and washing up because it is so quick and straightforward.

OP posts:
FairLadyRantALot · 23/02/2009 21:42

sebbys, funnily enough I can make thickish pancakes, the german way, but my Kids won't eat those, and I have come to prefer those thin ones that my dh makes...

he will have it with sugar and lemon, Kids will have them with chocolate spread, if I can manage to get Maple syrup, I will have them with that, otherwise either just with sugar/cinnamon or with nutella and banana...

ladymariner · 23/02/2009 21:45

If I try and make them they're shite.

If I buy Goldenfry or whatever its called batter mix, ds, dh and ds's best friend who is always here for tea on pancake day on account of the fact he thinks I make "awesome" pancakes will eat loads of them!

Enough said methnks

Ashantai · 23/02/2009 21:46

My other half also insists on just having shedloads of pancakes for dinner and nothing else!

I see pancakes as a snack or something after dinner, not as a substitute for an evening meal!

I would definately have the ready made ones and give them a zip in the microwave cos i have to be a work by 6, but my oh might make them from scratch

drlove8 · 23/02/2009 21:46

pancakes are the easiest things in the world to make- it horrifies me that people by ready mix anything! tip for the batter- make it the night before and leave in the fridge.

nappyzonehasastroppytoddler · 23/02/2009 21:49

its the frying bit that i cant do then i tryto flip them and they become gloop in a heap - bin food

FairLadyRantALot · 23/02/2009 21:53

me, too, nappy....the batter no problemo...simple...but I just can't get them right...they are to thick and just not right...dh almost makes them like crepes

BarcodeZebra · 23/02/2009 21:56

Told you! Crepes!

wannaBe · 23/02/2009 21:58

I would say that I am an excellent cook.

There are very few things I cannot make. I can make cheese cakes with gelatin; have made brulees (although I had to promise to only ever use the brulee torch under supervision before dh would let me buy it ), I make my own bread and rolls and biscuits and cakes and I even make my own pasta on occasion.

But I cannot make pancakes. I can make the american style ones, but the thin ones... forget it. I have no idea why - I suspect that perhaps it has something to do with the fact that i cannot see the bubbles on the surface so can never flip them at exactly the right moment, so they always end up a mess in the pan.

So this is my one failing in cookery, but I certainly don't consider my inability to make pancakes as the slippery slope to my child never knowing how to cook.

Would never buy packet batter though..

FairLadyRantALot · 23/02/2009 22:01

lol Zebra...I now have a very surreal mental image of mssus zebra...

ladymariner · 23/02/2009 22:01

I just look on it as one of those things in life that isn't worth getting "horrified" by!!!!
I get "horrified" by evil things happening or the scale of the utility bills or people I love getting ill. I cetainly don't get horrified by the use of packet batter mix once a year!!!!!

drlove8 · 23/02/2009 22:06

ok , do you get the pan hot enough to smoke? you need to before you add the batter then turn it down, until you see bubles in the batter on the surface, check the underside with a spatula/knife/ whatevers handy... lift the edge up and have a look! do not flip until the batters "set". if youve done all that and it still ends up wrong, then it might be your frying pan- try another type.

BarcodeZebra · 23/02/2009 22:08

We get this all the time, FairLady. Everyone's surprised to discover that we actually ARE Zebras. It upsets the foals no end.

FairLadyRantALot · 23/02/2009 22:09

well...dh uses the same pan, and they come out perfect...I do as you said the hot then owering heat, yadda....I am just rubbish....

FairLadyRantALot · 23/02/2009 22:10

lol Zebra...

oh, and maybe I can redeem myself a little bit...but I make mean waffles....go lots of recipes and a waffle iron...

jennieflower · 23/02/2009 22:48

Hmmm OP, pancakes don't have butter in them! Are you sure you've been making them?