Waffles vs. Pancakes

I said no such thing. Waffles are sacred and not a joking matter. 

Thank you. I really hate it when waffles are not treated with the reverence they deserve. You get it man, you just get it.

Pancakes are better.

Yeah, I went there.

Here in Minneapolis (and also in Duluth, MN on the Lake Superior shore) we have an extraordinary "alternative" restaurant named Hell's Kitchen, where they make both Pancakes and Waffles with a magnificent cornmeal base.  Mmmm.

Blashphemer!  Waffles for the win!  See, they even start with W.  W-affles, W-in.  It is NOT a coincidence.  

Fancy AND Smart.

Though I have no idea why you are a fearful leader

My subordinates can and are totally willing to turn on me at any moment. It's been well established in our lore of Team Fancy that, while still being the leader, and I am quite the coward.

"Alright, soldiers! Let's charge into battle! …But, you know, you guys go first."

Praise be to the Hindmost!

Wait, are there people who like pancakes more than waffles?!

I hesitate to ask this but do you like Waffles more than Pancakes?

Did we just become nemeses?

And so, the GTG fell into a heated flame war over waffles and pancakes. Millions died. Some lived, but they were scarred forever.

Never forget: 2/10/14

I consider them pretty much the same thing.  One is easier to cook, the other looks fancy; neither of these is particularly relevant to how they taste.

I see pancakes (English), pancakes (American) and waffles (Belgian) as fairly different things.

And I recommend savoury waffles with cheese and chives in the batter. 

I'm in Team Pancake

Whole Wheat Pancakes, cheddar cheese, sliced apple, maple syrup, Bacon.

Yum.

Most important meal of the day.

I butter my waffles then top with sugar and cinnamon.

What are English pancakes?  I had honestly never imagined there was more than one way of making them.

And I recommend savoury waffles with cheese and chives in the batter.

Bleah!  XP

Oh wow.  I'd skip the cheddar personally, but otherwise, my mind is completely blown.

Personally (and royally), We Butter the Bread With Butter!

This is a split topic waiting to happen.

English pancakes tend to be flatter, wider and less fluffy than American pancakes (we don't put in anything that makes them rise, and the batter is thinner), kinda similar to crêpes. They're often served with lemon and sugar then rolled up and eaten. (Although I like to put Nutella on mine)

I think it's a miracle it lasted this long! This whole forum is just not foodproof. I vote we refer to the process, in which the mention of a food type results in the derailment of a topic and a consequent seperation from the original thread, as 'banana splitting' (a pretty effective way to end game related arguments and turn them into food arguments.).

I actually think that there is just too much of a quality curve in waffles and pancakes to claim one is better than the other. You might have a go-to preference for either, but I think even a hardcore pancakehead can be temporarily converted into a waffleist when he is confronted with the a high quality waffle and vice versa.

Also, life isn't short enough to justify ready mix. Just needed to be said.

Ha. You mean wafflers…

"Waffles are just pancakes with syrup traps."  Mitch Hedberg (RIP)

"I am the Waffler. With my griddle of justice, I BASH the enemy in the head, or I burn them like so! - I also have some truth syrup, which is low-fat."


What Charlotte said. They are made with a thin batter of flour, eggs and milk (similar to the one you'd use to cover the fish for your English-style fish and chips) cooked with a little oil over a fairly high heat. They are a weird combination of crispy and golden and slightly almost rubbery and flexible, and they are basically vehicles for the filling (like a tortilla I guess, except both savoury and sweet fillings are common). Not at all fluffy and cakey like American ones, which are more like our griddle cakes or drop scones. Completely different animal. 

It's traditional to eat them on Shrove Tuesday because they were originally a way to use up all the "forbidden" foods you weren't going to eat during Lent. We call it Pancake Day now, and often people only eat pancakes on that day for no real reason that I can see. 

I made some for lunch today after reading this thread. One with cheese and chives, one with tomatoes, oregano and feta, followed by a couple with lemon juice and sugar. The dog got one with peanut butter and a touch of Marmite. Mine were pretty good. I don't know about the dog's, but it can't have been horrible judging by the speed at which it disappeared. 

We have a place in Pittsburgh that sells the English style of Pancakes, It's a political stop for Presidential Cantidates even.

If you ever end up in Pittsburgh go to Pamela's Pancakes.  They are worth it.

Flapjacks.  I imagine it's the mana the jews ate in the desert for 40 years.

And there's another of those transatlantic differences. US flapjack is a pancake. UK flapjack is a baked oat bar made with butter and golden syrup. 

Sounds good too.

What the heck is golden syrup?  Is that your weird British name for honey or something? 

Yum, crepes.

From Wikipedia: Golden syrup is a pale treacle. It is a thick, amber-coloured form of inverted sugar syrup, made in the process of refining sugar cane or sugar beet juice into sugar, or by treatment of a sugar solution with acid.

A bit like molasses, but lighter and not so strong tasting, less bitter. It's delicious. We use it in baking or for making toffee, and it's also good drizzled over things like pancakes, à la maple syrup. Steamed sponge cake with syrup on the top served with custard is a very English dessert, and very tasty it is too. 

Apparently it's hard to find in the States but it's used in Louisiana Cajun cooking. 

There are also waffles (Scandinavian) which taste completely different.

Also lots of different kinds of European pancakes. A favourite of mine is a Russian pancake that I can't remember the name of, that's made with cottage cheese. Yum. I make them with lemon zest and raisins. 

My partner and I have daydreamed of opening a "House of Pancakes that are actually International", where we would serve American pancakes, Dutch stroopwafels, Chinese scallion pancakes, French crepes, and so forth. I was not aware than English pancakes were savory.

Well they aren't sweet. They are perfectly happy with either sweet or savoury fillings, but I'd say that sweet fillings are more common.

I, for one, have never had a savoury filling in a pancake, only sugar, honey, golden syrup or other equally bad-for-you-but-oh-so-tasty flavouring thingys. The savoury aspect just isn't appealing to me.

*relevant to Silverleaf's comment because I live in England

It's only like having Yorkshire Pudding with your Sunday roast. Not that a Southerner like you would understand yorkies properly anyway…

I love yorkshire puddings, I hate roast, I'm sure it has nothing to do with me being Southern, just that I'm me (and weird).

Also, I hesitate to admit this but I am an Englishman who hates tea. It is my secret shame.

I hope I will someday get the chance to try a Russian hamburger at a place in St. Paul…

Also, assuming my current financial crisis gets sorted, I would totally eat at a HOPTAAI.

Seconded!

I may not be a englishman, but I don't liek tea either

The name "invert sugar" is a chemical reference - in the process of making it, the optical rotation of the solution changes.

As for me, I love both pancakes and waffles, but have a particular weakness for French Toast, as I had a really hard time getting it when I grew up.

Also, I grew up learning that the difference between a flapjack and a pancake was that several pancakes would fit onto the bottom of the skillet, while a flapjack covered the whole bottom.

I got that from the Wikipedia page, I just thought it was a funny image.  I'd rather have had a picture of a commercial sugar cylinder turned on its top, but my patience failed me, so I just took a pic from the first page of Google search, flipped it upside down and put it back up on my Flickr.  Don't ask me why I had nothing better to do for that five minutes…

Also, I grew up learning that the difference between a flapjack and a pancake was that several pancakes would fit onto the bottom of the skillet, while a flapjack covered the whole bottom.

Nice definition, but I guess it really depends on how big your skillet is.  (I'm pretty sure ours is square, which makes me really want a flapjack made on it.)

Opposite here, We had French Toast all the time, but the first time I had really good Waffles was when I learned to make them myself.  Once you get a good recipe down it's all about the toppings, and that's when the fun starts.

My favorites are the aforementioned Pancakes with cheese appples and bacon, Blueberry Pancakes with crushed raspberries and whipped creme, and if you can get really fresh berries waffles with fresh berries are the best, it doesn't need anything else.  I don't go much past syrup with French Toast, a good Maple syrup goes a long way.

You can do Chocolate with French Toast though, it works better than Pancakes or Waffles (unless it is Ice Cream and Waffles)

Am I right in thinking savoury French toast isn't really a thing in the US?

Not that I've ever heard, though I'm no expert.  The french toast recipie I know of involves cinnamon, which is pretty much exclusively used in sweets.  (And breakfast is normally the only meal in which sugar isn't restricted to the desert course, barring the occasional brown-sugar glaze on a baked ham, or pizza with pineapple on it.)

I totally use cinnamon in savoury dishes quite often. It's quite common in Greek cuisine, for example - a good moussaka should definitely have cinnamon. Most of my (Indian-type) curries/rice dishes and pretty much all of my Chinese dishes also have some.

I'm a big fan of cinnamon.

But anyway, we totally do savoury French toast here. It's often referred to as "eggy bread" but it's the same thing, just without the sugar/syrup/cinnamon.

And now I'm thinking about Welsh rarebit. Which is delicious. And now I'm hungry!

What goes into a savory french toast?  Would love to try it.

I just put butter on my waffles and pancakes.

I think the montecristo sandwich is the only savory use of French Toast I've ever seen here in the state. 

I love those things

OMG, monte cristo.....so good.

Sourdough pancakes with maple syrup and butter. Bacon to the side, and coffee. Better than crushing your enemies, and seeing them driven before you.

I make a bread pudding with cinnamon and a little sugar. My kids undersand it is my lazy way of cooking French Toast.

Either are good, but if any of you dare put fake maple syrup on your delicious-fluffly-dessert-for-breakfast-meals then you shall suffer a fate worse than death!

Real Maple Syrup from Canada, (stereotypes for the win!) or gtfo

But nothing tops the lamentations of their women.

Did this community ever get wind of the Great Maple Syrup Heist of 2012?  (I think that was the year, maybe 2011 instead.)

I think I remember seeing something about that.

Have you heard of the Boston Molasses Disaster of 1919?

@Evisioner:

That heist was crazy. I mean, it depelted a lot of our resources. No one would very risk their life stealing Mrs. Buttersworth's crap.

Also :http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/montreal/story.html?id=8edfec25-eb94-4549-90d6-2ae987ffea7d

We canuckleheads take our delciousness seriously.

I make Protein Pancakes quite often; they are quite healthy, great for after a workout, and absolutely delicious.

• 1 cup steel cut Oats
• 1 cup Fat Free Cottage Cheese
• 3 eggs
• 1 banana
• a good "shake" of Cinnamon
• a tiny bit of Honey

Put it all in a blender to give it a batter consistency.  Fry on the stove like you would normal pancakes.  Cover in whatever toppings you wish; I prefer a bit of blueberry syrup or some peanut butter, but if the whole "healthy" thing doesn't do it for ya, this is where it's completely acceptable to lather them in enough maple syrup to drown a baby.

I make French Toast with eggs, milk, and cinnamon.  No sugar until the syrup hits.

My grandma, an now mom, make badass fluffy pancakes with buttermilk. Oh god they are good....

For really fluffy pancakes you have to go back to when they beat the egg whites before mixing them in.  Takes longer, but it is worth it.  Same thing with Waffles.

What are you, a time-traveler?  

I, once again, what fun punctuation is. 

Yes i am a time traveller, one could say I have a PHD in it…

And that I invented pancakes. and waffles. 

EDIT: I'm also Batman

And your own Grandpa?

I'm not a redheaded delivery boy from New York.