The online world is deeply divided over the latest breakfast craze. Are Scrambled Sancakes a ‘work of genius’ or an ‘abomination’? One thing is undeniable: the controversy over Scrambled Pancakes is ensuring they maintain a high profile…
Simple premise
The idea is simple. So simple, perhaps, that it’s been overlooked for maybe hundreds of years. Some commenters say it should have stayed overlooked. Nevertheless…
The idea is to chop up partially cooked pancakes with your spatula, into little pieces that might remind one of scram-bled eggs. These tiny morsels are then, apparently, meant to be just dumped on a plate and topped with syrup and ber-ries in the conventional manner. I ex-pected the SP advocates to recommend you serve them in a bowl. And eat them with a spoon. But no specific advice re.- serving suggestions has been offered…
Ancient precursors
Scrambled Pancakes (SPs) are not really a new idea. Historical precursors can be found in many cuisines which embrace wheat-based batters and doughs.
The signature German side dish, Spãtzle, is clearly a direct ancestor of the SP. As is Couscous, found all round the Mediterranean coast, from Israel to Morocco.
Italian Orzo pasta qualifies as a cousin (perhaps once- or twice-removed). As does Gnocci. And one could also argue in favour of including the entire pastini family.
A social experiment
The big time influencer who broke the ‘scrambled pancake ‘news’ to her 18.7 million followers, began her unsuspectedly explosive post with the assertion that we’ve all been making pancakes the wrong way.
“Did you know you’re supposed to scramble them just like you would scramble eggs?” @archivedchef asked her audience of 18.7 million viewers. “And it’s so much easier this way. You don’t have to worry about getting the perfect circle.”
Social media explosion
Social media platforms lit up with comments both pro and con – but all heated. The post’s own comment section, alone, ‘blew up’ with more than 12,000 weigh-ins.
Some called the creation ‘an abomination’, ‘blasphemous’, and ‘a crime’.
“I would never disrespect pancakes in that way,” one commenter asserted.
“I’m X gen and never needed therapy until I watched this video,” complained another.
But others argued that the technique was ‘genius’ and ‘so appealing’.
One enraptured fan of the scrambled pancakes went as far as to declare, “This is life changing!”
Stubbed out…
Archived Chef had the last laugh, though. “I thought it would be a fun idea for a video because of all the reactions it might receive, some positive, and some not so much,” she told Fox News. “The idea of scrambling pancakes was so out-of-the-box that I knew it would be fun to try and entertaining for my followers.”
Then came the punch line; her final world on the subject of scrambled pancakes: “[T]ell me that does not look good? [*pause*] Do not try this. […] It was NOT good,” she admitted at the close of her vid. “And whoever told me to try, and said it was good, may your toes always find their way to the corners of your table [legs].”
My take
It occurred to me, as I researched this post, that scrambled pancakes might somehow be justified as a new ‘thing’, in as much as they could be related to the puffed cereal family (eg.- Rice Crispies, Puffed Wheat, etal). But the latter are fundamentally different, both in origin and preparation.
It also crossed my mind that the one legitimate application of the scrambled pancake technique might be for the Hail Mary save of a pancake fail (see photo, top of page).
Whatever you may think about scrambled pancakes… I just can’t see them as anything more than a quirky acquired taste. Which I have no interest in acquiring…
~ Maggie J.