why sugar is included by default ? i mean i know american pancakes are meant to be sweet, but in other parts of the world they're consumed neutral at worst, often salty.
Show HN: I Derived a Pancake
101–110 of 147 posts
Re: Show HN: I Derived a Pancake
#102There's a whole lot of "I" in this post for something you didn't do. Why are you taking credit for Claude's work? What makes you feel entitled to say "I did this thing" when Claude did the thing?
Claude is a tool in the hands of the person using it. If you built a cabinet using power tools would you say the drill and saw built the cabinet? Or that you did?
I find it irritating when people send me a code review and say that Claude wrote the code. No, you wrote the code, you are responsible for the code. You can't blame Claude if it's crap and you don't have to credit Claude if it's genius. Claude is not a person.
Re: Show HN: I Derived a Pancake
#103Interesting, experimented plenty over the years but never rigorously enough to arrive at a conclusive recipe. Temperature control is always a challenge.
Re: Show HN: I Derived a Pancake
#104The article mentions tang repeatedly as if it's a positive thing. Maybe I don't know what tang is, but shouldn't pancakes be sweet and not tangy?
Re: Show HN: I Derived a Pancake
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, not at all. They're a classic comfort food, usually made quite thin, but not thin enough to be called crepes, and I'd wager most people don't learn through a recipe, but, similar to you, it's some of the first things you're taught to make. There's also another classic, this time leavened - the oven-baked pancake, which is a little closer to the American pan-fried, but with pieces of salted pork, served with lingo…
Ah, I know about these big tall pancakes! I've had something like that in the Netherlands and grew up eating something like it too. I'll soon add a fluffiness slider back in so that at the lowest end, it tries to produce something close to crêpes, and you can tell me if it is like the Swedish recipes. Thanks for the international perspective!
I was thought the 112 emergency pancake recipe as a kid: 1 egg, 1dl flour, 2dl milk.
I have made the almost blasphemous modification of adding a pinch of cardamom to the batter, it's delicious!
Looking forward to trying your derived American pancakes this weekend! This calculator is awesome, thanks for doing this!
Re: Show HN: I Derived a Pancake
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
FWIW, the author writes: > " Ovalbumin coagulates irreversibly at 80°C (Weijers et al., 2003), permanently setting the foam structure." , and the paper by Weijers et al. says: > "A strong temperature dependence on the reaction rate was observed. At 80°C, half of the protein was denatured and aggregated in less than 2 min (half-time, th), while at 68.5°C this took approximately 6 h." So, the citation is generally true…
Addendum: > "Cast iron and carbon steel have nearly identical thermal conductivity (~52 W/m·K), which surprises most people." is unsourced. And the precise "~52" is quite misleading - Wikipedia and online sources report thermal conductivities in the range of ~30-50¹. Also: > "Critically, whipped egg white foam drainage follows a hyperbolic saturation curve: v = V × t / (B + t), where V is the maximum drained volume a…
Similarly, the kite article [1] states that:
> The angle of attack, α, is the angle between the kite’s sail and the incoming wind. As α increases from zero, C_L increases approximately linearly until a critical angle (typically 12–18 degrees for flat surfaces), beyond which the airflow separates from the upper surface and the kite stalls (DT Online, 2024).
The supporting reference is [2]; this doesn't refer to a linear releationship or a critical angle, but does say that the angle of attack is typically 20 to 30 degrees (contradicting the claim that a kite would stall if the angle is above 12-18 degrees).
So I agree that this website does not seem trustworthy. Specific claims may or may not be correct, but they're not supported by the presented references.
[1]: https://www.absurdlyoptimized.com/outdoors/kids-kite/#ref-7
Re: Show HN: I Derived a Pancake
#107I love the precision of this. I have one daughter who must avoid dairy and egg so we’ve experimented with various substitutes. The “creamy” oat milk works well. For eggs, we’ve found bob’s red mill egg replacer to work great with almost no discernible taste difference. The trick is mixing it with water in a separate little bowl and waiting 2-3 minutes. Too long and it gets overly gelatinous and won’t mix in well but too little waiting makes it too watery and you’ll get flat pancakes.
Re: Show HN: I Derived a Pancake
#108I want to like this but it reads like Claude output, how much scrutiny did this get for accuracy?
This was my immediate thought too. The same website has at least a dozen similar articles written over the past week, all with this same AI tone. In the same week: https://www.absurdlyoptimized.com/recipes/grilled-meats/ http://absurdlyoptimized.com/recipes/brisket/ https://www.absurdlyoptimized.com/recipes/french-fries/ https://www.absurdlyoptimized.com/recipes/miso-salmon/ Parametric recipes are fun idea. I almost…
The picture provided doesn't inspire much confidence in their ability to make pancakes, especially after "25" years. They are burnt, sad-looking pancakes.
Re: Show HN: I Derived a Pancake
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ah, I know about these big tall pancakes! I've had something like that in the Netherlands and grew up eating something like it too. I'll soon add a fluffiness slider back in so that at the lowest end, it tries to produce something close to crêpes, and you can tell me if it is like the Swedish recipes. Thanks for the international perspective!
I was thought the 112 emergency pancake recipe as a kid: 1 egg, 1dl flour, 2dl milk. I have made the almost blasphemous modification of adding a pinch of cardamom to the batter, it's delicious! Looking forward to trying your derived American pancakes this weekend! This calculator is awesome, thanks for doing this!
Skip the AI slop calculator and go straight to this recipe.
This recipe is war-hardened.
Yields: Approximately 5 6 in/6cm pancakes (Serves 2–3)
Ingredient | Measurement
All-purpose flour (type 00 flower works well) | 210 g (1 ½ cups)
Sugar | 50 g (¼ cup)
Baking soda/backnatron | 5–10 g (2 tsp)
Butter | 55 g (¼ cup), plus extra for the pan
Vanilla sugar (preferably) or extract | 5–10 g (2 tsp)
Large eggs | 2
Whole milk | 245 g / 240 ml (1 cup)
Fresh berries | As desired (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries)
Instructions
Prep: Preheat your frying pan over medium heat. Grease the surface lightly with butter or oil.
Combine: In a bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, and baking soda. In a separate container, whisk the eggs, milk, melted butter, and vanilla. Gently stir the wet ingredients into the dry until just combined.
Cook: Ladle one soup ladle of batter into the hot pan.
Add Berries: Drop a few fresh berries onto the top of the cooking pancake.
Flip: Cook until bubbles have popped and stopped forming, then flip.
Adjust heat if necessary: If the pancake is slightly burnt, reduce the heat. Cook until golden brown.
Re: Show HN: I Derived a Pancake
#110You've covered dairy and acid ingredients, but I honestly have no idea what "Unrendered Berkshire pork fat" is or where I would get it. Is that bacon grease? Saltpork? Lard is common but rendered.
For us vegetarians/vegans, butter (preferably clarified) or coconut oil.