Susan Rocky's Cornmeal Pancakes

On Sunday mornings, I cook breakfast. About once a month we have pancakes or waffles. I have cooked many different pancake recipes in the last 60 years, but the pancakes that we like best are "Susan Rocky's". It's also the about simplest recipe that you can find. Katherine found this recipe in an engagement calendar published by Gourmet Magazine many, many, years ago. I have cooked this on camping trips all over the United States. In extreme circumstances I have even used milk reconstituted from powered milk and curdled with bottled lemon juice as a substitute for buttermilk. I do not recommend that, but pancakes made that way are far better than none at all. Recipe follows:

1 cup corn meal
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
mix together and beat in:
1 egg
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cup buttermilk
1 T oil

Serves 4

With 1 1/2 cups of ordinary buttermilk, these make a thin and crisp pancake. With 1 1/4 cups of the thick, cultured, buttermilk that we can buy here in Berkeley, this recipe makes a thicker but very light pancake. It's so light that it will challenge your skill in turning them.

The better and fresher the corn meal, the better the pancake. We use "Bob's Red Mill, medium grind", and we keep that in the refrigerator to keep it fresh. However, we have used just about everything at one time or another from stone ground flour just off the millstone on Cape Cod to "Alber's" in a box that was years old.

I assume that you already know how to make pancakes. I thought I was an expert until I found "The Pancake Handbook" by Siegelman, Conley, and Kroening - the cooks at Bette's Oceanview Diner. This little gem has been out of print for years but has just been reissued. A few points: The griddle should be hot enough that a drop of water dances on top but not so hot that it evaporates instantly. Do not mix the batter too much or the cakes will be rubbery. Use a 2 oz. measure to drop the batter on the griddle so the cakes will all be exactly the same size. There are more points. Buy the book.