I first noticed it early last fall. Scrolling through the comments on a story online, I encountered this:
“Can’t think of anything to comment so I’m just going to post a pancake recipe.” And it was followed by, yes, a pancake recipe.
That first time, I laughed. Well, isn’t that clever, I thought.
A week or two later I saw it again. And then again.
Who is this guy, I wondered, thinking it must surely be one person.
Soon I started seeing it everywhere, and you know what came next. Try Googling it yourself — type in the exact phrase, in quotes. When I did this last fall, I got more than 100,000 results.
Each time, it was the identical comment and recipe, word for word, punctuation mark for punctuation mark. And it showed up on a random collection of stories, most having nothing whatsoever to do with food.
On a story about the Palin family’s involvement in a brawl at a party in Alaska. With the write-up of a soccer game on an Irish sports news website. On a forum where someone asked for advice on what to tell his little sister, who thought she was in love. (Somehow, I don’t think pancakes will help.) On Kelly Osbourne’s Facebook tribute to the late Joan Rivers.
Screen names accompanying the post varied widely, too: Jonathan Stapleton, Bryan Hernandez, Sweetflame, Chewbaca, thatafricanchic, to name just a few.
Comments about the pancake recipe post sometimes added to the fun. When it appeared at reddit.com with a time-lapse photo sequence of insects eating a dead fox (I couldn’t make this up), these comments followed:
“Well, looks like pancakes for dinner.”
“That or decomposed fox.”
“Damn, no bicarbonate of soda in my apartment.”
The recipe, it turns out, is from an Australian food magazine, taste.com.au. “Basic Pancakes” is attributed to food editor Kim Coverdale, who first posted it in March 2010.
About the time I was making my discovery, so was news.com.au. For a story about the mysterious case of the pancake recipe gone viral, the Australian news service contacted Coverdale, who said she had no idea what was going on.
I sent my own email to the food magazine a month or two ago but never heard back. I also contacted the Australian flour company, White Wings, whose self-rising flour is called for in the recipe. Nothing. I found the Facebook page for one of the commenters and sent him a Facebook message. Again, no response.
Who started this? And why? Why pancakes? Why this recipe in particular?
When my investigative attempts to get answers to these questions fell flat, I had my own I-give-up moment:
Can’t think of what else to do, so I’m just going to make a pancake recipe. And so I gave this one a try.
Meanwhile, enthusiasm for the post seems to have fizzled. Last week when I Googled the phrase, I got only 3,150 results. Either the phantom pancake recipe posters have grown bored, concluding that the novelty has worn off, or site managers have been deleting the comments. Or both.
“Make your own stuff up, stop stealing,” wrote one commenter after seeing the post perhaps one too many times.
Maybe, if you can’t think of anything to comment, it’s best to just not comment at all.
‘Can’t-Think-Of-Anything-To-Comment’ Pancakes
Makes 10 to 12 thick
4-inch pancakes
As posted all over the Internet, this pancake recipe calls for White Wings “self-raising” flour, bicarbonate of soda, caster sugar and 25g of melted butter. The recipe is the same anywhere a comment begins, “Can’t think of anything to comment so I’m just going to post a pancake recipe.” Tested by Nancy Stohs
Here is that recipe, converted to American measurements and terminology.
As pancakes go, these are fine, a bit sweet. They puff up and become quite thick, so you’ll want to spread out the batter on the griddle.
1 1/2 cups milk (plus more as needed)
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups self-rising flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup superfine granulated sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted
In a bowl or 2-cup measure, whisk together milk, egg and vanilla. Into another bowl, sift flour and baking soda. Stir in sugar. Make a well in the center. Add milk mixture. Whisk until just combined. Batter will be thick (thin with a little milk, if desired; batter will get even thicker as it sits).
Heat a large nonstick skillet or griddle over medium heat. Brush pan with melted butter. Using about 1/4 cup batter per pancake, cook pancakes 3 to 4 minutes or until bubbles appear on surface. Turn and cook 3 minutes or until cooked through. Transfer to a plate. Cover loosely with foil to keep warm. Repeat with remaining mixture, brushing pan with butter between batches. Serve.
