Why is the first crepe no good?
Once I wrote a blogpost about that, heaping scorn on some TV cook who claimed this was because the pan wasn’t hot enough. Someone wrote a comment and said the first crepe (pancake, whatever) must be offered to the pancake gods. If every other explanation fails, this is a comforting thought. My theory, btw, is that the fat (or especially oil, if you use it) changes chemically – not from the heat, but after its first contact with frying batter – and thus turns into something less-pan-sticky after the first crepe. No idea if this is really true, but I do know that no amount of heating through and of trying to get a thorough even oil coating and all that, even of the best dedicated pancake cast-iron skillet, is a guarantee that things don’t stick and burn. My trick to solve the problem is to first make one very tiny pancake that (as I believe) makes the oil change in the intended manner. I have had pretty good results with that technique, and less waste of batter.
What other have said, more or less, but what works for me is to put a very small amount of oil into the cold pan and use a paper towel to wipe it around until the pan is evenly coated with only the smallest possible amount of oil. Then heat the pan for a good long time before adding the batter. It isn’t just about getting the center of the pan to the target temperature. You want to get the whole thing evenly heated up.
Crepe Expectations… Alton Brown – [TRANSCRIPT] Argh, but he doesn’t actually say why the first crepe may be “off”.
