The food lab better home cooking through science ( PDFDrive ) 167

I

t’s important not to overmix a pancake batter.

Justaswiththebatteronagoodonionringorpiece
of fried fish (see “Experiment: Gluten Development
in Batter,” here), the more vigorously you stir a
batter, the more gluten develops, and the tougher it
becomes. The result is underrisen or leathery
pancakes.When mixing pancake batter, the goal is
to do it as quickly as possible, just until it comes
together, allowing a few lumps of dry flour to
remain. Don’t worry—they’ll disappear as the
pancakescook.

WHATISBUTTERMILK?


T

ruebuttermilkistheliquidwheyleftaftercream

hasbeenchurnedtocreatebutter.Traditionallythis
whey was allowed to ferment into a slightly
thickened, sour liquid that would keep longer than
fresh milk. These days, though, buttermilk is made
from regular milk by dosing it with Streptococcus
lactis, a bacteria that consumeslactose, the main
sugar in milk, and produces lactic acid, which adds
tartness to the buttermilk, as well as causingcasein,
theprimaryproteininmilk,tocurdle,thickening,or

clabbering,themilk.
In some recipes, it’s possible to substitute
artificially clabbered milk—milk to which an acid
likevinegerorlemonjuicehasbeenaddedtothicken
it—for buttermilk, but you’ll always be left with a
telltaleflavorfromtheaddedacid.Muchbetteristo
substitute another soured dairy product. When I
have no buttermilk on hand, I’ll use yogurt, sour
cream,orevencrèmefrchedilutedwithmilk.

DAIRY
PRODUCT

TOSUBSTITUTE
FOR1CUPOF
BUTTERMILK

Yogurt

⅔cupyogurt