Show HN: I Derived a Pancake

Show HN: I Derived a Pancake(absurdlyoptimized.com)

87 points by bkazez 2 days ago | 28 comments

After 25 years of making other people's pancake recipes - always yearning for more tang, more fluff, and more predictability - I decided to derive the pancake recipe from the chemistry.

You mark checkboxes for what you have on hand (ricotta, sour cream, kefir, buttermilk, yogurt, cottage cheese, lemon, cream of tartar, etc.) and it computes the best recipe based on targets for acid, fat, salt, sugar, and CO2.

My particular favorite are the yeast-raised lemon ricotta kefir pancakes - the best I've ever had.

The math is done in a small pure-ESM library: ingredient composition to component masses and acid moles, a stoichiometry layer, and a bisection solver for the target deficits.

I'm not a chemist, so if something is off, tell me and I will fix it!

thechao 2 hours ago |

A ten hour wait doesn't really strike me as a pancake? You should have a "it's 730am, there's four screaming girls, only two of which are related to me, the dogs are begging for scraps, and the demand for pancakes has crossed into Veblen goods territory."

saxonww 1 hour ago | |

The default has the 'tang' slider at maximally tangy, which is where the yeast and wait come in. If you back off on that the recipe looks more like the standard quickbread I'm used to.

The yeast and ferment is going to make it more acidic, and more tender because the gluten will be weakened. I imagine you could use cake flour instead and get close to the same tenderness, but the flavor would be different.

airstrike 2 hours ago | |

The good thing about that scenario is no matter how the pancakes come out, you've already won

chickensong 2 hours ago | |

One size doesn't fit all. By your logic, homemade sourdough isn't bread, you should have packaged Wonder bread.

Keep a box of Krusteaz in the pantry for the kid sleepovers, prepare the night before for an adult brunch.

benoitg 1 hour ago | |

It depends. The inspiration sometimes comes after a Saturday evening with friends and lots of drinks. Having a foolproof recipe comes in handy, and having the perfect stress-free pancake batter already made the next morning turns you into a household hero.

esafak 1 hour ago | |

If you know the kids are going to want pancakes in the morning you just prepare it at night? You can ask them to confirm over dinner...

While I can confirm sourdough pancakes are quite nice, I am satisfied with Krusteaze :)

sohex 1 hour ago |

Well I have a new favorite website. I don’t know the last time that I read something that was so thoroughly and multidimensionally my shit.

Not actually measuring crispness when you self report having the perfect equipment to do so is a cruel, cruel tease though.

chrysoprace 1 hour ago |

Awesome work. I'm really interested in the parametric-driven recipe card. I wanted to do something like this for bread recipes where you can tweak the hydration / salt levels to alter the recipe but still get a traditional recipe card. I would be really curious to hear about the approach in more detail.

jey 35 minutes ago |

Relevant: The Breakfast Simplex (https://moultano.wordpress.com/2026/02/22/the-hunt-for-dark-...)

sastra 2 hours ago |

Yes! The world needs more Parametric-driven recipes. This is fantastic. Love it.

mrmincent 1 hour ago |

This is awesome, chefsteps should hire you to do their parametric recipes.

saxonww 1 hour ago |

You'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.

bkazez 7 minutes ago | |

Thanks! It's entire chunks of fat from a Berkshire pig. Lard works too and is what you get when you render pork fat, but the rendering removes some flavor. I'll update the recipe.

NopIdoN 41 minutes ago | |

Probably suet, which is raw and found around kidneys and loins.

fathermarz 2 hours ago |

This is what life is about right here

iwassayinbourns 1 hour ago |

I would love to see the gluten and dairy free pancake recipe incorporated into this one for additional customizability. For example, what if I’m gluten free but not dairy free? Or happen to only have soy milk on the day but I’ve got plenty of butter?

chickensong 1 hour ago |

> My particular favorite are the yeast-raised lemon ricotta kefir pancakes - the best I've ever had.

As a lemon ricotta pancake and yeast enthusiast, I look forward to trying your recipe! Thanks for sharing!

nathanathan 56 minutes ago |

I love this

martythemaniak 1 hour ago |

Protip: you don't need buttermilk, you need milk and acid. 1 cup milk and 1tbsp vinegar do the same job and are already in your kitchen.

Source: Frank Proto's pancakes

https://youtu.be/vkcHmpKxFwg?si=a9GeGHKp0WzTmqPr

bsder 2 minutes ago | |

Sometimes. Note that both your ingredients are liquids, however.

I use buttermilk powder for quite a few recipes so that I can control the liquid content independently of the acid and fat content.

elchief 1 hour ago |

here's kenji's recipe (footnote 64 in the article, in case you missed it lol):

https://www.seriouseats.com/light-and-fluffy-pancakes-recipe

einpoklum 1 hour ago |

That's serious commitment for sure, but - I don't know, the image makes it seems like he low-key burned his pancakes 8-\

Finnucane 2 hours ago |

I will do yeast-raised waffles but usually don't bother with pancakes. I usually don't have buttermilk so I mix yogurt and milk. I just eyeball it, about 1/4-1/3 yogurt makes a good consistency. While food science is fun, there's no way I'm doing that much work on a Saturday morning.

moron4hire 2 hours ago |

> the use of imprecise cup measurements rather than weights

It really does not matter. Both because variation doesn't matter and because weights vs volumes are not going to give a big enough variation to really be detectable.