What Do You Mean Real Cooks Don’t Fry Pancakes in Butter?

My 3-year-old son eats exactly five foods--all of them white. Cheerios head his list. He will also condescend to consume cream cheese on Wonder Bread, the occasional scrambled egg, Parmesan cheese . . . and pancakes.

For the past year I have made pancakes at least once a day. And I have always, always, used butter to grease the griddle.

So I was a little startled when Nora Ephron said you can’t cook pancakes in butter. And I thought, just for science, I’d try frying my pancakes in oil. I will never do it again.

Butter has a fine, high, perfume. When you get the griddle hot enough, and drop a pat of butter into the center, that perfume goes sizzling up into the air--it makes you hungry. You don’t really have time to watch it melt; you must immediately pour in the batter. Cooking with butter requires vigilance, but it has its reward: Cook with butter, and your kitchen smells great. Cook with oil, and all you smell is grease.

It takes a fair amount of practice to learn when the griddle is just hot enough, and how to get the batter onto it as soon as the butter has melted. But it’s sort of like riding a bike--once you’ve mastered the trick, it stays with you forever. And if you’re like me, you’ll get a lot of practice.