Experimenting with cooking

Experimenting with cooking

The experiment is easy to understand. Make potato pancakes that people enjoy.

This experiment uses mashed potatoes with bacon bits and extra skim milk and some shredded cheeses in the mix, too. And it uses my electric stove top while I still have it working OK. My intent is to be able to do this on a wood stove top with a cast iron griddle if I have to.

The dilemma is also easy to understand. Don’t burn the outside while the inside of the pancake still needs cooking to my satisfaction.  And for sure don’t burn the “stuff” onto the cooking surface. Cleaning that up is pain to me.

The means for this experiment is to pan fry the pancakes (with canola oil), so in my mind the size of the skillet, the amount and depth of the oil, the type of oil, and the temperature of the oil are all factors.

And then there is the potato pancake preparation. Mostly to me it is how thick or thin to make the pancake.

After two experiments, both which failed in my mind, I will wait a couple of days before I try again. Having had them in the past, I know I can do it (like make my own) once I figure it out again. Said another way, I do enjoy potato pancakes as a meal having had them in the past. Generally speaking, I will put some melted margarine on it, too. I really like the flavor that use adds to them over all. Many others will probably put sugar syrup on theirs, too.

So on experiment number one, I used a spatula to help what turned out to be disappointing. I used temperature 1 out of 10 when cooking. Then on experiment number two, I went manual and used wax paper to make three potato pancakes that I then let form on their own accord.  I used temperature 2 out of 10 when cooking. Both experiments failed, but progress (mostly learning) did occur on experiment number two.

Bottom line, I just will try the manual method using wax paper in my next experiment, but deliberately make each pancake smaller in diameter and much thinner.  All other elements will remain the same, including using temperature 2 out of 10.

Between me and dogs, all the failed experiments were consumed, so at least we did not die from trying. And the failures did taste OK to me. Even in experiment two with the skins on the potato pancakes burned black, the rest of it tasted OK to me.

Last, if it comes down to more experiments, I may have violate my normal male instinct and actually read some directions/recipes, and just borrow their ideas and lessons learned. Again, and said another way, I would rather be lost when traveling than ask for directions if I can avoid it.  And I do enjoy experimenting with food cooking, too.