[1] Bacon and corn griddle cakes from Recipe Girl—and here’s her recipe. [2] Carrot pancakes with salted yogurt, gluten free. Here’s the recipe from Jessica Koslow at Bon Appetite (photo Michael Graydon + Nikole Herriott). [3] You don’t need to use wheat. Check out these flours (photo courtesy ).

September 26th is National Pancake Day. Normally, we’d make our favorite: buttermilk pancakes topped with smoked salmon, crème fraîche and chopped dill.

We’d love them with a topping caviar: We’ll have that daily when our ship comes in.

But until then, we’re not highbrow: Another favorite is chocolate pancakes with chocolate chips, topped with bananas and sour cream.)

Today’s tip is: Take a fresh look at pancakes.

Cultures around the world eat pancakes, both sweet and savory. Some have them as a main dish, some enjoy them as street food.

There are so many choices from East to West:

In Malaysia, apam balik—folded pancakes—are made with rice flour and stuffed with a sweet peanut filling.

 
Click the links above for the recipes.

And take a look at the different types of pancakes in our Pancake Glossary.

 
SAVORY PANCAKE TEMPLATE: CREATE YOUR OWN

1. SELECT a flour: buckwheat, chickpea, chestnut, coconut, corn, nut, oat, rice, sorghum, spelt, teff, wheat, whole grain, etc.

 
2. ADD your favorite ingredients:

 
3. PICK your toppings:

 
4. FRY and serve.

We love this article from National Geographic, and recommend it as a short read on the history of pancakes.

Archaeologists have discovered grains on 30,000-year-old grinding tools, suggesting that Stone Age man might have been eating grains mixed with water and cooked on a hot rock.

While the result not have looked like the modern crepe, hotcake, or flapjack, the idea was the same: a flat cake, made from batter and fried.

Ancient Greeks and Romans ate pancakes topped with honey, and a Greek reference mentions toppings of cheese and sesame as well.

These foods were not called pancakes, but the first mention of “pancake” in an English dictionary dates to the 16th century: a cake made in a pan.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “Flat as a pancake” has been a catchphrase since at least 1611.

For the rest of the pancake’s journey to modern times, head to National Geographic.