The Scrambled Pancake Trend Proves You Shouldn't Always Trust TikTok
A wise internet user will consume information with a grain of salt. The same idea applies to the many cooking hacks, tips, and recipes that are shared online. There are plenty of controversial food trends on TikTok (like hyper-realistic cake), many of which are either fabricated to gain views or start off as jokes. Such is the case with the scrambled pancake trend, a joke that some people took too seriously.
A scrambled pancake, as shown in a viral TikTok video with nearly 20 million views as of this writing, is pancake batter poured onto a hot pan and scrambled like an egg. The result is small, uneven chunks of cooked pancake batter that can be piled onto a plate and served with typical accompaniments like syrup and berries. But there's a plot twist: The creator @archivedchef made their video as a joke, concluding with, "Psych. Do not try this, and it was not good." The undetectable sarcasm that started the video made many believe that the creator was, in fact, serious about scrambling up pancake batter, but it seems as though no one stayed for the final reveal. A significant percentage of the video's 12,500 comments took scrambled pancakes seriously and left their appalled opinions in the comment section.
Are scrambled pancakes a culinary crime?
The line, "You've been making pancakes wrong your whole life," should have been a big hint that @archivedchef's video was supposed to be a joke. Alas, TikTok seemingly lacks both a sense of sarcasm and the ability to watch videos in their entirety. From "This is a crime," to "I would never disrespect pancakes in that way," commenters were unnecessarily defending circular pancakes when the creator stood with them all along, as seen in their video.
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The irony is that even though @archivedchef was joking, the video also convinced a few people that scrambling pancakes is a delicious idea. "Scrambled pancakes, what!!!!! This is life-changing," one commenter expressed. "Life-changing" sounds like an exaggeration, but if flipping pancakes isn't your forte, maybe it is. Another commenter wrote, "Not you convincing me until the end," and to be fair, scrambled pancakes look much more appealing than their name suggests.
In fact, scrambled pancakes are a real thing in Austria and Germany, and they're called Kaiserschmarrn. Legend has it that a German farmer accidentally made messy pancakes for an emperor, and the recipe caught on. The batter is different than most American pancakes because it requires beaten egg whites (and often raisins), but you can also make a Kaisershmarrn recipe with pancake mix. The key is just a good scramble!