Parable of the Epic Pancake

Despite being a horrible cook, as you will soon affirm, I do enjoy trying to make new things. In my news feeds I came across an article titled: How to make epic pancakes with your Japanese rice cooker.1

The pictures looked fantastic. Super fluffy and fat; I imagined it with syrup and whipped cream. Mmmm. It was almost too good to be true. I decided I wanted to try to make it. I thought my family would appreciate in sharing the deliciousness that would come from such an endeavor. I wanted them to taste what I was imagining.

First Try

One of the benefits of living in an Asian household is that you have lots of rice cookers laying around. I didn't want to use our newer rice cooker because I didn't really know what I was doing and I was afraid it would be ruined from my efforts, so I pulled out an older rice cooker that was going unused. This was all done, of course, while my wife was out, because I really didn't want her to know what crazy scheme I was up to.

I mixed up the batter according to the recipe, poured it in the rice cooker, and pressed the button down on the rice cooker. That was easy! All I had to do was wait for my supremely fat pancake. Because I wasn't paying close attention to when it was done, I'm not sure when the button popped up (a sign that the cooking cycle was complete), but when I checked a half hour later the button was raised. I opened the rice cooker expecting a beautiful golden outside, but instead I saw that it didn't cook properly and the top was still doughy and wet.

I figured that it just needed more time. I tried pressing the button again, but it wouldn't stay down and start cooking again. It's a feature to keep someone from putting cooked rice through another cycle. But nothing was going to keep me from my epic pancake so I found a heavy plate and placed the rim over the button to force it down. I thought I would just let it cook a little bit longer until it was done.

First Consequences

As I turned my attention to other things, I admit that I don't remember exactly how long I left it, but I thought it was just a few minutes. The moment the burning smell entered my nostrils one of my daughters asked, “What's burning?” It took me a moment to guess what it was, but I quickly realized that it must be coming from the rice cooker. I removed the plate and opened up the lid. Despite the golden brown top, it was painfully obvious from the blackened char of a bottom that my epic pancake was now infiltrating the house with its burnt odor.

I removed the failed pancake as quickly as I could, but it was too late. Even my daughter who was upstairs came down and asked about the smell. As I explained, it became impossible for my daughters to imagine the goodness that I had attempted to cook for them; the burnt odors overpowered any appetite they had left and the disappointment on their faces was painfully obvious. Not to mention I didn't want to hear what my wife would have to say when she came home. I had to do something.

First Damage Control

I did what everybody does when they are in trouble and looking for answers to their problems. I searched the Internet. There are all sorts of remedies for removing burnt smells from a house. The one that seemed to be the most reliable according to the online citizenry was simmering vinegar. After pouring some into a pot, I let it boil and then turned it down to simmer. I thought for sure my problems would be solved in no time flat.

After a very short while my daughters came to me complaining that now there was a sour, burnt smell permeating the house. One of them said she had lost her appetite completely. The solution from Internet-land wasn't working. It was making things worse. I turned to the next solution, opening all of the windows and doors in the house. It was the middle of winter unfortunately, but there was a good wind outside and I figured it wouldn't take long to blow the odor completely out of the house.

I instructed the girls to open all of their windows as well. It didn't take long for my daughters to start complaining about the cold. It was winter after all. It was freezing outside! But I thought we had to wait. After a half hour, it was obvious that all I was doing was making my family miserable. Now they had to sniff the vinegary char while freezing. No imagination of epic pancake goodness could overcome their current suffering.

True Remedy

I closed the doors and wondered how I would get myself out of this mess I had created. Then I remembered what my wife often did after cooking in the kitchen. We had a pleasantly but strongly scented candle she would light. Not knowing what else to do, I lit the candle and hoped for the best. Little by little, the horrendous odor of my failure was overcome but the sweet fragrance of this candle. It took some time, but after an hour, there were very few traces of the original burnt odor.

Second Try

Well, that was a disaster. One could justifiably conclude that I was not meant to create something with so much promise of tastiness. But I knew what the giant pancake I intended to create could be. So, I decided to try again. I mixed another batch and put it in the same rice cooker. But this time, when I pushed the button to cook, no light came on and it switched back to off. I tried again. Same result. I did learn my lesson enough to ignore the thought to hold it down again, so I kept trying until the button stayed down, but with no light indicating it was cooking. I figured it was just a problem with the light and let it sit.

I checked often this time, but it seemed like it wasn’t cooking very quickly. I waited longer, but it still hadn’t really changed. I finally realized, I had broken the rice cooker entirely (I guess you really shouldn’t force it to cook; I think it overheated) and no amount of waiting was going to make it cook.

Third Try

Well, I could have given up, but I had a better rice cooker sitting right in front of me. Did I dare threaten our family's existence by perhaps ruining our Asian family's lifeblood? All I knew is, if I wanted to be eating a super-fat pancake there was no other option. I just had to show my daughters that something good could come from all of this effort. I dumped the batter into the new rice cooker and pressed the button to cook.

After my first failed attempt, I was nervous and decided with 10 minutes left in the cook cycle it was long enough. The top was still not fully cooked, but the bottom layer was perfect. If only I had let it go longer I would have had success. But still, I could see I was getting closer to the long-awaited epic.

Fourth Try

I made another batch and placed it in the rice cooker. Another round and yet another failure. The batter just didn’t seem to be cooking all the way through. The top was better, but the middle was still not completely cooked. I wasn't sure how without repeating my initial mistake that I could keep it heated longer.

Fifth Try

Then I thought about using slightly different ingredients. I realized that the flour I was using was old and maybe not the right kind. So I went and bought a different kind of flour. I carefully mixed the batter, let it cook in the rice booker and voila! Out came a beautifully done giant pancake. I was ecstatic.

Sixth Try

But could I do it again? I had to make sure I could repeat the process. In addition, I wanted to add some fruit like apples or bananas to the mix. I couldn't stop now, so I added the fruit and made another batch. Success again! But this time, the epic pancake was even better than before. Sharing it with my daughters helped them understand what I was trying to do in the first place. They appreciated what I had made and hopefully it made up for the suffering I caused them.

Meaning

The day after this incident, as I was cooking something on the grill (under my wife's watchful eye this time), I began thinking about my experience. I felt prompted to consider that there was a greater meaning to my failed attempts to make something delicious for my family. Like many parables, there are layers of meaning you can get from the story, but here is what immediately came to mind:

Sometimes in our attempts to be like the Savior, the perfect example and model of all that is good, we fail. In fact, we probably fail more often than we like to admit. No remedy suggested by the world can compare with the Atonement, which is there to help us overcome the effects of sin, or the effects when we fail to follow the model provided to us completely. We are going to make mistakes. We will not act perfectly. And our failures affect others, maybe to the point that they lose their appetite to partake of what we are trying to create. But if we persist and use the Atonement to overcome the consequences of our failure, we can get better in that one thing.

Notice that perfection didn’t come after the third time, or even the fourth or fifth. You might even claim that I’m still trying to get things right. To make the perfect pancake of my life, I have to keep on trying. The Atonement is the great blessing that allows us to try and fail again and again, while improving each time on our efforts. It may seem like there is no point trying any more, but with the Lord’s help, ultimately we will become perfected. And that will truly be epic.