

It's pancakes. In a can. It's made $15 million. - mikek
http://att.cnnmoney.mlogic.mobi/money/business/business/detail/188710/full#p1

======
wallflower
> US Patent Application US 2007/0286933 A1

Refrigerator Stable Baking Batter

In various embodiments of the present invention, a bakable batter mixed using
cold process conditions and provided in a pressurized can, can be used to bake
a variety of food products. In various embodiments of the present invention, a
bakable batter mixed under inert atmosphere conditions and...

[http://www.google.com/patents/download/11_760_647_REFRIGERAT...](http://www.google.com/patents/download/11_760_647_REFRIGERATOR_STABLE_PRESSURIZ.pdf?id=NmCjAAAAEBAJ&output=pdf&sig=ACfU3U1u50T_pVkpadJOoPcT9ZYFaSVmsQ&source=gbs_overview_r&cad=0)

~~~
Semiapies
Interesting reading! I wasn't aware you'd include things like details of
pathogen-contamination testing in a patent application. (Or compare the
results with CO2 vs N2. That's a detail of genuine interest to anyone trying
to make a related product outside the scope of the patent, or a similar
product after the patent expires.)

I think they've shown their work.

~~~
Tuna-Fish
> That's a detail of genuine interest to anyone trying to make a related
> product outside the scope of the patent, or a similar product after the
> patent expires.

This is the very purpose of patents. To speed up innovation by forcing people
to share their research in exchange for a limited monopoly. I find it both
hilarious and scary that you find something special in this patent
application.

~~~
Semiapies
I find it predictable and dull that someone here would half-read what I wrote
and display what would, anywhere else, be staggering social incompetence.

------
jsdalton
Apologies, but the mobile version of the story that is linked to here got me
so frustrated I almost threw my mouse across the room. Can't highlight text,
can't copy text as a result, and the article itself looks like garbage.

Here's a (better) link to the original article:

[http://money.cnn.com/2009/12/23/smallbusiness/batter_blaster...](http://money.cnn.com/2009/12/23/smallbusiness/batter_blaster.fsb/index.htm)

~~~
ramchip
Not sure why aw3c2's comment got killed - I've been seeing this sometimes and
I wonder if the autokill isn't a bit too strong.

But indeed, you can highlight and everything just fine in Opera.

------
tptacek
Something is wrong with a society that needs shortcuts to make pancake batter.
It takes less than 5 minutes --- and even less time if you take just a few
minutes to premix the dry ingredients ahead of time.

I 100% believe this product adds value to people's lives, but I'm also pretty
confident that that's because people are terrified to learn how to cook.

~~~
csmeder
Time is money. The fact that this man came up with a product that customers
want doesn't mean "Something is wrong with a society". I bike to work, if I
used your logic I would think: "Something is wrong with a society" because
most people drive to work. But I don't think this. I realize context matters
and again; time is money.

.

It frustrates me when people insult others ideas because the idea is
successful but it isn't something they would use. If the earth's population
was 1, then it would be okay. Until that day, please have an open mind.

~~~
ericd
I wouldn't use this, but I also wish others wouldn't either, as it changes the
market in which I live by further lowering the quality standards deemed
acceptable in the marketplace. It's not about being closed minded.

Its existence also dramatically increases the likelihood that I'll have to eat
a pancake from a can at some point in the future.

------
bjelkeman-again
Bjelkeman's (Swedish) pancakes/crepes, serves two:

3 eggs

6 dl milk

3 dl wheat flour

1 table spoon sugar

1 tea spoon salt

1/2 dl cooking oil (I use olive oil)

100 g butter

If you cook electric, start warming the frying pans. I normally fry on 7 (out
of 10). Mix the eggs. Add half the milk. Add the flour. Whisk together until
smooth. Add the sugar, salt and remainder of the milk. Add the oil. Mix until
the batter is smooth.

About now the pans should be warm. Put a tea spoon of butter in each pan,
spread it out in the pan. Add about a cup of batter (or so) to each pan. When
the batter is congealed on the top of the pancake, use a long thin spatula to
turn the pancake over. It should be yellow/golden brown on the fried side.
Wait a minute. The pancake is done. Repeat from beginning of paragraph until
out of batter.

Serve with sweats or savoury as you prefer. Blueberries, ice cream, sugar and
butter, strawberry jam, are my favourite toppings.

All in all you can do this, with a bit of practice, from a standing start in
20 minutes. And the pancakes are superior to anything you will buy in a pack
or a box. Promise.

Notes:

1) can easily be scaled to fit, 1 egg = 2 dl milk = 1 dl flour

2) dl = decilitre 1/10 litre (about a small coffee cup)

~~~
ugh
If you want to, you can add some carbonated water.

~~~
bjelkeman-again
What does that do to the pancakes?

------
ScottWhigham
OMG I love this stuff. My wife brought some home about a month ago and damnit
- they taste as good or better than most homemade pancakes. We buy them at
Costco - try them if you see them.

------
sterwill
I tried them once and I thought they tasted pretty bad. I'm not sure how I
could have screwed them up (shake, spray on hot griddle).

~~~
damienkatz
Same thing for me. They tasted awful. Threw the rest of the can away.

------
j_b_f
There's inspiration everywhere.

------
covercash
My 7 year old cousin LOVES these. Every Sunday morning she gets to help dad
make pancakes for the family.

------
rrhyne
Produces too much waste and it doesn't take that long to mix the batter
yourself.

------
hardik
It's $15m in revenues, he would have made much less.

~~~
Tuna-Fish
Per year, with over 30% yearly growth. He could sell it for twice that.

------
JulianMorrison
I wonder if they sell these in the UK?

~~~
axod
Likely not. Just like we don't get/want spray cheese.

All sounds a bit yuck to me.

I get the powder stuff. You can buy it from Tesco. Comes in a bottle, which is
about 1/4 full of powder. You can store in the cupboard for ages. When you
want pancakes you just open the bottle, fill it up with fresh milk, shake for
ages then start cooking. Really tasty as well.

~~~
jonursenbach
I don't think anybody wants spray cheese...

~~~
axod
Slightly off topic now, but I really don't understand how a nation like the US
eats so much cheese, yet simply cannot make cheese :/ It's horrible depressing
tasteless mush.

I wonder if there's a specific reason you can't get real cheese in the US.

~~~
andrewcooke
the uk seems to be particularly good at cheese (disclaimer - i am an
englishman). it is something you don't appreciate til you leave (here in chile
the only decent cheese i could find to have with my christmas cake was an
argentinian parmesan!).

~~~
axod
As far as I understand though, France would consider us to be absolutely piss-
poor at cheese.

~~~
davidw

        s/cheese/food/

~~~
axod
Which is why we consider the main trait of Frenchmen to be arrogance ;)

------
trebor
I wish I could take the guy who came up with the headline to task! We've had a
headline homicide...

1) "it is pancakes" isn't a sentence (ambiguous in the extreme).

2) The words "[it is] pancakes" are incompatible because "are" is the plural
equivalent of "is".

3) "in a can" is not a sentence (lack of a subject & verb).

4) "it's made" is "it is made" not the "it has made" it should be. (It's as
"it has" is not an official contraction due to its obvious ambiguity.)

The unmurdered headline would be,−

    
    
      It's pancakes in a can, and it has made $15 million.
    

</grammar-nazi>

To CNN: Remember, it's _my_ language you're abusing. Maybe you should care
too? As a "big news agency" you should at least care enough to force your
writers to learn _basic_ English grammar!

~~~
psygnisfive
I like how you call yourself a grammar nazi, cite the old (and wrong)
definition of a sentence as something with a subject and verb, but then say
that "it is pancakes" is not a sentence. Why not? It's got a subject -- it --
and it's got a verb -- is.

Further, English has subject-verb agreement not subject-object agreement or
verb-object agreement, hence "it is pancakes" is completely fine. Sure there
maybe be some semantic anomalies, what with the singularity of the subject,
the plurality of the object, and the copula which provides some sense of
equivalence between them, but that's entirely a semantic issue and not a
grammatical one.

Further further, setting off non-sentences by periods is common practice. You
may not like it, but everyone else accepts it. You're just an idiot.

Further further further, "it's" is completely acceptable English, and isn't an
official contraction only because there ARE no official contractions -- unlike
French, with its (wholly impotent) French Academy, there is no authority on
English, and thus no such thing as official English. The best we can do (as if
we should care) is to reference the great authors of English literature
(whoever they may be) and if you go by them, then you're most certainly wrong.

Further further further further, it's not your language, it's everyones, and I
think the headline is fine; and they're not abusing it, they're using it in a
completely standard fashion.

</actual linguist>

~~~
tptacek
You're awesome and I'm looking forward to everything else you might write
about linguistics on HN, but I'm not going to be the only person on Hacker
News to tell you not to call people "idiots" on our comment threads.

~~~
psygnisfive
You're one of the first. ;)

