How do I flip a pancake in the game?

Flick upward on the screen, or hold and let go (the Space bar works too). The toss meter shows the sweet spot for a clean half-turn. Then move the pan under the pancake to catch it.

When should I flip a pancake?

When the bubbles on top pop and the holes stay open, and the edges look set. The peek bar in the game shows the colour underneath.

Why do pancakes turn golden brown?

The Maillard reaction between sugars and amino acids, which speeds up above about 140 °C. Only the side touching the hot pan gets that hot.

What is the water drop test for a pan?

Flick a few drops of water into the pan. If they skitter around instead of boiling away, the pan is above the Leidenfrost point (around 190 °C) and hot enough.

Is Flip the Pancakes free?

Yes. It runs in your browser on phones, tablets and computers, with no download and no account. Your best day is saved on your device.

Flip the Pancakes

Pour, wait for the bubbles, flick, catch. Golden side up! Back to the game

How to play

Each day the café has an order: four pancakes on day one, more after that. Hold on the pan (or hold the Hold to pour button, or the Space bar) to ladle batter in, and let go when the puddle fills the dotted ring. Then wait. The peek bar above the pan shows the colour of the side you can't see, with the golden window marked in red. As the underside browns, bubbles rise and pop on top. When the holes stay open, it's time to flip.

To toss, flick upward on the screen, or hold and let go: the longer you hold, the harder the toss. The toss meter beside the pan marks the sweet spots for one half-turn and for a triple. While the pancake is in the air, move the pan under it with your finger, the mouse or the left and right arrows. Cook the second side, then tap the plate, press Serve or Enter to slide it onto the stack. Press W or Water test to flick drops into the pan and check its heat. Three burnt or dropped pancakes close the kitchen for the day.

Every pancake scores for colour on both sides, the quality of its best flip (flat, golden side up, with a bonus for a triple) and its size, plus a little for the height of the stack. Later days have a hotter pan, bigger orders and a draughty kitchen that nudges the toss sideways.

The science of a golden pancake

Pancakes brown by the Maillard reaction, a cascade of reactions between sugars and amino acids that makes hundreds of flavour and colour compounds. It's slow at boiling point and fast above about 140 °C. Batter is mostly water, which can't get hotter than 100 °C while it lasts, so only the surface pressed against the pan goes golden. In the game the browning rate follows the pan temperature: a cold pan barely colours the batter, and a pan at 230 °C burns it in seconds.

The bubbles come from baking powder, which releases carbon dioxide when it gets wet and again when it's heated, helped by steam from the batter. While the top is still liquid, the bubbles pop and fill back in. Once the batter has started to set, the holes stay open: the classic sign that the underside is done.

Before cooking, cooks flick water into the pan. Below about 190 °C a drop touches the metal and boils away with a hiss. Above that, the Leidenfrost effect kicks in: the drop floats on a thin cushion of its own steam and skates around the pan.

The physics of the flip

A flick of the pan gives the pancake two things: upward speed and spin. Once it leaves the pan, nothing can twist it, so its angular momentum stays almost the same and it spins at a steady rate. For a perfect flip, the spin and the time in the air have to work out to exactly half a turn. A toss at 2.5 m/s stays up for about half a second, so the pancake needs to turn at about 6 radians per second. Toss too hard with the same wrist and it comes down edge-first or with the pale side up. The game uses gravity, face-on air drag (a 55 g pancake 17 cm across feels drag of about half its weight at 4 m/s) and a floppy, springy disc that wobbles as it lands.

The toppings are physics too. Butter melts between 32 and 35 °C, so it slumps into a puddle on a hot pancake. Thick syrups are thousands of times more viscous than water (water is 0.001 Pa·s), so they creep down the sides of the stack at a few millimetres per second, and slow down as the drips thin out.

Tips

Flip when the bubbles on top stay open, not when the first ones appear.
Learn one toss well: a medium flick gives one clean half-turn. Save the triple for when the pancake is perfect.
Watch the drift and start moving the pan straight away. It's easier to catch a pancake on its way down than at the last moment.

More kitchen physics: pop corn in ../pop-the-popcorn/, or try pouring a drink to the line in ../pour-it-perfectly/.

Questions people ask

How do I flip a pancake in the game?: Flick upward on the screen, or hold and let go (the Space bar works too). The toss meter shows the sweet spot for a clean half-turn. Then move the pan under the pancake to catch it.
When should I flip a pancake?: When the bubbles on top pop and the holes stay open, and the edges look set. The peek bar in the game shows the colour underneath.
Why do pancakes turn golden brown?: The Maillard reaction between sugars and amino acids, which speeds up above about 140 °C. Only the side touching the hot pan gets that hot.
What is the water drop test for a pan?: Flick a few drops of water into the pan. If they skitter around instead of boiling away, the pan is above the Leidenfrost point (around 190 °C) and hot enough.
Is Flip the Pancakes free?: Yes. It runs in your browser on phones, tablets and computers, with no download and no account. Your best day is saved on your device.