How should pancakes be cooked?

We have a small difference of opinion in our household about pancakes. If I want to eat pancakes, I have to whip up and cook my own as no one else will eat them. Conversely, if J cooks them, I find them inedible. It's amazing that something made out of milk, eggs and flour could turn out so differently depending on who is making them.

I usually avoid pancakes when eating out. They're usually thick, cold and covered in 10 types of crap that I don't want. I like to nibble on what someone else has bought, but I could never chew my way through a meal of them on my own. Yes, I like whipped cream and berries and maple syrup, but I like them in small amounts. I don't like a huge mountain of the stuff strewn over a pile of cold, rubbery pancakes. It looks good and goes down like a wet dish cloth.

Me, I like them plain and simple. Eggs, flour and milk, beaten to a thin, non-lumpy consistency. When poured into the frying pan, the mix should immediately head for the four corners of the pan (metaphorically). They should be cooked in butter over a medium heat - not so hot that the butter burns, which is just plain yuk. It goes without saying that they can only be flipped once, and I normally flip when the top has dried out (ie, no more wet stuff sitting around in puddles). If the mix is good and the pan the right temperature, bubbles should form all over the surface of the uncooked side.

Once flipped, I don't like to cook them for too long. I hate them to be dark brown. Just a nice, light shade of tan will do me fine. If the mix is not too thick, they will be cooked all the way through. If the mix is like tar and the pancake is half an inch thick, you need to blacken them on the outside before the inner bits stop being raw.

Once cooked, straight onto a plate for dusting with sugar, sprinkling with freshly squeezed lemon and then rolled up and eaten straight away. No pancake should sit on a plate for more than half a minute. Any more than that, and they start to cure like rubber.

The only option for me is maple syrup, and I usually work my way through a stack with 75% sugar/lemon and 25% syrup.

J goes the other way. She throws a stack of cinnamon sugar into the mix, and cooks them in oil. I fry pork chops in oil, but never pancakes. Each to their own. I guess it is like how some people are folders and some are scrunchers. You can never convince someone else to change.