The secret to perfect, tender pancakes, and is the sniff test enough to protect you from food poisoning?

• Dan Lepard's classic thick pancakes
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My pancakes are tough and rubbery. Any advice? K. Muller

I remember cooking pancakes for the family one Shrove Tuesday when I was a little tacker. I served them up then returned in what seemed like seconds to find them rubbing their stomachs with pantomime satisfaction. "Delicious," they all cried. In reality, the pancakes were so tough that Mum opened the window and my older siblings frisbeed the elastic discs out. What I had done unsupervised was to mix the batter with an electric beater on high for several minutes, unwittingly overworking the gluten in the process. When you add liquid to flour, two proteins combine to form gluten, which is elastic in nature but sets hard when cooked. To ensure perfect pancakes, use a whisk to thoroughly mix the dry ingredients and remove any lumps before adding the liquid. Add the liquid and slowly fold it through the dry ingredients so as not to overwork the gluten. Melted butter helps shorten the gluten strands, making them softer. Let the batter rest for 15-30 minutes before cooking. Use a large, clean pan and wipe it out between pancakes.

I sniff my food, such as cartons of milk, to see whether it is off. I trust my nose to protect me from food poisoning. M. Parkinson

Using your nose to protect you from the bugs that cause food poisoning is like trying to quell a rioting mob by playing the banjo: the tool is not fit for purpose. Most cases of food poisoning come from bacteria or viruses in or on the food. We eat them; they infect us, breed up in our bodies, and make us sick. Our noses contain 400 receptors capable of detecting a trillion different aroma compounds right down to the molecular level. The off smells your nose is detecting are the byproducts of enzymes, moulds, yeasts and bacteria breaking down foods. The problem is that harmful bugs such as salmonella and campylobacter do not produce odour. Take milk that's a while past its use-by date. It might smell sour from the lactic acid bacteria that have helped curdle it, but they won't make you sick. But other bugs in the milk might. That slightly off note in old milk? That's a fatty acid called butyric acid. It smells like vomit but isn't harmful. But that odour is a good indication that the milk is not wholesome and may contain other harmful bugs. .

Letters

Recently we discussed ways to keep avocado flesh from going brown. Readers replied with suggestions of their own. C. Nolan wrote: "Prick the whole avocado a few times, place on a slotted spoon, and gently lower into a bowl of just-boiled water. Leave for about 10-15 seconds and remove. When the avocado is peeled, it won't go brown." Several people suggested placing the skin of the used half over the unused half, which helps keep the air out, while D. Reeders referred to a TikTok video in which half-avocados were placed in a jar of cold water and refrigerated, where they remained useable for several weeks.

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