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Baking

German Waffles

A batter of butter, sugar, egg yolks, flour, whipped cream, and egg whites, flavored with lemon or nutmeg, baked in a waffle iron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

German Waffles

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter in a bowl.

  2. Add the sugar and mix well.

  3. Slowly add 1 egg yolk and a little flour, beating well.

  4. Repeat until all 6 yolks and 4 oz. of flour are incorporated.

  5. Fold in the whipped cream and beaten egg whites.

  6. Flavor with lemon or nutmeg as desired.

Cook the waffles

  1. Preheat the waffle iron and pour 1 tablespoon of batter into each compartment.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with the sugar to give the batter richness and a tender crumb.
Egg yolks
Add richness and emulsify the batter, helping it hold together smoothly.
Flour
Provides the structure that sets the waffle as it cooks.
Whipped cream
Adds moisture and lightness, making the waffles softer and more tender.
Egg whites
Beaten and folded in, they trap air that helps the waffles rise and turn light.

The step that matters

Folding in the whipped cream and beaten egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air trapped in the whipped cream and egg whites. Stirring vigorously would deflate the batter, leaving the waffles dense instead of light.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, flour, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, flour, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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