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Dessert

Waffles Without Eggs

A batter of flour, buttermilk, sugar, lard, baking powder, salt, and baking soda yields light, crisp waffles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and buttermilk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Waffles Without Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. If using self-rising flour, omit the salt and baking powder.

  2. Mix the flour and buttermilk, adding water if the batter is too stiff.

  3. Add the melted lard, salt, baking powder, and sugar, and beat well.

  4. Just before cooking, add the dissolved baking soda.

Cook

  1. Cook the waffles until they are light and crisp.

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. Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Buttermilk + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the waffle together as it sets.
Buttermilk
Adds moisture and acidity, which reacts with the baking soda.
Baking soda
Reacts with the buttermilk's acidity to release gas, helping the waffles rise and turn light.
Baking powder
Releases gas as it works with the batter, adding lift for a lighter texture.
Melted lard
Adds fat that tenderizes the batter and helps the waffles crisp on the outside.

The step that matters

Adding the baking soda just before cooking. Baking soda reacts with the acid in buttermilk right away, releasing gas. If it sits too long, much of that lift is lost before the waffles reach the iron, leaving them denser.

“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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