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Virginia Waffles

A cornmeal and flour waffle with milk, eggs, butter, sugar, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Virginia Waffles

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Combine cornmeal and boiling water in a bowl; let sit until cool.

  2. Add milk, flour, eggs, salt, melted butter, sugar, and baking powder; mix until smooth.

Cook

  1. Preheat waffle iron and pour batter according to manufacturer's instructions.

  2. Cook until golden brown 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

White cornmeal
Gives the waffles their characteristic grainy texture and crisp edges.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the waffle together as it sets.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas during cooking so the waffles rise and turn light.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richer flavor and helps the surface crisp and brown.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown during cooking.

The step that matters

Let the cornmeal soak before mixing. Letting the cornmeal sit in boiling water until cool allows it to absorb liquid and soften. Skipping this rest can leave a gritty texture and a batter that is too thin or uneven.

“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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