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Newport Waffles

A waffle batter made from Lidian meal, butter, salt, eggs, flour, buttermilk or sour cream, baking soda, and sweet milk, baked in a waffle iron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Newport Waffles

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Make the Lidian meal into mush in the usual way.

  2. While hot, stir in the butter and salt, then set aside to cool.

  3. Beat the egg whites and yolks separately until very light.

  4. Add the eggs to the cooled mush, then gradually mix in the flour.

  5. Dissolve the baking soda in the buttermilk or sour cream and add it to the mixture.

  6. Adjust the batter's consistency with sweet milk until thin.

Bake and serve

  1. Preheat the waffle irons for one hour before baking.

  2. Butter the irons thoroughly and fill them half full with batter.

  3. Bake quickly over a brisk fire.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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

Eggs
Whipped whites and yolks add lift and an airy, light structure to the batter.
All-purpose flour
Gluten and starch form the framework that holds the waffle's shape when baked.
Buttermilk or sour cream
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds tang and tenderness to the batter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in buttermilk or sour cream to produce gas that helps the waffles rise.
Lidian meal (or cornmeal)
Provides the main body and corn flavour, giving the waffles a coarse, slightly crisp texture.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour, and helps the waffles brown and release from the irons.

The step that matters

Preheat the waffle irons for one hour before baking.. A thoroughly hot iron sears the batter on contact, setting the outside quickly and promoting browning and crispness, so the waffles don't stick or turn pale and soft.

“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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