Name: Buttekmilk Waffles
Ingredients: 1 quart buttermilk; 3 eggs; 1 tablespoon lard; ½ teaspoon baking soda; flour (enough to make a thick batter)

Why it works: Buttermilk and flour 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 ↓

Buttekmilk Waffles

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

Combine buttermilk, eggs, lard, and baking soda in a bowl.
Gradually add flour until a thick batter is achieved.

Cook the waffles

Preheat the waffle iron.
Fill the waffle iron with the batter.
Bake according to the waffle iron's instructions.

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.

Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,721 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Buttermilk + eggtop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,986 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Buttermilk: Adds acidity that reacts with baking soda and contributes moisture and tenderness to the batter.
Eggs: Add structure and richness, helping the batter set into a firm waffle as it cooks.
Lard: Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and helps the waffles release and brown.
Baking soda: Reacts with the buttermilk's acid to produce gas that lightens the batter and helps browning.
Flour: Provides the main structure, which thickens into the batter and sets as the waffle bakes.

“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.