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 ↓
Quick Waffles
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine milk, melted butter, and flour with salt to make a soft batter.
Add the well-beaten egg yolks and mix well.
Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.
Just before baking, stir in the baking powder.
Cook
Cook in a waffle iron until golden brown.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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
- Yolks enrich the batter and whites, beaten and folded in, lighten its texture.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, causing the waffles to rise and become light.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness, tenderness and golden browning.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the batter together as it cooks.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that hydrates the flour and forms the batter.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg whites. Whites hold air that gives waffles lift. Stirring them in vigorously knocks out that air, leaving dense, flat waffles, so fold gently until just combined.
“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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