Name: Toasted Corn Flake Waffles
Ingredients: 1½ cups all-purpose flour; 3 tablespoons white cornmeal; 2 cups Kellogg's Toasted Corn Flakes, crushed; 3 teaspoons baking powder; 1 scant teaspoon coarse sea salt; 1 tablespoon sugar; 2 eggs, well beaten; Milk, as needed to make a thick batter; 4 tablespoons shortening (half butter and half lard)

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 ↓

Toasted Corn Flake Waffles

Ingredients

1½ cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons white cornmeal
2 cups Kellogg's Toasted Corn Flakes, crushed
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 scant teaspoon coarse sea salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
Milk, as needed to make a thick batter
4 tablespoons shortening (half butter and half lard)

Directions

Make the batter

Mix the flour, cornmeal, crushed corn flakes, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a bowl.
Add the beaten eggs and enough milk to create a batter as thick as heavy cream.
Stir in the shortening until well combined.

Bake

Preheat and grease the waffle iron, then pour in the batter.
Bake until golden brown.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,955 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + corntop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,165 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,345 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

All-purpose flour: Provides the main structure that holds the waffle together as it cooks.
Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set during cooking.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter so the waffles rise and turn light.
Crushed corn flakes: Add corn flavor and a crisp, toasty texture to the finished waffle.
Shortening: Adds fat that tenderizes the waffles and helps them brown and crisp.

The step that matters

Batter thickness. The batter should be as thick as heavy cream. A thin batter spreads and steams instead of crisping, while a very thick one may not fill the iron evenly and can bake unevenly.

“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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Toasted Corn Flake Waffles