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Waffles

A batter of sour or buttermilk, flour, eggs, molasses, shortening, salt, baking soda, cooked 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: 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 ↓

Waffles

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. The night before, stir the flour into the sour or buttermilk and let it sit overnight.

  2. In the morning, beat the mixture for 10 minutes.

  3. Add the molasses or brown sugar, melted shortening, and well-beaten eggs.

  4. Dissolve the baking soda in a little warm water and add it to the mixture.

Cook and serve

  1. Preheat the waffle iron and grease it thoroughly.

  2. Pour a thin layer of batter into the hot waffle iron.

  3. Cook until one side is browned, then flip the iron to brown the other side.

  4. Serve hot with maple syrup.

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. Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Buttermilk + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together526 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. 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

Flour
Forms the structure of the batter that holds the waffle together once cooked.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the waffles set and hold their shape.
Sour or buttermilk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to produce gas that lightens the batter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the sour milk or buttermilk to make the waffles rise and turn tender.
Shortening
Adds fat that gives tenderness and helps the waffles release and brown in the iron.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda and add it to the batter. Baking soda must be fully dissolved so it reacts evenly with the acidic sour milk or buttermilk. Lumps leave pockets of unreacted soda and uneven rising and flavor.

“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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