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Plain Waffles

A simple batter waffle made with flour, baking powder, salt, milk, egg yolks, butter, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Plain Waffles

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

  2. Stir in the milk, beaten egg yolks, and melted butter.

  3. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat the waffle iron and grease both sides.

  2. Pour a spoonful of batter into each section, close the iron, and turn it immediately.

  3. Cook until the waffles are evenly browned and very crisp.

  4. Serve hot with butter, sugar, syrup, or fruit.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the waffle together as it sets.
Baking powder
Releases gas during cooking so the waffles rise and turn light and open.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the batter while adding tenderness.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air that lightens the batter and helps it rise.
Milk
Hydrates the flour so the batter forms and cooks into a tender crumb.
Butter
Adds fat for flavor and helps the waffles brown and crisp on the iron.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stirring instead of folding deflates the whipped whites, removing the trapped air that makes the waffles light. Fold gently and only until no white streaks remain.

“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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