Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Waffles
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Slightly warm the butter and beat in the eggs one at a time.
Add a pinch of salt and gradually sift in the flour while still beating.
Pour in the thick cream and mix well by hand.
Cover the basin and set it in a warm place for a few hours.
Cook and serve
Grease the waffle mold and fill it with the mixture.
Cook the waffles until done, then place them on a folded napkin on a dish.
Sift caster sugar over the waffles and serve.
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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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
- Fine dry flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the waffles together as they cook.
- Fresh butter
- Adds fat for richness and tenderness and helps the waffles brown.
- Yeast
- Produces gas that makes the batter rise during the long warm rest.
- Thick cream
- Adds moisture and fat, giving a softer, richer crumb.
The step that matters
Resting the batter in a warm place. Yeast needs time and gentle warmth to ferment and leaven the batter. Too cold and it barely rises; too hot and it can over-ferment and turn sour. Keep the basin covered so the surface does not dry out.
“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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