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Dessert

Waffles Without Waffle Irons

A method for cooking waffles in a saucepan without a waffle iron, using batter, butter, and optional powdered sugar or maple sugar and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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 Without Waffle Irons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Heat an iron saucepan with a smooth, even bottom and grease it well.

  2. Pour in enough batter to cover the bottom thinly.

  3. Keep the saucepan in a hot place on the stove, but not too hot, and cover with a tin cover.

Cook and turn

  1. When the waffle is ready to turn, do so quickly to avoid breaking it.

  2. Once baked on both sides, remove to a plate and generously butter.

  3. Keep the waffle warm in the oven while you bake additional waffles.

Serve

  1. Serve hot, cutting through the layers like pieces of pie.

  2. Sift powdered sugar over each layer as you butter them, or serve with maple sugar and cream.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Batter
Forms the thin cooked layers that set into the waffle's structure when heated.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the surface brown as it cooks.

The step that matters

Turning the waffle. A thin layer is fragile while it sets, so turning it too early or too roughly tears it. Wait until the underside is set and firm before turning it quickly.

“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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