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Dessert

Waffles

A batter of sour milk, flour, butter, eggs, and baking powder baked in a waffle iron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Waffles

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine clabber milk and enough flour to create a not too soft batter.

  2. Stir well and add melted butter, egg yolks, and beaten egg whites.

  3. Just before baking, stir in baking powder.

Bake

  1. Bake in a hot waffle iron 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.

  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. Milk + flourtop 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. Butter + eggtop 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

Clabber milk
Its acidity reacts with baking powder to help the waffles rise and gives a tangy flavor.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the batter together once it bakes.
Egg yolks
Add richness and fat, helping the waffles brown and taste tender.
Egg whites
Whipped whites trap air that lightens the batter and helps the waffles rise.
Baking powder
Releases gas when heated, leavening the batter so the waffles puff and stay light.
Melted butter
Adds fat for flavor and a tender crumb, and helps the waffles brown.

The step that matters

Stir in the baking powder just before baking. Baking powder starts releasing gas as soon as it gets wet and reacts with the acidic milk. If it sits too long, the gas escapes before the iron sets the batter, so the waffles come out flatter and denser.

“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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