Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
125 Waffles
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Mix the yolks of the eggs, thick milk, sour cream, and baking soda.
Let the mixture stand for a while.
Beat in the flour and fold in the beaten egg whites.
Cook the waffles
Preheat the waffle iron until very hot.
Pour the batter onto the hot side of the iron.
Turn the waffle immediately.
Bake until done.
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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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Yolks enrich the batter, while whipped whites folded in add lightness and help the waffles rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour cream to produce gas, leavening the batter so it rises and becomes airy.
- Sour cream
- Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds moisture and tenderness to the waffles.
- Thick milk
- Provides liquid that hydrates the flour and forms the batter's body.
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the waffles together once the batter sets in the iron.
The step that matters
Fold in the beaten egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air beaten into the whites, which gives the waffles lightness. Stirring vigorously deflates the foam and leaves the waffles dense.
“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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