Skip to main content
Baking

Waffles

A batter of flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, eggs, milk, butter, and vanilla cooked in a waffle iron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Waffles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

  2. In another bowl, whisk eggs, then add milk, melted butter, and vanilla.

  3. Combine wet and dry ingredients until just mixed.

Cook and serve

  1. Preheat waffle iron and pour batter into it.

  2. Cook until golden brown and crisp.

  3. Serve warm with syrup.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that holds the waffle together as it sets.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the batter bind and set in the iron.
Baking powder
Releases gas during cooking, helping the waffles rise and turn light.
Melted butter
Adds fat for tenderness and helps the surface brown and crisp.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and sets the batter's thickness and moisture.

The step that matters

Combine wet and dry ingredients until just mixed. Stirring too long develops gluten in the flour, which makes waffles tough and chewy. Lumps are fine and should be left in place.

Swap the vanilla

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, egg, milk, butter):

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, egg, milk, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

More waffles recipes

Rice 92German 18Hominy 16Raised 16Flemish 12Newport 11 See all 105 →

You might also like

Delicate CakeDelicate Cake246 recipesBoiled FrostingBoiled Frosting69 recipesCitron CakeCitron Cake68 recipesScotch CakeScotch Cake63 recipes