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Wheatena Waffles

A waffle made with wheat flour, eggs, milk, baking powder, shortening, and Wheatena.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk 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 ↓

Wheatena Waffles

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder.

  2. Add the Wheatena and moisten with the egg yolks and milk, beating thoroughly to ensure a smooth batter.

  3. Stir in the melted shortening.

  4. Just before baking, fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in well-greased waffle irons.

  2. Serve with butter and honey or maple 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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and milk 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
Egg whites beaten stiff add lift, and the yolks bind the batter and add richness.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the waffle together as it sets.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and Wheatena, giving the batter its pourable liquid base.
Baking powder
Releases gas when heated, helping the waffles rise and become light.
Melted shortening
Adds fat that tenderizes the waffles and helps them release and brown.
Wheatena
Adds a toasty, nutty wheat flavor and a slightly heartier texture.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Whites hold air only when stiffly beaten and folded in gently just before baking. Deflating them or resting the batter too long loses the lift that makes the waffles light.

“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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