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Dessert

Baking Waffles

A waffle batter made with flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, milk, egg yolks, lard, and optional egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Baking Waffles

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

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

  2. In another bowl, combine milk, egg yolks, and melted lard.

  3. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.

  4. If using, beat egg whites until frothy and fold into the batter.

Cook and serve

  1. Preheat the waffle iron and grease it with lard.

  2. Pour a spoonful of batter into the waffle iron, close it, and cook until golden brown.

  3. Serve immediately.

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 + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 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

All-purpose flour
Provides the starch and gluten structure that holds the waffle together.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, giving the waffle its light, risen texture.
Egg yolks
Add richness and emulsify the fat, adding tenderness and colour.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and forms the batter's liquid base, adding moisture.
Melted lard
Adds fat for tenderness and helps the waffle crisp and brown in the iron.
Egg whites
When beaten and folded in, they add air for a lighter, more open crumb.

The step that matters

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour, which makes waffles tough and dense. Stop once no dry flour streaks remain, and small lumps are fine.

“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

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