French Waffles

A plain, unsweetened waffle batter meant for a stovetop cast-iron waffle iron. A few of the instructions read oddly to modern eyes, and the order of mixing is worth correcting.

• Fix the mixing orderAs written, the beaten whites go in before the flour, which knocks the air out of them while you beat in three cups of dry flour. Combine yolks, butter and milk with the sifted dry ingredients first, then fold the whites into the finished batter last with a light hand.
• The irons are stovetopA 1900s waffle iron is hinged cast iron set over a burner and flipped partway through cooking. An electric waffle iron needs no greasing if non-stick, and no flipping unless it is a rotating model.
• "Delicate brown" in timeRoughly 3 to 5 minutes in a modern electric iron at medium-high; the steam pouring from the seam slowing to a trickle is the reliable signal, not the clock.
• Warm milk, not hotWarming the milk presumably keeps the melted butter from seizing into flecks. Blood temperature is enough. Milk hot enough to start cooking the yolks will give you a lumpy batter.
• Baking powder of the periodEarly-1900s baking powder was often single-acting, so batters were cooked promptly. Modern double-acting powder gives you more leeway, but this batter is still best used within about twenty minutes of folding in the whites.
• Fill sparingly"Fill with the batter" overfills a modern iron. Use enough to cover about two-thirds of the grid and let the lid spread it; the batter expands more than it looks.
• Yield and servingMakes about eight 7-inch waffles. With no sugar in the batter, the powdered sugar on top is doing all the sweetening — syrup, jam or fruit works equally well.
• Keeping them hotThe "hot dish" of the original means a warmed platter. Waffles stacked on a plate steam themselves soggy; hold them in a single layer on a rack in a 200F oven instead.