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Plain Waffles
Sift together 2 heaping cupfuls of flour, ¼ of a teaspoonful of salt and ½ of a teaspoonful of baking-powder. Add the beaten yolks of 2 eggs mixed with 1 scant cupful of milk and 3 tablespoonfuls of melted butter; lastly the whites whipped to a stiff froth. Have the waffle iron very hot. Brush both sides with melted butter or lard, half fill with the batter, close and bake.
A straightforward separated-egg waffle batter from the era of cast-iron stovetop irons. The technique is sound; the quantities need a second look and the equipment has changed.
- Leavening looks shortHalf a teaspoon of baking powder for two heaping cups of flour is well below modern practice, which runs closer to 2 teaspoons. The stiffly beaten whites are doing most of the lifting here, so fold them in gently and cook immediately rather than letting the batter stand.
- Fractions in the textRead the salt as 1/4 teaspoon and the baking powder as 1/2 teaspoon, and the milk as one scant cupful. A "heaping cupful" of flour of the period is roughly 5 to 6 oz, so expect around 10 to 12 oz total.
- Batter consistencyOne scant cup of milk to two heaping cups of flour gives a thick, almost dropping batter. Thin it with milk a tablespoon at a time until it pours slowly but evenly off the spoon.
- Folding the whitesBeat the whites to a stiff froth but not dry, and fold in three additions with a spatula. Stirring them in flattens the foam and, with so little baking powder, the waffles will come out dense.
- The iron"Very hot" means a stovetop iron heated over the burner until a drop of water dances on it. On an electric waffle iron the nearest approximation is a medium-high setting, given the full preheat cycle; the recipe gives no way to check this beyond feel.
- GreasingBrushing both plates with melted butter or lard is still worth doing on cast iron even if it is seasoned. On a modern nonstick iron, a light brush of neutral oil once at the start is enough; butter will build up and darken.
- "Half fill" and timingHalf filling the iron allows for the rise, which is good advice for both old and new irons. Bake 3 to 5 minutes, until steam stops escaping from the seam, then lift the lid.
- YieldPerhaps 6 waffles from a standard round iron, serving 3 to 4, though the recipe gives no yield and period irons varied in size. Hold finished waffles in a single layer on a rack in a 200F oven rather than stacking them, which steams the crust soft.
Waffles reached American kitchens largely through Dutch households, and by the late nineteenth century the hinged cast-iron waffle iron with a long handle, set into a stove opening or held over the coals, was standard equipment. That equipment explains the shape of this recipe: the cook had no thermostat, so the instruction is "very hot," judged by feel. Separating the eggs and folding in whipped whites was a common way to lighten a batter before chemical leavening was cheap and reliable, and recipes of the 1890s and 1900s often keep the whites even after adding baking powder.