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Waffles
1¾ cups flour 3 teaspoons baking powder ½ teaspoon salt 1 cup milk Yolks 2 eggs Whites 2 eggs 1 tablespoon melted butter Mix and sift dry ingredients; add milk gradually, yolks of eggs well beaten, butter, and whites of eggs beaten stiff; cook on a greased hot waffle-iron. Serve with maple syrup. A waffle-iron should fit closely on range, be well heated on one side, turned, heated on other side, and thoroughly greased before iron is filled. In filling, put a tablespoonful of mixture in each compartment near centre of iron, cover, and mixture will spread to just fill iron. If sufficiently heated, it should be turned almost as soon as filled and covered. In using a new iron, special care must be taken in greasing, or waffles will stick.
A plain buttermilk-free waffle batter from the era of the cast-iron stovetop waffle iron, lightened with beaten egg whites rather than extra leavening. Two of the printed quantities are typographical casualties and need reading with judgment.
- The flour quantity"134 cups" is a broken fraction: the original reads 1¾ cups flour. That gives the right ratio against 1 cup milk and 2 eggs for a pourable waffle batter.
- The salt"1½ teaspoon salt" in a recipe this size is more likely ½ teaspoon. A teaspoon and a half against 1¾ cups flour would be aggressively salty.
- Electric iron instead of stovetopAll the business about heating one side, turning the iron, and reheating applies to a hinged cast-iron iron set over a range burner. With an electric iron, preheat fully and grease once with a neutral oil or clarified butter; the recipe's low butter content means the batter is not self-releasing.
- Fold, do not stirThe whites are the only real lift here beyond the baking powder. Beat them to soft-firm peaks and fold in last with a light hand; a batter beaten smooth after the whites go in will bake dense and leathery.
- Filling the ironA tablespoon per compartment sounds miserly by modern standards. For a modern iron, fill to roughly two-thirds and let the lid spread it. Overfilling is the usual cause of batter weeping down the hinge.
- TimingNo time is given. Cook until the steam escaping from the seam slows markedly, generally 3 to 5 minutes; opening the iron early can tear the waffle.
- Seasoning a new ironThe warning about new irons still holds for bare cast iron. Season it as you would a skillet before the first batch, and expect the first waffle to be a sacrifice.
- YieldAbout four to six waffles depending on iron size, or two generous servings. The batter does not hold well; mix it just before cooking.
Waffles reached American kitchens by way of Dutch settlers, and the hinged long-handled iron held over a coal or wood range was one familiar piece of nineteenth-century equipment. The recipe reflects how waffles were eaten in 1896: a hot breakfast bread, made to order at the range and served immediately, not a weekend indulgence. The maple syrup is a New England reflex. The instructions on heating and greasing the iron are detailed, a sign that this was a difficult piece of equipment to master.