My sister gave me a waffle iron for Christmas. It makes poké ball–shaped waffles, and I love it. There was only one challenge: I didn’t know how to make waffles! Thankfully, she also gave me a book with some waffle recipes.
On the first page, there was the most basic recipe. The batter only consists of butter, sugar, eggs, flour, and cream. That one, I made first. The next few times, however, I tried some of the book’s many cool variations. Cheesecake waffles. Honey-almond waffles. Chocolate chip waffles. It was fun, and they all turned out well enough.
One day, though, I realized: I still didn’t know how to make waffles. I couldn’t have gone back and whipped up a batch without checking the book again. Not even for the most basic kind. What were the ingredients again? And their ratios? I decided to only make those basic waffles for a while.
The next time I made plain waffles, I paid attention to the amounts. The time after that, I varied them slightly. “Can I adjust these so they’re dead-easy to remember? 100 grams of this, 200 grams of that…” As it turned out, I could.
Most recently, I doubled all of the original ingredients and got seven waffles out of one batch. I even learned you can keep the batter in the fridge for a while. And that you can freeze fresh waffles to preserve them, then reheat them in the toaster. That last theory will be tested later today.
No matter which skill you’re looking to build, the basics don’t change—but it’s still critical to not forget them. It could take years to absorb them to the point where you perform them without thinking and execute them at a high level with consistency. Even a batch of plain waffles will taste differently when prepared by a master.
It’s nearly impossible to spend too much time mastering the basics. Make sure you do before you set your sights on loftier goals—or fluffier waffles.
