Martin Lersch

Martin Lersch

@khymos.org

PhD chemist and food enthusiast interested in chemical curiosities, tasty molecules, popular food science and molecular gastronomy. Blogging at https://khymos.org. Avogadro parametric waffle recipe generator at https://avogadro.khymos.org

28 followers76 following17 posts

Gluten free waffles with oats avogadro.khymos.org/en/recipe/gl... Note: Use this waffle recipe as a starting point for further modification in Avogadro where you can seamlessly adjust sliders (sweetness, richness, etc.) and select/deselect ingredients - all while the recipe is continuously updated.

avogadro.khymos.orgGluten free waffles with oatsOats are a perfect base for gluten free waffles. This recipe is built on whole oats, with the batter made straight in a blender. Combined with a little…

What makes a batter a waffle batter?🔎🧇 If you've made a few, you know one when you see it. But try to write down the rule and you'll struggle. I spent some time thinking about that question. Here's what came out of it 🧵

What makes a batter a waffle batter?🔎🧇 If you've made a few, you know one when you see it. But try to write down the rule and you'll struggle. I spent some time thinking about that question. Here's what came out of it 🧵

View full thread

Fair warning: with 10²⁷ possible settings, I have obviously not tested them all. Your recipe is statistically likely to be one no human has ever made. Most are good. Some are an adventure. That's the point 🧇.

What makes a batter a waffle batter?🔎🧇 If you've made a few, you know one when you see it. But try to write down the rule and you'll struggle. I spent some time thinking about that question. Here's what came out of it 🧵

View full thread

Worth knowing: The waffle-heart indicator tells you whether you have a batter and how typical it is. Fringe ≠ bad — plenty of great waffles live out there! Every recipe has a code you can save, copy and share. There's a clean print mode with a recipe specific QR code

What makes a batter a waffle batter?🔎🧇 If you've made a few, you know one when you see it. But try to write down the rule and you'll struggle. I spent some time thinking about that question. Here's what came out of it 🧵

View full thread

Avogadro's number is 6.022 × 10²³ and defines how many atoms or molecules there are in a mole. This is familiar to any chemist the way a "dozen" is familiar to anyone buying eggs. The tool can generate about 1,660 moles of waffle batters.

Hence the name. And hence the launch date. Amedeo Avogadro was born 9 August 1776. Sunday 9 August 2026 is his 250th birthday. It seemed like too good a coincidence to waste. If you don’t know how to celebrate - may I suggest you make a waffle?

What makes a batter a waffle batter?🔎🧇 If you've made a few, you know one when you see it. But try to write down the rule and you'll struggle. I spent some time thinking about that question. Here's what came out of it 🧵

View full thread

You pick ingredients - liquid, dairy, fat, egg, starch, sweetener. Then you adjust a couple of sliders for sweetness, richness, hydration and more. On the spot this generates a recipe with gram amounts.

Count the combinations: 8 sliders × 101 positions, 10 ingredient categories with up to 2 picks each. ≈ 10²⁷ distinct settings. That’s 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 theoretical recipes!

What makes a batter a waffle batter?🔎🧇 If you've made a few, you know one when you see it. But try to write down the rule and you'll struggle. I spent some time thinking about that question. Here's what came out of it 🧵

View full thread

Old cookbooks are full of lines like: "Add flour until the batter has the right consistency." That's not a lazy recipe. It's tacit knowledge - the writer knew exactly what they meant and assumed you did too. I’ve tried to make that explicit.

So instead of writing rules, I fitted a model to the recipes. The result is a parametric waffle generator, not a database. There are no stored recipes. Every batter is computed from your inputs at the moment you ask for it.

What makes a batter a waffle batter?🔎🧇 If you've made a few, you know one when you see it. But try to write down the rule and you'll struggle. I spent some time thinking about that question. Here's what came out of it 🧵

I collected 1,000 waffle recipes, mainly from Norway and Scandinavia. What struck me wasn't any single one. It was the range - tangy buttermilk, rich sour-cream, lean everyday, healthy whole grain, and super-sweet commercial mixes. All Unmistakably waffles. All very different.

You are up to date.