December 9, 2020 • 30 mins
Waffles are popular and commonplace on tables and as street food around the world, but they’ve evolved a lot over time to become the syrup vehicle most of us think of them as.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class, a production
of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Holly cry and I'm Tracy Vie Wilson. I'm gonna
make a confession right up front here. I cannot resist
the call of the novelty waffle iron. You can't. I
(00:23):
buy them that I don't need. I love them. And
that's actually how I became interested in waffles. I Um,
before I started buying things that would help me make
death Star waffles, I would have told you I was
a pancake person. I think just because I grew up
making with pancakes. Well, and you can also make pancakes
in fun shapes with little pancake molds. That's true, although
(00:44):
you don't usually get the same level of detail. But um,
both utterly delicious and I thought, you know, been a
weird year, let's throw in more fun episodes, and waffles
seemed like a good one. Waffles are, of course, very
popular and quite common lace on tables and as a
street food around the world, but they've evolved a whole
lot over time to become the syrup vehicles that most
(01:06):
of us think of them as. So today we're going
to take a peek at the waffles origins and the
various iterations of dough or batter cooked between two hot plates.
Humankind has been figuring out how to make hot cakes
really for millennia. All kinds of pulpy compositions of ground
grains cooked on hot rocks go all the way back
(01:27):
to the Neolithic Age. There is evidence of flat hot
cakes made from cereal grains flipped too and start cooking
on both sides during this time and really various cultures
all around the globe. Yeah, the waffle history, as we'll
talk about it is largely you know, European to develop
what we think of, but like everybody was figuring out
(01:48):
how to cook with grains and you know, sometimes a
little water and make paste that could make a little
flat cake. With the Iron age starting in cooking, of
course shifted as new tool were developed, including cooking plates
precursors you can think of them to the modern day griddle,
and people started cooking their flat cakes on those instead
(02:09):
of rocks. And sometimes they would even heat two iron
plates and then press batter between them for fast and
even cooking. So you can see how that's very much
like a waffle, just in a rudimentary kind of version.
I also like the part of history where we got
the upgrade of going from cooking stuff on rocks to
cooking stuff on surface made for cooking. Yes, and also
(02:32):
that we were like, let's mush them together and see
what that makes. The first iteration of what would eventually
evolve into what we would recognize as a waffle was
called oblios, and these cakes were first seen in ancient grease.
And these oblios are sort of proto waffles because they
(02:54):
were cooked in between two metal plates. They weren't really sweet.
They were kind of like a flat, at least simple cake.
But the plates that were used to make them did
often have designs on them. You can see pictures of
some of these kind of lacy designs. In some cases, Yeah,
they're very pretty. I will say this, oblios is an
(03:15):
interesting word because you will just as often see it
in relation to waffle history, where the L and the
e have been transposed, so it's like obelios. I think
someone made that switch somewhere along the line, and it
has propagated in both ways ever since. So if you're
(03:35):
ever looking at a thing and it's different, that's why
I went with the oblios version, because the next word
that we're going to talk about seems like a pretty
obvious transition from that word, which is ugli, which that
word evolved into over time as these flat cakes spread
throughout other cultures in Europe, and ubli is a French word,
(03:57):
and that spread was in large part because the Church
adopted these ubli as part of religious rituals and events.
So to be clear, these were not a replacement for
communion wafers, although the name ubli does mean wafers in French.
But instead they were kind of another edible item that
could be included in worships. So often it was the
finish to a meal with religious significance, or they were
(04:21):
served at the end of a religious service. Ubli were
made by specialists called a blur, who became experts at
using to metal plates to cook batter, and this batter
was often made with flour, a little bit of salt,
and wine instead of water. Ubili became established as a
straight food as these specialists would wait outside of churches
to sell their wares to members of the congregation as
(04:43):
they left, particularly on Saints Days and other important religious days.
These again weren't sweet. They were savory ubli, which were
often pretty large in season with herbs. Sometimes they would
be rolled into a cone shape to make them easier
to carry home. Yeah. I heard one description or read
one description where they were talking about how they were big.
(05:03):
They were like the size of a pizza, and I
was like, I suppose they're probably in some ways a relative, right,
It's a large, big thing that has some herbs sprinkled
on it. But uh, of course branching branching trees. Again,
there's no butter or syrup in sight here. These were
still very simple in terms of ingredients, and they were
usually made with barley or oat flour, but the design
(05:26):
started to get really ornate in medieval Europe. Some of
these designs mimicked sort of the patterns of stained glass.
Others recreated heraldry, and there were sometimes even more detailed scenes,
such as landscapes or even depictions of biblical stories. And
the twelve hundreds we also start to see early hints
of the waffle pattern developing. The old French word waffle
(05:49):
referred to a piece of honey beehive, and as these
honeycomb patterned flat cakes started to become popular, they were
called go fra. This is a French word for waffle
that was derived from the old French waffle, and at
this point in Europe, regardless of the design, waffles had
to be held over a fire to be baked, so
(06:10):
there was a degree of danger in their preparation. The
usage of the word waffle, we should note, also has
roots in other languages. There's waffle in Dutch, which just
has one f. There's weapon which means we've in Old English,
and there is vaba in Old High German. Yeah, you'll
see all of those words sometimes noted as the root
(06:32):
word for waffle, but all of those languages are kind
of being passed around and related um and as street
vending of waffles in France became more competitive, things also
got a bit contentious. By the time King Charles the ninth,
son of Catherine de Medici was ruling in the late
fifteen hundreds, this problem had escalated to such a degree
(06:52):
that the monarch actually had to make business regulations to
try to control the situation, and picturing fabulous obliah and
waffle fist fights, the main regulation that he came up
with coincidentally very similar to the social distancing rule we've
been facing in pandemic vendors had to stay six ft apart.
(07:12):
The competitive nature of selling gofro was driven by this
massive level of popularity. Of course, waffles crossed all socioeconomic lines,
and part because they were so adaptable. The wealthiest levels
of society enjoyed much flakier versions that were made with
egg and sometimes even sweetened with honey, and then poorer
classes had access to versions made with lesser quality flowers
(07:35):
and water without any of the ingredients that would really
make them into a crispy or fluffy delicacy. North America
was introduced to the Dutch waffles with one f thanks
to colonists who immigrated in the early decades of the
sixteen hundreds. For expectations management here, because I know people
are already thinking it stroop waffles were not invented yet.
(07:55):
We're going to come back to that, but it does
seem like at least some of the Dutch waffles were
definitely intended to be sweet rather than savory. In the
book Colonial Days in Old New York, written by Alice
Morse Earl in eight there's a description of what the
author calls a Dutch uma from the seventeenth century, which
(08:16):
was a sifter used to sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on
freshly made waffles. In seventeen five, Robert Smith published the
book Buckle Up for this name Court Cookery or the
Complete English cook containing the choicest and newest receipts for
(08:36):
making soups, pottages, freaka sees, harshes, farces, ragus, cullises, sauces,
forced meats and souss, with various ways of dressing most
sorts of flesh, fish and foul, wild and tame, with
the best methods of potting, coloring and pickling. As likewise
of paste, spies, pasties, patties, puddings, and they's, biscuits, creams, cheesecakes, florindans, cakes, jellies,
(09:04):
syllabubs and custards. Also of candy making and preserving, with
a bill of fare for every month in the year,
and the latest improvements in cookery, pastry, et cetera. There's
a lot of words. Uh. This heavily titled tone, published
in London, offers the first instance of the word waffle
(09:26):
included in English language print, and the recipe that Smith
included for waffles is as follows. Quote take flour, cream
sack nutmegs, sugar, eggs, yeast of what quantity you will
mix these to a batter and let them stand to rise.
Then add a little melted butter and bake one to try.
If they burn, add more butter, melt butter with sac
(09:49):
refined sugar and orange flower water for the sauce. Uh
sac in this instance refers to cooking sherry. If you
had not heard that term before. I like that. The
solution to the I give you no measurements recipe if
it doesn't work, is just keep adding butter, putting more
butter in there. Yeah. So this base recipe has sugar,
(10:12):
and while Smith's book also offers a really yummy sounding
syrup recipe, waffles were also seen as a companion starts
to savory entrees. So you might make a waffle and
then ladle a stew on top of it, for example, Yummy,
I love a savory waffle. I'd eat that. Yeah. Nine
years later, in seventeen thirty four, a recipe for a
(10:33):
Dutch waffle, in this case called a Dutch wafer, appeared
in a cookbook by Mary Kettleby. This book is titled
a Collection of Above three hundred Receipts In cookery, physic
and surgery for the use of all good wives, tender mothers,
and careful nurses. And this recipe for what kettle be
called the right Dutch wafer shows the difference in the
(10:54):
Dutch style waffle of the time as being sweeter. It says,
take four eggs and beat them very well, and then
take a good spoonful of fine sugar, one nutmeg grated,
a pint of cream, and a pound of flour, a
pound of butter melted, two or three spoonfuls of rose water,
and two good spoonfuls of yeast. Mix all well together
(11:16):
and bake them and your wafer tongs on the fire.
For the sauce, take grated cinnamon, sack and melted butter,
sweetened to your taste delicious. We are going to talk
more about waffle irons in a moment, which was mentioned
in that recipe, but first we are going to pause
for a little sponsor break. We mentioned right before the
(11:42):
break in that recipe that Tracy read, uh, wafer tongs
and waffle irons by this point did indeed look sort
of like large tongs with a hinge near the two
cooking plates, and then long handles sometimes you know, a
couple of feet long. These irons would have been used
in an open heart, so those long handles in a
the cook to fill the base plate with batter, shut
the iron and then push it into the open flame
(12:04):
for cooking without risking their person getting too close or
up into the flame. And as kitchens transitioned to wood stoves,
those handles became shorter and the waffle irons started to
be placed on top of the stove to cook instead
of directly into a fire. The first waffle iron in
the US is often cited as arriving in seventeen eighty
nine thanks to Thomas Jefferson. He had been Minister to
(12:27):
France from seventeen eighty five up until he left in
seventeen eighty nine, that being hastened by the start of
the French Revolution, and he brought back two pieces of
cooking tech from Europe. There was a pasta maker and
a hinged, long handled waffle iron. However, this was not
the first waffle iron to cross the Atlantic. No, he
(12:48):
gets credit, and he may have caused a surge in popularity,
but they were already waffle irons here. Uh. We know
this because well before Jefferson is said to have brought
his waffle iron to the States, and in fact, before
the colonies gained independence from England, waffle frolics were popular
among the colonists. In seventeen forty four, what sounds like
(13:09):
an especially frolic, laden and perhaps risk a waffle frolic
in New York was described in a letter by twenty
one year old William Livingston, written to a miss Et
and dated November seventeenth of that year. Here's what it says. Quote,
we had the waffle frolic at Miss Walton's talked of
before your departure. The feast, as usual, was preceded by cards,
(13:31):
and the company so numerous that they filled two tables.
After a few games, a magnificent supper appeared in grand
order and decorum. But for my part, I was not
a little grieved that so luxurious a feast should come
under the name of a waffle frolic, because if this
be the case, I must expect but a few waffle
frolics for the future. The frolic was closed up with
(13:55):
ten sunburned virgins lately come from Columbus's Newfoundland. Besides the
play of my own invention, which I have not room
enough to describe at present. However, kissing constitutes a great
part of its entertainment. Livingston, in case you don't recognize
that name, went on to become the Governor of New
Jersey and was one of the signers of the U
(14:15):
s Constitution. That mention of virgins from Columbus's Newfoundland may
be referring to indigenous women. That of course, adds a
potentially rather unpleasant layer to this story. In sweeter developments, though.
In the city of Gouda, Netherlands, the first stroop waffles
are made in the early eighteen hundreds, and if you
have had these, you know they are made to resemble
(14:37):
breakfast waffles, but they're really kind of a cross between
a waffle and a cookie. They're made of a dough
that is pressed in an iron, and the story goes
that they were created when a baker combined syrup and
breadcrumbs together and then pressed them. These little waffle cousins
are normally either cooked or sliced to be very very thin,
and then layered like a sandwich with a caramel syrup filling,
(15:00):
and they are delicious. On August eighteen sixty nine, the
first waffle iron patent in the United States was issued,
which is US Patent number nine thousand and forty three.
It was granted to a man named Cornelius Swarthout. You'll
see his name spelled a few different names. We're going
with that one because I think it's the easiest to
(15:20):
pronounce uh. And this was given for what he called
an improvement on waffle irons that he developed in his
home in Troy, New York. So this iron had a
very heavy bass with the bottom waffle textured plate mounted
on it, and then another plate that sat on top
affixed with a hinge, so the waffle iron could open,
have the batter poured in, and then could flip so
(15:41):
each side like within the thing, it could flip so
that each side would get time close to the hot
surface of the stove, and then a finished, evenly cooked
waffle could be removed. The main improvement that was made
here was the inclusion of a handle and a clasp
to make flipping the plates a lot safer and easier.
You couldn't mismatched the plate lineup, there was less of
(16:02):
a risk of burns. Swartout described it like this quote,
The nature of my invention consistent providing a handle connected
with and forming part of a waffle iron, by means
of which the same may be readily turned over without
danger of slipping, and without the possibility of burning the hand.
It also consists in providing a device by means of
(16:24):
which the upper or a covering portion of a waffle
iron may be raised so as to expose the interior
for filling or for removing the waffle wind, done without
the danger of the cover slipping back, and without burning
the hand. That description probably sounds a lot like a
waffle iron you have used or you might use today,
(16:44):
and it really does look pretty familiar. But of course,
Holmes did not have electricity in eighteen sixty nine, and
this waffle iron still had to be placed on a
heat source, so, as we said, it was intended to
sit on a stovetop, and over the next several decades,
this basic type of waffle iron worked so well and
was so popular that it was widely produced for home use.
(17:05):
Waffle frolics or waffle parties had continued to be popular
right through the nineteenth century and then into seven book
titled Suppers Novel Suggestions for Social Occasions. Author Paul Pierce
lays out a detailed plan for hosting a perfect waffle party.
And while this is billed as a perfect way to
host a party for an apartment dweller without a big kitchen,
(17:26):
it's really no simple affair at all. No, there's so
many steps uh and Pierce's Perfect Waffle Party instructions, star
wars and pretty involved invitations. Quote of cream white satin
fashioned in the exact shape and size of a waffle section,
padded with white cotton wadding and tacked to simulate the
meeting place of the irons. They are then scorched the
(17:49):
right color with a hot iron and on them is
printed in CPIA tints Come and eat me. The date
and address details are printed on the reverse. I don't
know why that struck me as fun. It's a very
involved invitation and also again a little risque. By the way,
(18:10):
this perfect party plan also includes the printing of a
quote much praised recipe for waffles to be placed at
each guest spot. And then the hosts assigns a utensil
to each guest and they complete the recipe assembly line
style as a team. Then the guests are seated with
teams of two pouring the batter and monitoring the cooking
(18:30):
on a rotating basis while other courses, including veal are served.
The doors to the kitchen are to be propped open
throughout all this so that the team's minding the waffle
cooking in the kitchen do not feel left out. It's
a cute, little uh instruction for how to make a
fun party with waffles. I would do it. I'm not
(18:51):
making those complex um invites though, I'm not quilting a
bunch of satin into waffles. The first electrical waffle iron
was pretty used in the early nineteen hundreds, and it
is believed that the Simplex Electrical Company was the first
to make one. This Boston, Massachusetts manufacturer created an iron
that made circular waffles, but the unit itself was rectangular.
(19:12):
It had a front row of plates that folded onto
the back row to create the closed cooking surface. This,
in write ups sounds like it was not really a
safe product. The regulations around electrical appliances that are in
place today, for example, did not yet exist, so like
during the flipping, they were like electrical contacts that would
be exposed. But we should say that Simplex did go
(19:34):
on to make other safer models, though, and General Electric
usually gets the credit for making the first electrical waffle iron,
which the company did in nineteen eleven, designed by Thomas J. Stockbeck,
but this was really a prototype. The company did not
start production of waffle irons to sell for home use
until the late nineteen teens. Waffle popularity continued to grow
(19:58):
in the US in the early half of the t
a century, so much so that manufacturers started making waffle
irons that were meant to be visually pleasing as well
as functional, so they could be used right at the
table and they would fit into the rest of the
china and tableware and be just as pretty as anything else.
Some of these had decorated porcelain exteriors, and they were
sold with breakfast sets that included coffee service, as well
(20:20):
as various specialized bowls to include batter. You could pour
that right into the iron by the person who was
being served, so you would get a fresh, hot waffle.
There were all kinds of interesting waffle developments from the
nineteen thirties on. We will talk about them after we
hear from the sponsors who keep our show going. In
(20:48):
eight Well Supper Club opened in Harlem, New York and
it catered to the musician crowd, staying open late into
the night. The story goes that because a lot of
their clientele was getting there too late for dinner and
too early for breakfast, the two meals found a crossover
in fried chicken and waffles, which has since become popular
around the country. I will also say this, you will
see it kind of casually referenced as something that developed
(21:12):
as a like cast off food from waffle parties were
combined by people who were either enslaved or we're working
as service staff in homes, but that's not really well documented.
This we know definitely happened. Also chicken and waffles delicious.
In nineteen fifty three, the first frozen waffles called fruffles
(21:34):
were introduced by three brothers. They were Tony, Sam and
Frank Dorsea. These frozen waffles were the third invention of
the Dorset brothers, and they had also created a mayonnaise
and a dry waffle mix, and they were doing that
under the name Ego. Because of the egg content in
the Mannai's, most people started calling the froffles by the
(21:55):
name Egos, which the Dorses just adopted as the new product. Name.
The Ego company was bought by Kellogg's in the early
nineteen seventies and now produces a vast array of waffles
and other frozen breakfast products that's still going. The Belgian
waffle might surprise you and how late it joins this story.
(22:16):
In nineteen sixty four, at the World's Fairing Queens, New York,
Maurice Formersh and his family set up a waffle booth
in the Belgian Village pavilion. Their booth signage read Brussels
Waffles a bell Gym product that's b E L D
g E M for Mercia's waffles were light and fluffy,
crisp on the outside, and then they would melt in
your mouth. Visitors to the expo could buy them plain
(22:39):
or with a little bit of whip cream and fresh
strawberry slices. This was actually not their real introduction, Vermersh
had sold them at a smaller booth at the Seattle
World's Fair two years earlier to kind of test the waters.
But this treat took off in New York, and so
that's usually noted as the birth of the Belgian waffles popularity.
To most of the customers, this pastry was just a revelation.
(23:02):
The waffles that were normally served in the US were
a lot heavier. They tended to be topped with a
bunch of syrup and butter. Charging a dollar per waffle.
The Vermercias needed to keep two dozen waffle irons going
and have ten people come help them slice strawberries just
to keep up with the orders. Yeah, it's one of
those things that gets listed. Is like one of the
(23:23):
most popular things at the World's Fair that year. Maurice
Vermers didn't notice, however, that a lot of people didn't
understand why they were called Brussels waffles. They didn't really
get that his version of waffles was a family recipe
developed from a regional style in Belgium. So he just
started calling them Belgian waffles and that was easy to
understand and caught on with customers. Over time, the Belgian waffle,
(23:46):
which he did not keep control of as a name,
evolved to be more like the waffles that US customers
had already been eating, and it got farther and farther
away from this handheld street food that Vermers had sold. Today,
a Belgian waffle has deep, deep pockets in it's waffle
texture to hold a lot of butter and toppings, and
(24:07):
it's a huge departure from the idea that they're supposed
to be so delicious and simple on their own that
they need few, if any, accouterment. You would be hard
pressed to carry most restaurant dishes that are described as
Belgian waffles around with you as you walk. Yeah. Yeah,
keep in mind they're actually supposed to be a handheld food.
(24:31):
There is we should mention another popular type of waffle
that hails from Belgium. It is a very different texture
in flavor. This is the Liga and it's named after
Liga Belgium. A Liga is denser and chewier, and this
version of a waffle, according to legend, has been around
since the Middle Ages, though it's only been documented since
the early nineteenth century. They are made with pearl sugar,
(24:53):
which comes in these dense clumps, and they don't dissolve
into the batter. Instead, pieces of pearl sugar normalized into
sweet bits throughout the waffle. Waffles have also inspired innovation
in non gastronomic areas. When Bill Bauerman, who was a
track coach at the University of Oregon, applied for a
patent for a shoe where the quote soul has short,
(25:16):
multi sided, polygon shaped studs which provide gripping edges that
give greatly improved traction. It used to waffle iron to
cast the textured soul. This gave birth to the Nike company,
and that shoe is part of the collection at the
Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. Can also find it
online if you just search Nike waffle trainer. Yeah. Uh.
(25:40):
In the US, August is National Waffle Day. That is
the day that Cornelia shore Out was granted his patent.
International Waffle Days March twenty five, and if that's not
enough waffle holiday action, you can also celebrate National Waffle
Iron Day on June twenty nine. And of course there's
a whole world of hastories that share culinary DNA with
(26:02):
waffles that we have not even touched on here, like
the Italian bizelle or the Middle Eastern jilebbie, and both
of those are deep fried. There's also Irish style waffles
which have a really crispy texture, and Korean style which
are really heavy on the dessert type toppings. Also a
range of savory waffles to really match any palette or preference.
(26:25):
Also some things that have nothing to do with waffles
that people describe as sort of inserta nationality here waffle,
like like Okonoma yaki, which is just not a thing
that's like a waffle in any way, but sometimes people
call them Japanese waffles, right yeah, uh yeah. Waffles are
international and have been adapted in a million different ways.
(26:47):
They're also like super fun different ways that restaurants and
chefs like to make their own twists on waffles. Um. Yeah,
I want to host a waffle for All, Like I
didn't the funny thing where I was doing Google searches
for waffle for all, Like, and there's apparently a restaurant
in Ithaca named Waffle Frolic, which I would love to
(27:09):
go to just for the name. Uh yeah. When you
when you mentioned waffle Frolic to me while you were
working on this, I kind of went down a whole
Waffle Frolic rabbit hole because I was like, you know,
slang changes over time, and if like if I read
a whole book series that was set in the nineteen
twenties and there was slang in it that I had
never heard before at all, and I was like, does
(27:32):
this mean something different? Than we listen. After all of
those risque hints, I started to wonder if waffle for
Alic wasn't code. But but it sounds like just a
delicious party. I have um listener mail which I can
draw a dotted line to related to waffles. It's about dogs,
(27:54):
but I will tell you that in my house growing up,
where my parents bred dogs for a while, uh, the
dogs got pancakes on Sunday right along with us, nice
fresh off the griddle. So it's kind of related. But
this is from our listener Ellen, who writes, Hi, Holly
and Tracy. I had a laugh today on my drive
home while listening to the listener mail responses at the
(28:16):
end of the Maria on a Mozart podcast. I have,
of course heard the black cats are the least popular
to adopt, but I've heard differently about the unpopular color
of dogs. We adopted a Chihuahua mix a couple of
years ago, and the rescue foundation we got her from
informed us that she was in fact least popular color
of dogs to be rescued. Her name is Pico and
she's beige or more accurately tan, but beige sounds fancier. Somehow,
(28:39):
My boyfriend and I are big believers in pet adoption.
We also have a black cat named Bit, and just
last week took in a barn kitten who we have
named Nano. I've attached pictures, of course, and I hope
they brighten your days. Stay strong through COVID. Thank you
for providing some entertainment for the masses. Ellen Um, Yeah,
I had not ever heard that beige uh dogs are
(29:00):
get to have a lower adoption rate. I don't, I
don't know. I um. I think all the dogs should
get adopted, but that's a hard bill to fill, I understand, um.
And also just yea for adopting rescue animals. It makes
me so happy to hear that all of these creatures
you're gonna a home that loves them and sends adorable
pictures of them. That cat is beautiful, we all know,
(29:23):
and frankly, this dog is super super cute. So Pico,
I don't know what held you up, but I'm glad
you landed where you did. If you would like to
write to us, you can do so. Please send pictures
of your dogs and kiddies. We love them. You can
do that at History podcast at i heeart radio dot com.
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(29:45):
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Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class, a production
of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Holly cry and I'm Tracy Vie Wilson. I'm gonna
make a confession right up front here. I cannot resist
the call of the novelty waffle iron. You can't. I
(00:23):
buy them that I don't need. I love them. And
that's actually how I became interested in waffles. I Um,
before I started buying things that would help me make
death Star waffles, I would have told you I was
a pancake person. I think just because I grew up
making with pancakes. Well, and you can also make pancakes
in fun shapes with little pancake molds. That's true, although
(00:44):
you don't usually get the same level of detail. But um,
both utterly delicious and I thought, you know, been a
weird year, let's throw in more fun episodes, and waffles
seemed like a good one. Waffles are, of course, very
popular and quite common lace on tables and as a
street food around the world, but they've evolved a whole
lot over time to become the syrup vehicles that most
(01:06):
of us think of them as. So today we're going
to take a peek at the waffles origins and the
various iterations of dough or batter cooked between two hot plates.
Humankind has been figuring out how to make hot cakes
really for millennia. All kinds of pulpy compositions of ground
grains cooked on hot rocks go all the way back
(01:27):
to the Neolithic Age. There is evidence of flat hot
cakes made from cereal grains flipped too and start cooking
on both sides during this time and really various cultures
all around the globe. Yeah, the waffle history, as we'll
talk about it is largely you know, European to develop
what we think of, but like everybody was figuring out
(01:48):
how to cook with grains and you know, sometimes a
little water and make paste that could make a little
flat cake. With the Iron age starting in cooking, of
course shifted as new tool were developed, including cooking plates
precursors you can think of them to the modern day griddle,
and people started cooking their flat cakes on those instead
(02:09):
of rocks. And sometimes they would even heat two iron
plates and then press batter between them for fast and
even cooking. So you can see how that's very much
like a waffle, just in a rudimentary kind of version.
I also like the part of history where we got
the upgrade of going from cooking stuff on rocks to
cooking stuff on surface made for cooking. Yes, and also
(02:32):
that we were like, let's mush them together and see
what that makes. The first iteration of what would eventually
evolve into what we would recognize as a waffle was
called oblios, and these cakes were first seen in ancient grease.
And these oblios are sort of proto waffles because they
(02:54):
were cooked in between two metal plates. They weren't really sweet.
They were kind of like a flat, at least simple cake.
But the plates that were used to make them did
often have designs on them. You can see pictures of
some of these kind of lacy designs. In some cases, Yeah,
they're very pretty. I will say this, oblios is an
(03:15):
interesting word because you will just as often see it
in relation to waffle history, where the L and the
e have been transposed, so it's like obelios. I think
someone made that switch somewhere along the line, and it
has propagated in both ways ever since. So if you're
(03:35):
ever looking at a thing and it's different, that's why
I went with the oblios version, because the next word
that we're going to talk about seems like a pretty
obvious transition from that word, which is ugli, which that
word evolved into over time as these flat cakes spread
throughout other cultures in Europe, and ubli is a French word,
(03:57):
and that spread was in large part because the Church
adopted these ubli as part of religious rituals and events.
So to be clear, these were not a replacement for
communion wafers, although the name ubli does mean wafers in French.
But instead they were kind of another edible item that
could be included in worships. So often it was the
finish to a meal with religious significance, or they were
(04:21):
served at the end of a religious service. Ubli were
made by specialists called a blur, who became experts at
using to metal plates to cook batter, and this batter
was often made with flour, a little bit of salt,
and wine instead of water. Ubili became established as a
straight food as these specialists would wait outside of churches
to sell their wares to members of the congregation as
(04:43):
they left, particularly on Saints Days and other important religious days.
These again weren't sweet. They were savory ubli, which were
often pretty large in season with herbs. Sometimes they would
be rolled into a cone shape to make them easier
to carry home. Yeah. I heard one description or read
one description where they were talking about how they were big.
(05:03):
They were like the size of a pizza, and I
was like, I suppose they're probably in some ways a relative, right,
It's a large, big thing that has some herbs sprinkled
on it. But uh, of course branching branching trees. Again,
there's no butter or syrup in sight here. These were
still very simple in terms of ingredients, and they were
usually made with barley or oat flour, but the design
(05:26):
started to get really ornate in medieval Europe. Some of
these designs mimicked sort of the patterns of stained glass.
Others recreated heraldry, and there were sometimes even more detailed scenes,
such as landscapes or even depictions of biblical stories. And
the twelve hundreds we also start to see early hints
of the waffle pattern developing. The old French word waffle
(05:49):
referred to a piece of honey beehive, and as these
honeycomb patterned flat cakes started to become popular, they were
called go fra. This is a French word for waffle
that was derived from the old French waffle, and at
this point in Europe, regardless of the design, waffles had
to be held over a fire to be baked, so
(06:10):
there was a degree of danger in their preparation. The
usage of the word waffle, we should note, also has
roots in other languages. There's waffle in Dutch, which just
has one f. There's weapon which means we've in Old English,
and there is vaba in Old High German. Yeah, you'll
see all of those words sometimes noted as the root
(06:32):
word for waffle, but all of those languages are kind
of being passed around and related um and as street
vending of waffles in France became more competitive, things also
got a bit contentious. By the time King Charles the ninth,
son of Catherine de Medici was ruling in the late
fifteen hundreds, this problem had escalated to such a degree
(06:52):
that the monarch actually had to make business regulations to
try to control the situation, and picturing fabulous obliah and
waffle fist fights, the main regulation that he came up
with coincidentally very similar to the social distancing rule we've
been facing in pandemic vendors had to stay six ft apart.
(07:12):
The competitive nature of selling gofro was driven by this
massive level of popularity. Of course, waffles crossed all socioeconomic lines,
and part because they were so adaptable. The wealthiest levels
of society enjoyed much flakier versions that were made with
egg and sometimes even sweetened with honey, and then poorer
classes had access to versions made with lesser quality flowers
(07:35):
and water without any of the ingredients that would really
make them into a crispy or fluffy delicacy. North America
was introduced to the Dutch waffles with one f thanks
to colonists who immigrated in the early decades of the
sixteen hundreds. For expectations management here, because I know people
are already thinking it stroop waffles were not invented yet.
(07:55):
We're going to come back to that, but it does
seem like at least some of the Dutch waffles were
definitely intended to be sweet rather than savory. In the
book Colonial Days in Old New York, written by Alice
Morse Earl in eight there's a description of what the
author calls a Dutch uma from the seventeenth century, which
(08:16):
was a sifter used to sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on
freshly made waffles. In seventeen five, Robert Smith published the
book Buckle Up for this name Court Cookery or the
Complete English cook containing the choicest and newest receipts for
(08:36):
making soups, pottages, freaka sees, harshes, farces, ragus, cullises, sauces,
forced meats and souss, with various ways of dressing most
sorts of flesh, fish and foul, wild and tame, with
the best methods of potting, coloring and pickling. As likewise
of paste, spies, pasties, patties, puddings, and they's, biscuits, creams, cheesecakes, florindans, cakes, jellies,
(09:04):
syllabubs and custards. Also of candy making and preserving, with
a bill of fare for every month in the year,
and the latest improvements in cookery, pastry, et cetera. There's
a lot of words. Uh. This heavily titled tone, published
in London, offers the first instance of the word waffle
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included in English language print, and the recipe that Smith
included for waffles is as follows. Quote take flour, cream
sack nutmegs, sugar, eggs, yeast of what quantity you will
mix these to a batter and let them stand to rise.
Then add a little melted butter and bake one to try.
If they burn, add more butter, melt butter with sac
(09:49):
refined sugar and orange flower water for the sauce. Uh
sac in this instance refers to cooking sherry. If you
had not heard that term before. I like that. The
solution to the I give you no measurements recipe if
it doesn't work, is just keep adding butter, putting more
butter in there. Yeah. So this base recipe has sugar,
(10:12):
and while Smith's book also offers a really yummy sounding
syrup recipe, waffles were also seen as a companion starts
to savory entrees. So you might make a waffle and
then ladle a stew on top of it, for example, Yummy,
I love a savory waffle. I'd eat that. Yeah. Nine
years later, in seventeen thirty four, a recipe for a
(10:33):
Dutch waffle, in this case called a Dutch wafer, appeared
in a cookbook by Mary Kettleby. This book is titled
a Collection of Above three hundred Receipts In cookery, physic
and surgery for the use of all good wives, tender mothers,
and careful nurses. And this recipe for what kettle be
called the right Dutch wafer shows the difference in the
(10:54):
Dutch style waffle of the time as being sweeter. It says,
take four eggs and beat them very well, and then
take a good spoonful of fine sugar, one nutmeg grated,
a pint of cream, and a pound of flour, a
pound of butter melted, two or three spoonfuls of rose water,
and two good spoonfuls of yeast. Mix all well together
(11:16):
and bake them and your wafer tongs on the fire.
For the sauce, take grated cinnamon, sack and melted butter,
sweetened to your taste delicious. We are going to talk
more about waffle irons in a moment, which was mentioned
in that recipe, but first we are going to pause
for a little sponsor break. We mentioned right before the
(11:42):
break in that recipe that Tracy read, uh, wafer tongs
and waffle irons by this point did indeed look sort
of like large tongs with a hinge near the two
cooking plates, and then long handles sometimes you know, a
couple of feet long. These irons would have been used
in an open heart, so those long handles in a
the cook to fill the base plate with batter, shut
the iron and then push it into the open flame
(12:04):
for cooking without risking their person getting too close or
up into the flame. And as kitchens transitioned to wood stoves,
those handles became shorter and the waffle irons started to
be placed on top of the stove to cook instead
of directly into a fire. The first waffle iron in
the US is often cited as arriving in seventeen eighty
nine thanks to Thomas Jefferson. He had been Minister to
(12:27):
France from seventeen eighty five up until he left in
seventeen eighty nine, that being hastened by the start of
the French Revolution, and he brought back two pieces of
cooking tech from Europe. There was a pasta maker and
a hinged, long handled waffle iron. However, this was not
the first waffle iron to cross the Atlantic. No, he
(12:48):
gets credit, and he may have caused a surge in popularity,
but they were already waffle irons here. Uh. We know
this because well before Jefferson is said to have brought
his waffle iron to the States, and in fact, before
the colonies gained independence from England, waffle frolics were popular
among the colonists. In seventeen forty four, what sounds like
(13:09):
an especially frolic, laden and perhaps risk a waffle frolic
in New York was described in a letter by twenty
one year old William Livingston, written to a miss Et
and dated November seventeenth of that year. Here's what it says. Quote,
we had the waffle frolic at Miss Walton's talked of
before your departure. The feast, as usual, was preceded by cards,
(13:31):
and the company so numerous that they filled two tables.
After a few games, a magnificent supper appeared in grand
order and decorum. But for my part, I was not
a little grieved that so luxurious a feast should come
under the name of a waffle frolic, because if this
be the case, I must expect but a few waffle
frolics for the future. The frolic was closed up with
(13:55):
ten sunburned virgins lately come from Columbus's Newfoundland. Besides the
play of my own invention, which I have not room
enough to describe at present. However, kissing constitutes a great
part of its entertainment. Livingston, in case you don't recognize
that name, went on to become the Governor of New
Jersey and was one of the signers of the U
(14:15):
s Constitution. That mention of virgins from Columbus's Newfoundland may
be referring to indigenous women. That of course, adds a
potentially rather unpleasant layer to this story. In sweeter developments, though.
In the city of Gouda, Netherlands, the first stroop waffles
are made in the early eighteen hundreds, and if you
have had these, you know they are made to resemble
(14:37):
breakfast waffles, but they're really kind of a cross between
a waffle and a cookie. They're made of a dough
that is pressed in an iron, and the story goes
that they were created when a baker combined syrup and
breadcrumbs together and then pressed them. These little waffle cousins
are normally either cooked or sliced to be very very thin,
and then layered like a sandwich with a caramel syrup filling,
(15:00):
and they are delicious. On August eighteen sixty nine, the
first waffle iron patent in the United States was issued,
which is US Patent number nine thousand and forty three.
It was granted to a man named Cornelius Swarthout. You'll
see his name spelled a few different names. We're going
with that one because I think it's the easiest to
(15:20):
pronounce uh. And this was given for what he called
an improvement on waffle irons that he developed in his
home in Troy, New York. So this iron had a
very heavy bass with the bottom waffle textured plate mounted
on it, and then another plate that sat on top
affixed with a hinge, so the waffle iron could open,
have the batter poured in, and then could flip so
(15:41):
each side like within the thing, it could flip so
that each side would get time close to the hot
surface of the stove, and then a finished, evenly cooked
waffle could be removed. The main improvement that was made
here was the inclusion of a handle and a clasp
to make flipping the plates a lot safer and easier.
You couldn't mismatched the plate lineup, there was less of
(16:02):
a risk of burns. Swartout described it like this quote,
The nature of my invention consistent providing a handle connected
with and forming part of a waffle iron, by means
of which the same may be readily turned over without
danger of slipping, and without the possibility of burning the hand.
It also consists in providing a device by means of
(16:24):
which the upper or a covering portion of a waffle
iron may be raised so as to expose the interior
for filling or for removing the waffle wind, done without
the danger of the cover slipping back, and without burning
the hand. That description probably sounds a lot like a
waffle iron you have used or you might use today,
(16:44):
and it really does look pretty familiar. But of course,
Holmes did not have electricity in eighteen sixty nine, and
this waffle iron still had to be placed on a
heat source, so, as we said, it was intended to
sit on a stovetop, and over the next several decades,
this basic type of waffle iron worked so well and
was so popular that it was widely produced for home use.
(17:05):
Waffle frolics or waffle parties had continued to be popular
right through the nineteenth century and then into seven book
titled Suppers Novel Suggestions for Social Occasions. Author Paul Pierce
lays out a detailed plan for hosting a perfect waffle party.
And while this is billed as a perfect way to
host a party for an apartment dweller without a big kitchen,
(17:26):
it's really no simple affair at all. No, there's so
many steps uh and Pierce's Perfect Waffle Party instructions, star
wars and pretty involved invitations. Quote of cream white satin
fashioned in the exact shape and size of a waffle section,
padded with white cotton wadding and tacked to simulate the
meeting place of the irons. They are then scorched the
(17:49):
right color with a hot iron and on them is
printed in CPIA tints Come and eat me. The date
and address details are printed on the reverse. I don't
know why that struck me as fun. It's a very
involved invitation and also again a little risque. By the way,
(18:10):
this perfect party plan also includes the printing of a
quote much praised recipe for waffles to be placed at
each guest spot. And then the hosts assigns a utensil
to each guest and they complete the recipe assembly line
style as a team. Then the guests are seated with
teams of two pouring the batter and monitoring the cooking
(18:30):
on a rotating basis while other courses, including veal are served.
The doors to the kitchen are to be propped open
throughout all this so that the team's minding the waffle
cooking in the kitchen do not feel left out. It's
a cute, little uh instruction for how to make a
fun party with waffles. I would do it. I'm not
(18:51):
making those complex um invites though, I'm not quilting a
bunch of satin into waffles. The first electrical waffle iron
was pretty used in the early nineteen hundreds, and it
is believed that the Simplex Electrical Company was the first
to make one. This Boston, Massachusetts manufacturer created an iron
that made circular waffles, but the unit itself was rectangular.
(19:12):
It had a front row of plates that folded onto
the back row to create the closed cooking surface. This,
in write ups sounds like it was not really a
safe product. The regulations around electrical appliances that are in
place today, for example, did not yet exist, so like
during the flipping, they were like electrical contacts that would
be exposed. But we should say that Simplex did go
(19:34):
on to make other safer models, though, and General Electric
usually gets the credit for making the first electrical waffle iron,
which the company did in nineteen eleven, designed by Thomas J. Stockbeck,
but this was really a prototype. The company did not
start production of waffle irons to sell for home use
until the late nineteen teens. Waffle popularity continued to grow
(19:58):
in the US in the early half of the t
a century, so much so that manufacturers started making waffle
irons that were meant to be visually pleasing as well
as functional, so they could be used right at the
table and they would fit into the rest of the
china and tableware and be just as pretty as anything else.
Some of these had decorated porcelain exteriors, and they were
sold with breakfast sets that included coffee service, as well
(20:20):
as various specialized bowls to include batter. You could pour
that right into the iron by the person who was
being served, so you would get a fresh, hot waffle.
There were all kinds of interesting waffle developments from the
nineteen thirties on. We will talk about them after we
hear from the sponsors who keep our show going. In
(20:48):
eight Well Supper Club opened in Harlem, New York and
it catered to the musician crowd, staying open late into
the night. The story goes that because a lot of
their clientele was getting there too late for dinner and
too early for breakfast, the two meals found a crossover
in fried chicken and waffles, which has since become popular
around the country. I will also say this, you will
see it kind of casually referenced as something that developed
(21:12):
as a like cast off food from waffle parties were
combined by people who were either enslaved or we're working
as service staff in homes, but that's not really well documented.
This we know definitely happened. Also chicken and waffles delicious.
In nineteen fifty three, the first frozen waffles called fruffles
(21:34):
were introduced by three brothers. They were Tony, Sam and
Frank Dorsea. These frozen waffles were the third invention of
the Dorset brothers, and they had also created a mayonnaise
and a dry waffle mix, and they were doing that
under the name Ego. Because of the egg content in
the Mannai's, most people started calling the froffles by the
(21:55):
name Egos, which the Dorses just adopted as the new product. Name.
The Ego company was bought by Kellogg's in the early
nineteen seventies and now produces a vast array of waffles
and other frozen breakfast products that's still going. The Belgian
waffle might surprise you and how late it joins this story.
(22:16):
In nineteen sixty four, at the World's Fairing Queens, New York,
Maurice Formersh and his family set up a waffle booth
in the Belgian Village pavilion. Their booth signage read Brussels
Waffles a bell Gym product that's b E L D
g E M for Mercia's waffles were light and fluffy,
crisp on the outside, and then they would melt in
your mouth. Visitors to the expo could buy them plain
(22:39):
or with a little bit of whip cream and fresh
strawberry slices. This was actually not their real introduction, Vermersh
had sold them at a smaller booth at the Seattle
World's Fair two years earlier to kind of test the waters.
But this treat took off in New York, and so
that's usually noted as the birth of the Belgian waffles popularity.
To most of the customers, this pastry was just a revelation.
(23:02):
The waffles that were normally served in the US were
a lot heavier. They tended to be topped with a
bunch of syrup and butter. Charging a dollar per waffle.
The Vermercias needed to keep two dozen waffle irons going
and have ten people come help them slice strawberries just
to keep up with the orders. Yeah, it's one of
those things that gets listed. Is like one of the
(23:23):
most popular things at the World's Fair that year. Maurice
Vermers didn't notice, however, that a lot of people didn't
understand why they were called Brussels waffles. They didn't really
get that his version of waffles was a family recipe
developed from a regional style in Belgium. So he just
started calling them Belgian waffles and that was easy to
understand and caught on with customers. Over time, the Belgian waffle,
(23:46):
which he did not keep control of as a name,
evolved to be more like the waffles that US customers
had already been eating, and it got farther and farther
away from this handheld street food that Vermers had sold. Today,
a Belgian waffle has deep, deep pockets in it's waffle
texture to hold a lot of butter and toppings, and
(24:07):
it's a huge departure from the idea that they're supposed
to be so delicious and simple on their own that
they need few, if any, accouterment. You would be hard
pressed to carry most restaurant dishes that are described as
Belgian waffles around with you as you walk. Yeah. Yeah,
keep in mind they're actually supposed to be a handheld food.
(24:31):
There is we should mention another popular type of waffle
that hails from Belgium. It is a very different texture
in flavor. This is the Liga and it's named after
Liga Belgium. A Liga is denser and chewier, and this
version of a waffle, according to legend, has been around
since the Middle Ages, though it's only been documented since
the early nineteenth century. They are made with pearl sugar,
(24:53):
which comes in these dense clumps, and they don't dissolve
into the batter. Instead, pieces of pearl sugar normalized into
sweet bits throughout the waffle. Waffles have also inspired innovation
in non gastronomic areas. When Bill Bauerman, who was a
track coach at the University of Oregon, applied for a
patent for a shoe where the quote soul has short,
(25:16):
multi sided, polygon shaped studs which provide gripping edges that
give greatly improved traction. It used to waffle iron to
cast the textured soul. This gave birth to the Nike company,
and that shoe is part of the collection at the
Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. Can also find it
online if you just search Nike waffle trainer. Yeah. Uh.
(25:40):
In the US, August is National Waffle Day. That is
the day that Cornelia shore Out was granted his patent.
International Waffle Days March twenty five, and if that's not
enough waffle holiday action, you can also celebrate National Waffle
Iron Day on June twenty nine. And of course there's
a whole world of hastories that share culinary DNA with
(26:02):
waffles that we have not even touched on here, like
the Italian bizelle or the Middle Eastern jilebbie, and both
of those are deep fried. There's also Irish style waffles
which have a really crispy texture, and Korean style which
are really heavy on the dessert type toppings. Also a
range of savory waffles to really match any palette or preference.
(26:25):
Also some things that have nothing to do with waffles
that people describe as sort of inserta nationality here waffle,
like like Okonoma yaki, which is just not a thing
that's like a waffle in any way, but sometimes people
call them Japanese waffles, right yeah, uh yeah. Waffles are
international and have been adapted in a million different ways.
(26:47):
They're also like super fun different ways that restaurants and
chefs like to make their own twists on waffles. Um. Yeah,
I want to host a waffle for All, Like I
didn't the funny thing where I was doing Google searches
for waffle for all, Like, and there's apparently a restaurant
in Ithaca named Waffle Frolic, which I would love to
(27:09):
go to just for the name. Uh yeah. When you
when you mentioned waffle Frolic to me while you were
working on this, I kind of went down a whole
Waffle Frolic rabbit hole because I was like, you know,
slang changes over time, and if like if I read
a whole book series that was set in the nineteen
twenties and there was slang in it that I had
never heard before at all, and I was like, does
(27:32):
this mean something different? Than we listen. After all of
those risque hints, I started to wonder if waffle for
Alic wasn't code. But but it sounds like just a
delicious party. I have um listener mail which I can
draw a dotted line to related to waffles. It's about dogs,
(27:54):
but I will tell you that in my house growing up,
where my parents bred dogs for a while, uh, the
dogs got pancakes on Sunday right along with us, nice
fresh off the griddle. So it's kind of related. But
this is from our listener Ellen, who writes, Hi, Holly
and Tracy. I had a laugh today on my drive
home while listening to the listener mail responses at the
(28:16):
end of the Maria on a Mozart podcast. I have,
of course heard the black cats are the least popular
to adopt, but I've heard differently about the unpopular color
of dogs. We adopted a Chihuahua mix a couple of
years ago, and the rescue foundation we got her from
informed us that she was in fact least popular color
of dogs to be rescued. Her name is Pico and
she's beige or more accurately tan, but beige sounds fancier. Somehow,
(28:39):
My boyfriend and I are big believers in pet adoption.
We also have a black cat named Bit, and just
last week took in a barn kitten who we have
named Nano. I've attached pictures, of course, and I hope
they brighten your days. Stay strong through COVID. Thank you
for providing some entertainment for the masses. Ellen Um, Yeah,
I had not ever heard that beige uh dogs are
(29:00):
get to have a lower adoption rate. I don't, I
don't know. I um. I think all the dogs should
get adopted, but that's a hard bill to fill, I understand, um.
And also just yea for adopting rescue animals. It makes
me so happy to hear that all of these creatures
you're gonna a home that loves them and sends adorable
pictures of them. That cat is beautiful, we all know,
(29:23):
and frankly, this dog is super super cute. So Pico,
I don't know what held you up, but I'm glad
you landed where you did. If you would like to
write to us, you can do so. Please send pictures
of your dogs and kiddies. We love them. You can
do that at History podcast at i heeart radio dot com.
You can also find us pretty much everywhere on social
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(29:45):
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Hosts And Creators
Tracy V. Wilson
Holly Frey
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