WEBVTT - SYMHC Classics: Waffles 0:00:02.520 --> 0:00:06.320 Happy Saturday. It is National Waffle Day in the United States, 0:00:06.400 --> 0:00:10.000 commemorating the first US patent on a waffle iron that 0:00:10.080 --> 0:00:13.600 was issued August twenty fourth, eighteen sixty nine. There are 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:16.919 also other days observed as Waffle Day, including March twenty 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:19.960 fifth in some parts of the world. So our episode 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:24.040 on waffles is Today's Saturday Classic. This originally came out 0:00:24.079 --> 0:00:31.080 December ninth, twenty twenty. Enjoy Welcome to Stuff You Missed 0:00:31.120 --> 0:00:41.240 in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome 0:00:41.240 --> 0:00:44.400 to the podcast. I'm Holly Frye and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:46.800 I'm going to make a confession right up front here. 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:50.720 I cannot resist the call of the novelty waffle iron. 0:00:50.880 --> 0:00:54.279 You can't. I buy them that I don't need. I 0:00:54.320 --> 0:00:57.400 love them. And that's actually how I became interested in waffles. 0:00:57.600 --> 0:01:01.480 I before I started buying things that would help me 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:03.600 make death Star waffles, I would have told you I 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:05.880 was a pancake person. I think just because I grew 0:01:05.959 --> 0:01:09.240 up with pancakes well, and you can also make pancakes 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:13.240 in fun shapes with little pancake molds. That's true, although 0:01:13.280 --> 0:01:15.399 you don't usually get the same level of detail, but 0:01:16.560 --> 0:01:21.040 both utterly delicious and I thought, you know, twenty twenty 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:24.000 has been a weird year, let's throw in more fun episodes, 0:01:24.000 --> 0:01:26.640 and waffle seemed like a good one. Waffles are, of 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:29.800 course very popular and quite commonplace on tables and as 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:32.280 a street food around the world, but they've evolved a 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:34.840 whole lot over time to become the syrup vehicle that 0:01:34.959 --> 0:01:37.520 most of us think of the mass. So today we're 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:39.480 going to take a peek at the waffles origins and 0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:43.240 the various iterations of dough or batter cooked between two 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:47.440 hot plates. Humankind has been figuring out how to make 0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:51.880 hot cakes really for millennia. All kinds of pulpy compositions 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:55.480 ground grains cooked on hot rocks go all the way 0:01:55.480 --> 0:01:58.880 back to the Neolithic Age. There is evidence the flat 0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:02.960 hot cakes made for cereal grains flipped to ensure cooking 0:02:03.000 --> 0:02:06.920 on both sides during this time and really various cultures 0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:10.760 all around the globe. Yeah, the waffle history, as we'll 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:13.520 talk about it, is largely you know, European to develop 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:16.760 what we think of, but like everybody was figuring out 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:19.560 how to cook with grains and you know, sometimes a 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:22.040 little water and make paste that could make a little 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:25.840 flat cake with the iron age. Starting in twelve hundred BCE, 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:29.720 cooking of course shifted as new tools were developed, including 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:33.040 cooking plates precursors you could think of them to the 0:02:33.040 --> 0:02:36.600 modern day griddle, and people started cooking their flat cakes 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:39.359 on those instead of rocks. And sometimes they would even 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:43.000 heat two iron plates and then press batter between them 0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:45.280 for fast and even cooking. So you can see how 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:47.679 that's very much like a waffle, just in a rudimentary 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:51.840 kind of version. I also like the part of history 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:55.400 where we got the upgrade of going from cooking stuff 0:02:55.400 --> 0:03:00.359 on rocks to cooking stuff on surface made for cooking. Yes, 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:03.160 and also that we were like, let's mush them together 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:07.800 and see what that makes. The first iteration of what 0:03:07.840 --> 0:03:11.760 would eventually evolve into what we would recognize as a 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:17.000 waffle was called oblios, and these cakes were first seen 0:03:17.040 --> 0:03:21.079 in ancient Greece. And these oblios are sort of proto 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:25.120 waffles because they were cooked in between two metal plates. 0:03:25.800 --> 0:03:28.320 They weren't really sweet, they were kind of like a flat, 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:31.280 really simple cake, but the plates that were used to 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:34.639 make them did often have designs on them. You can 0:03:34.639 --> 0:03:38.960 see pictures of some of these kind of lacy designs. 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:42.400 In some cases, yeah, they're very pretty. I will say this, 0:03:42.920 --> 0:03:45.880 oblios is an interesting word because you will just as 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:49.200 often see it in relation to waffle history, where the 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:55.240 L and the e have been transposed, So it's like obelios. Uh. 0:03:55.920 --> 0:04:00.000 I think someone made that switch somewhere along the line 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:03.920 and it has propagated in both ways ever since. So 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:06.480 if you're ever looking at a thing and it's different, 0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:10.560 that's why I went with the oblio's version. Because the 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:12.440 next word that we're going to talk about seems like 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:17.479 a pretty obvious transition from that word, which is ubli, 0:04:18.480 --> 0:04:21.400 which that word evolved into over time as these flat 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:25.240 cakes spread throughout other cultures in Europe, and ubli is 0:04:25.600 --> 0:04:27.960 a French word, and that spread was in large part 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:31.520 because the Catholic Church adopted these ubli as part of 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:34.640 religious rituals and events. So to be clear, these were 0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:38.160 not a replacement for communion wafers, although the name ubli 0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:41.720 does mean wafers in French. But instead they were kind 0:04:41.720 --> 0:04:44.880 of another edible item that could be included in warships. 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:47.000 So often it was the finish to a meal with 0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:50.440 religious significance, or they were served at the end of 0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:55.000 a religious service. Ubli were made by specialists called oblo yure, 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:58.520 who became experts at using two metal plates to cook batter, 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:01.400 and this batter was off made with flour, a little 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:05.320 bit of salt and wine instead of water. Ubili became 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:08.480 established as a street food, as these specialists would wait 0:05:08.520 --> 0:05:11.280 outside of churches to sell their wares to members of 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:14.760 the congregation as they left, particularly on Saint's Days and 0:05:14.800 --> 0:05:18.480 other important religious days. These again weren't sweet. They were 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:22.159 savory ubili, which were often pretty large and seasoned with herbs. 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:25.120 Sometimes they would be rolled into a cone shape to 0:05:25.160 --> 0:05:28.760 make them easier to carry home. Yeah. I heard one 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:31.599 description or read one description where they were talking about 0:05:31.600 --> 0:05:33.200 how they were big. They were like the size of 0:05:33.200 --> 0:05:37.000 a pizza, and I was like, I suppose they're probably 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:39.400 in some ways a relative, right. It's a large, big 0:05:39.440 --> 0:05:42.880 thing that has some herbs sprinkled on it, but of 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:47.040 course branching branching trees. Again, there's no butter or syrup 0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:49.599 in sight here. These were still very simple in terms 0:05:49.600 --> 0:05:52.880 of ingredients and they were usually made with barleyer oat flour, 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:57.480 but the designs started to get really ornate in medieval Europe. 0:05:58.040 --> 0:06:01.680 Some of these designs mimicked the patterns of stained glass, 0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:06.239 others recreated heraldry, and there were sometimes even more detailed scenes, 0:06:06.279 --> 0:06:10.200 such as landscapes or even depictions of biblical stories. In 0:06:10.240 --> 0:06:13.360 the twelve hundreds we also start to see early hints 0:06:13.440 --> 0:06:17.919 of the waffle pattern developing. The old French word waffla 0:06:18.040 --> 0:06:20.440 referred to a piece of honey beehive, and as these 0:06:20.520 --> 0:06:25.080 honeycomb patterned flat cakes started to become popular, they were 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:28.960 called gofre. This is a French word for waffle that 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:32.800 was derived from the old French waffla, and at this 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:36.279 point in Europe, regardless of the design, waffles had to 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:38.960 be held over a fire to be baked, so there 0:06:39.000 --> 0:06:43.040 was a degree of danger in their preparation. The usage 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:45.640 of the word waffle, we should note, also has roots 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:49.600 in other languages. There's waffle in Dutch, which just has 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:53.560 one f. There's weffin which means weave in Old English, 0:06:53.640 --> 0:06:57.160 and there is vaba in Old High German. Yeah, you'll 0:06:57.200 --> 0:07:00.360 see all of those words sometimes noted as the the 0:07:00.520 --> 0:07:03.440 root word for waffle, but all of those languages are 0:07:03.480 --> 0:07:07.039 kind of being passed around and related and as street 0:07:07.120 --> 0:07:11.559 vending of waffles in France became more competitive. Things also 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:14.480 got a bit contentious. By the time King Charles, the 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:16.920 ninth son of Catherine de Medici was ruling in the 0:07:17.000 --> 0:07:20.600 late fifteen hundreds, this problem had escalated to such a 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:23.880 degree that the monarch actually had to make business regulations 0:07:23.920 --> 0:07:28.440 to try to control the situation and picturing fabulous oublier 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:32.080 and waffle fist fights. The main regulation that he came 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:35.760 up with, coincidentally was very similar to the social distancing 0:07:35.840 --> 0:07:39.280 rule we've been facing in pandemic Vendors had to stay 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:43.800 six feet apart. The competitive nature of selling gophro was 0:07:43.880 --> 0:07:48.000 driven by this massive level of popularity. Of course, waffles 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:52.120 crossed all socioeconomic lines, in part because they were so adaptable. 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:56.600 The wealthiest levels of society enjoyed much flakier versions that 0:07:56.640 --> 0:07:59.600 were made with egg and sometimes even sweetened with honey, 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:02.800 and then poorer classes had access to versions made with 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:06.800 lesser quality flowers and water without any of the ingredients 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:10.080 that would really make them into a crispy or fluffy delicacy. 0:08:10.800 --> 0:08:13.920 North America was introduced to the Dutch waffles with one 0:08:14.080 --> 0:08:17.080 f thanks to colonists who immigrated in the early decades 0:08:17.120 --> 0:08:21.080 of the sixteen hundreds for expectations management here, because I 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:23.640 know people are already thinking it stroop waffles were not 0:08:23.680 --> 0:08:26.400 invented yet. Were going to come back to that, but 0:08:26.480 --> 0:08:28.880 it does seem like at least some of these Dutch 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:32.520 waffles were definitely intended to be sweet rather than savory. 0:08:33.160 --> 0:08:35.960 In the book Colonial Days in Old New York, written 0:08:35.960 --> 0:08:39.000 by Alice Morse Earl in eighteen ninety six, there's a 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:42.280 description of what the author calls a Dutch uma from 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:46.200 the seventeenth century, which was a sifter used to sprinkle 0:08:46.240 --> 0:08:50.880 cinnamon and sugar on freshly made waffles. In seventeen twenty five, 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:55.360 Robert Smith published the book Buckle Up for this name 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:03.440 Court Cookery, The Complete English cook containing the choicest and 0:09:03.520 --> 0:09:11.240 newest receipts for making soups, pottages, frickaseas, harshes, farces, ragus, cullises, sauces, 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:16.040 forced meats and souses, with various ways of dressing most 0:09:16.160 --> 0:09:19.560 sorts of flesh, fish and fowl, wild and tame, with 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:24.079 the best methods of potting, collaring and pickling. As likewise 0:09:24.200 --> 0:09:33.320 of pastes, pies, pasties, patties, puddings, tansies, biscuits, creams, cheesecakes, florindines, cakes, jellies, 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:38.440 syllabubs and custards. Also of candy making and preserving, with 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:41.400 a bill of fare for every month in the year, 0:09:41.520 --> 0:09:46.920 and the latest improvements in cookery, pastry, et cetera. Whush, 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:51.960 there's a lot of words. This heavily titled tome, published 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:55.000 in London, offers the first instance of the word waffle 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:58.520 included in English language print, and the recipe that Smith 0:09:58.559 --> 0:10:04.920 included for waffles is as follows. Quote take flour, cream sack, nutmeg, sugar, eggs, 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:08.560 yeast of what quantity you will mix these to a 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:12.000 batter and let them stand to rise. Then add a 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:15.240 little melted butter and bake one to try. If they burn, 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:19.120 add more butter. Melt butter with sac refined sugar and 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:22.880 orange flour water for the sauce. Uh sack in this 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:25.559 instance refers to cooking sherry. If you had not heard 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:28.880 that term before, I like that. The solution to the 0:10:29.000 --> 0:10:33.040 I give you no measurements recipe if it doesn't work 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:35.680 is just keep adding butter, keep putting more butter in there. Yeah. 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:41.760 So this base recipe has sugar and while Smith's book 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:45.600 also offers a really yummy sounding syrup recipe. Waffles were 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:49.320 also seen as a companion starts to savory entrees, so 0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:52.040 you might make a waffle and then ladle a stew 0:10:52.160 --> 0:10:56.320 on top of it, for example, Yummy, I love a 0:10:56.360 --> 0:11:00.040 savory waffle. I'd eat that. Yeah. Nine years later, in 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:03.040 seventeen thirty four, a recipe for a Dutch waffle, in 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:06.520 this case called a Dutch wafer, appeared in a cookbook 0:11:06.520 --> 0:11:09.960 by Mary Kettleby. This book is titled a Collection of 0:11:10.000 --> 0:11:13.680 above three hundred Receipts in Cookery, physic and Surgery for 0:11:13.760 --> 0:11:17.120 the use of all good wives, tender mothers, and careful nurses. 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:20.959 And this recipe for what Kettleby called the right Dutch 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:24.040 Wafer shows the difference in the Dutch style waffle of 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:28.120 the time as being sweeter. It says, take four eggs 0:11:28.160 --> 0:11:30.160 and beat them very well, and then take a good 0:11:30.160 --> 0:11:34.679 spoonful of fine sugar, one nutmeg grated, a pint of cream, 0:11:35.120 --> 0:11:38.040 and a pound of flour, a pound of butter melted, 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:41.320 two or three spoonfuls of rose water, and two good 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:45.280 spoonfuls of yeast. Mix all well together and bake them 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:49.280 in your wafer tongs on the fire. For the sauce, 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:52.959 take grated cinnamon sack and melted butter, sweetened to your 0:11:53.000 --> 0:11:57.320 taste delicious. We are going to talk more about waffle 0:11:57.320 --> 0:11:59.679 irons in a moment, which was mentioned in that recipe, 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:01.360 but for we are going to pause for a little 0:12:01.360 --> 0:12:13.360 sponsor break. We mentioned right before the break in that 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:17.400 recipe that Tracy read, uh, wafer tongs and waffle irons 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:19.800 by this point did indeed look sort of like large 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:22.800 tongs with a hinge near the two cooking plates, and 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:25.360 then long handles sometimes you know, a couple feet long. 0:12:26.360 --> 0:12:28.600 These irons would have been used in an open hearts 0:12:28.720 --> 0:12:31.480 so those long handles enabled the cook to fill the 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:33.880 base plate with batter, shut the iron, and then push 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:36.640 it into the open flame for cooking without risking their 0:12:36.679 --> 0:12:39.720 person getting too close or up into the flame. And 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:43.320 as kitchens transitioned to wood stoves, those handles became shorter 0:12:43.559 --> 0:12:45.920 and the waffle iron started to be placed on top 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:49.120 of the stove to cook instead of directly into a fire. 0:12:49.720 --> 0:12:52.720 The first waffle iron in the US is often cited 0:12:52.760 --> 0:12:56.479 as arriving in seventeen eighty nine thanks to Thomas Jefferson. 0:12:57.080 --> 0:12:59.960 He had been Minister to France from seventeen eighty five 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:03.160 up until he left in seventeen eighty nine, that being 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:06.000 hastened by the start of the French Revolution, and he 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:08.959 brought back two pieces of cooking tech from Europe. There 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:13.960 was a pasta maker and a hinged, long handled waffle iron. However, 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:18.800 this was not the first waffle iron to cross the Atlantic. No, 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:21.320 he gets credit, and he may have caused a surge 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:25.320 in popularity, but there were already waffle irons here. We 0:13:25.440 --> 0:13:28.000 know this because well before Jefferson is said to have 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:30.920 brought his waffle iron to the States, and in fact 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:35.160 before the colonies gained independence from England, waffle frolics were 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:40.240 popular among the colonists. In seventeen forty four, what sounds 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:44.560 like an especially frolic laden and perhaps risky waffle frolic 0:13:44.640 --> 0:13:47.319 in New York was described in a letter by twenty 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:50.160 one year old William Livingston, written to a Miss E 0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:54.320 t and dated November seventeenth of that year. Here's what 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:57.200 it says. Quote, we had the waffle frolic at Miss 0:13:57.280 --> 0:14:00.920 Walton's talked of before your departure. The feast as usual 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:03.920 was preceded by cards, and the company so numerous that 0:14:03.960 --> 0:14:07.400 they filled two tables. After a few games, a magnificent 0:14:07.520 --> 0:14:11.600 supper appeared in grand order in decorum. But for my part, 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:14.280 I was not a little grieved that so luxurious a 0:14:14.320 --> 0:14:16.959 feast should come under the name of a waffle frolic, 0:14:17.600 --> 0:14:20.600 because if this be the case, I must expect but 0:14:20.720 --> 0:14:24.120 a few waffle frolics for the future. The frolic was 0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:30.200 closed up with ten sunburnt virgins lately come from Columbus's Newfoundland. 0:14:31.040 --> 0:14:33.400 Besides a play of my own invention, which I have 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:37.760 not room enough to describe at present, However, kissing constitutes 0:14:37.880 --> 0:14:41.200 a great part of its entertainment. Livingston, in case you 0:14:41.200 --> 0:14:43.400 don't recognize that name, went on to become the Governor 0:14:43.440 --> 0:14:45.640 of New Jersey and was one of the signers of 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:50.840 the US Constitution. That mention of virgins from Columbus's Newfoundland 0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:54.200 maybe referring to indigenous women. That, of course, adds a 0:14:54.240 --> 0:14:58.920 potentially rather unpleasant layer to this story. In sweeter developments, though, 0:14:58.960 --> 0:15:02.520 in the city of Gudha, the Netherlands, the first Stroup 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:05.000 waffles are made in the early eighteen hundreds, and if 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:07.320 you have had these you know, they are made to 0:15:07.520 --> 0:15:10.640 resemble breakfast waffles, but they're really kind of a cross 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:13.320 between a waffle and a cookie. They're made of a 0:15:13.360 --> 0:15:15.800 dough that is pressed in an iron, and the story 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:18.720 goes that they were created when a baker combined syrup 0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:22.800 and breadcrumbs together and then pressed them. These little waffle 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:25.760 cousins are normally either cooked or sliced to be very 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:28.520 very thin, and then layered like a sandwich with a 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:34.800 caramel syrup filling, and they are delicious. On August twenty fourth, 0:15:34.840 --> 0:15:37.800 eighteen sixty nine, the first waffle iron patent in the 0:15:37.880 --> 0:15:41.240 United States was issued, which is US Patent number ninety 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:45.200 four thousand and forty three. It was granted to a 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:48.320 man named Cornelius Swarthout. You'll see his name spelled a 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:50.280 few different names. We're going with that one because I 0:15:50.280 --> 0:15:53.720 think it's the easiest to pronounce. And this was given 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:57.240 for what he called an improvement on waffle irons that 0:15:57.320 --> 0:16:00.120 he developed in his home in Troy, New York. So 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:02.320 this iron had a very heavy base with the bottom 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:05.200 waffle textured plate mounted on it, and then another plate 0:16:05.240 --> 0:16:07.680 that sat on top affixed with a hinge. So the 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:10.440 waffle iron could open, have the batter poured in, and 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:14.160 then could flip so each side like within the thing, 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:16.600 It could flip so that each side would get time 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:19.120 close to the hot surface of the stove, and then 0:16:19.160 --> 0:16:22.760 a finished, evenly cooked waffle could be removed. The main 0:16:22.840 --> 0:16:25.480 improvement that was made here was the inclusion of a 0:16:25.560 --> 0:16:28.440 handle and a clasp to make flipping the plates a 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:32.000 lot safer and easier. You couldn't mismatch the plate line up, 0:16:32.480 --> 0:16:36.040 there was less of a risk of burns. Swarthout described 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:38.960 it like this quote. The nature of my invention consists 0:16:39.000 --> 0:16:42.120 in providing a handle connected with and forming part of 0:16:42.160 --> 0:16:45.440 a waffle iron, by means of which the same may 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:48.600 be readily turned over without danger of slipping, and without 0:16:48.600 --> 0:16:52.440 the possibility of burning the hand. It also consists in 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:55.640 providing a device by means of which the upper or 0:16:55.800 --> 0:16:58.960 covering portion of a waffle iron may be raised so 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:02.800 as to expose it was the interior for filling or 0:17:02.840 --> 0:17:05.919 for removing the waffle wind done without the danger of 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:09.399 the cover slipping back, and without burning the hand. That 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:12.800 description probably sounds a lot like a waffle iron you 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:15.440 have used, or you might use today, And it really 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:18.159 does look pretty familiar. But of course, homes did not 0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:21.639 have electricity in eighteen sixty nine, and this waffle iron 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:23.960 still had to be placed on a heat source. So, 0:17:24.119 --> 0:17:26.600 as we said, it was intended to sit on a stovetop. 0:17:27.280 --> 0:17:29.600 And over the next several decades, this basic type of 0:17:29.640 --> 0:17:33.359 waffle iron worked so well and was so popular that 0:17:33.440 --> 0:17:37.080 it was widely produced for home use. Waffle frolics or 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:40.040 waffle parties had continued to be popular right through the 0:17:40.119 --> 0:17:43.159 nineteenth century and then into the twentieth. In a nineteen 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:47.480 oh seven book titled Suppers Novel Suggestions for Social Occasions, 0:17:47.560 --> 0:17:50.679 author Paul Pierce lays out a detailed plan for hosting 0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:53.520 a perfect waffle party. And while this is built as 0:17:53.560 --> 0:17:55.880 a perfect way to host a party for an apartment 0:17:55.920 --> 0:17:59.000 dweller without a big kitchen, it's really no simple affair 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:03.280 at all. No, there's so many steps, and Pierce's perfect 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:07.720 waffle party instructions star wars some pretty involved invitations. Quote 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:11.239 of cream white satin fashioned in the exact shape and 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:14.880 size of a waffle section, padded with white cotton wadding 0:18:14.960 --> 0:18:17.760 and tacked to simulate the meeting place of the irons. 0:18:18.440 --> 0:18:20.920 They are then scorched the right color with a hot 0:18:20.960 --> 0:18:24.240 iron and on them is printed in sepia tints. Come 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:27.760 and eat me. The date and address details are printed 0:18:27.800 --> 0:18:32.919 on the reverse. I don't know why that struck me 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:37.320 as fun. It's a very involved invitation and also again 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:41.960 a little riskye by the way, this perfect party plan 0:18:42.040 --> 0:18:45.679 also includes the printing of a quote much praised recipe 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:49.040 for waffles to be placed at each guest's spot, and 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:52.480 then the hosts assigns a utensil to each guest and 0:18:52.520 --> 0:18:55.960 they complete the recipe assembly line style as a team. 0:18:56.720 --> 0:18:59.560 Then the guests are seated with teams of two pouring 0:18:59.600 --> 0:19:02.840 the bat and monitoring the cooking on a rotating basis 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:07.480 while other courses, including veal, are served. The doors to 0:19:07.520 --> 0:19:09.760 the kitchen are to be propped open throughout all this 0:19:09.880 --> 0:19:12.480 so that the teams minding the waffle cooking in the 0:19:12.560 --> 0:19:16.000 kitchen do not feel left out. It's a cute little 0:19:17.160 --> 0:19:20.160 instruction for how to make a fun party with waffles. 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:24.400 I would do it. I'm not making those complex invites though, 0:19:24.400 --> 0:19:27.359 I'm not quilting a bunch of satin into waffles. But 0:19:27.800 --> 0:19:31.040 the first electrical waffle iron was produced in the early 0:19:31.119 --> 0:19:34.080 nineteen hundreds, and it is believed that the Simplex Electrical 0:19:34.119 --> 0:19:37.600 Company was the first to make one. This Boston, Massachusetts 0:19:37.640 --> 0:19:40.800 manufacturer created an iron that made circular waffles, but the 0:19:40.920 --> 0:19:43.919 unit itself was rectangular. It had a front row of 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:46.600 plates that folded onto the back row to create the 0:19:46.640 --> 0:19:51.359 closed cooking surface. This in write up sounds like it 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:54.720 was not really a safe product. The regulations around electrical 0:19:54.760 --> 0:19:57.119 appliances that are in place today, for example, did not 0:19:57.200 --> 0:20:00.879 yet exist, so like during the flipping, there were like 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:04.360 electrical contacts that would be exposed. But we should say 0:20:04.359 --> 0:20:07.520 that Simplex did go on to make other safer models though, 0:20:08.040 --> 0:20:11.199 and General Electric usually gets the credit for making the 0:20:11.240 --> 0:20:15.159 first electrical waffle iron, which the company did in nineteen eleven, 0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:19.720 designed by Thomas J. Stackbeck, but this was really a prototype. 0:20:19.760 --> 0:20:23.040 The company did not start production of waffle irons to 0:20:23.119 --> 0:20:27.080 sell for home use until the late nineteen teens. Waffle 0:20:27.119 --> 0:20:29.840 popularity continued to grow in the US in the early 0:20:29.880 --> 0:20:32.880 half of the twentieth century, so much so that manufacturers 0:20:32.920 --> 0:20:35.880 started making waffle irons that were meant to be visually 0:20:35.960 --> 0:20:38.840 pleasing as well as functional, so they could be used 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:40.720 right at the table and they would fit into the 0:20:40.720 --> 0:20:42.919 rest of the china and tablewear and be just as 0:20:42.960 --> 0:20:46.600 pretty as anything else. Some of these had decorated porcelain 0:20:46.640 --> 0:20:49.560 exteriors and they were sold with breakfast sets that included 0:20:49.880 --> 0:20:53.960 coffee service as well as various specialized bowls to include batter. 0:20:54.359 --> 0:20:56.600 You could pour that right into the iron by the 0:20:56.640 --> 0:20:59.840 person who was being served, so you would get a fresh, 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:03.840 hot waffle. There were all kinds of interesting waffle developments 0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:06.960 from the nineteen thirties on. We will talk about them 0:21:07.000 --> 0:21:14.840 after we hear from the sponsors who keep our show going. 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:22.000 In nineteen thirty eight, Well Supper Club opened in Harlem, 0:21:22.040 --> 0:21:24.679 New York, and it catered to the musician crowd, staying 0:21:24.720 --> 0:21:27.760 open late into the night. The story goes that because 0:21:27.760 --> 0:21:29.920 a lot of their clientele was getting there too late 0:21:29.960 --> 0:21:32.639 for dinner and too early for breakfast, the two meals 0:21:32.680 --> 0:21:35.479 found a crossover in fried chicken and waffles, which has 0:21:35.480 --> 0:21:38.679 since become popular around the country. I will also say this, 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:41.919 you will see it kind of casually referenced as something 0:21:41.920 --> 0:21:46.880 that developed as a cast off food from waffle parties 0:21:46.920 --> 0:21:52.200 were combined by people who were either enslaved or were 0:21:52.240 --> 0:21:54.920 working as service staff in homes, but that's not really 0:21:54.920 --> 0:21:58.840 well documented. This we know definitely happened. Also, chicken and 0:21:58.840 --> 0:22:03.760 waffles to live. In nineteen fifty three, the first frozen 0:22:03.840 --> 0:22:08.280 waffles called fraffles were introduced by three brothers. They were Tony, 0:22:08.359 --> 0:22:12.280 Sam and Frank Dorsa. These frozen waffles were the third 0:22:12.400 --> 0:22:15.560 invention of the Dorsa brothers, and they had also created 0:22:15.640 --> 0:22:19.119 a mayonnaise and a dry waffle mix, and they were 0:22:19.320 --> 0:22:22.040 doing that under the name Ego. Because of the egg 0:22:22.119 --> 0:22:26.240 content in the mayonnaise, most people started calling the froffles 0:22:26.240 --> 0:22:29.720 by the name Eggos, which the Dorses just adopted as 0:22:29.760 --> 0:22:32.919 the new product name. The Eggo Company was bought by 0:22:33.000 --> 0:22:36.919 Kellogg's in the early nineteen seventies and now produces a 0:22:37.000 --> 0:22:41.920 vast array of waffles and other frozen breakfast products that's 0:22:41.960 --> 0:22:45.560 still going. The Belgian waffle might surprise you in how 0:22:45.640 --> 0:22:49.080 late it joins this story. In nineteen sixty four, at 0:22:49.080 --> 0:22:51.960 the World's Faring Queens, New York, Maurice Vermersh and his 0:22:52.040 --> 0:22:55.200 family set up a waffle booth in the Belgian Village Pavilion. 0:22:55.760 --> 0:23:00.480 Their booth signage read Brussels Waffles, a bell gem product 0:23:00.480 --> 0:23:04.280 that's b e l dash Gem. Vermersh's waffles were light 0:23:04.359 --> 0:23:06.840 and fluffy, crisp on the outside, and then they would 0:23:06.920 --> 0:23:10.040 melt in your mouth. Visitors to the expo could buy 0:23:10.080 --> 0:23:12.280 them plane or with a little bit of whipped cream 0:23:12.359 --> 0:23:16.480 and fresh strawberry slices. This was actually not their real introduction. 0:23:16.640 --> 0:23:18.840 Vermersh had sold them at a smaller booth at the 0:23:18.840 --> 0:23:21.520 Seattle World's Fair two years earlier to kind of test 0:23:21.560 --> 0:23:24.800 the waters. But this treat took off in New York 0:23:24.840 --> 0:23:26.879 and so that's usually noted as the birth of the 0:23:26.920 --> 0:23:31.720 Belgian waffles popularity. To most of the customers, this pastry 0:23:31.840 --> 0:23:35.560 was just a revelation. The waffles that were normally served 0:23:35.600 --> 0:23:38.080 in the US were a lot heavier. They tended to 0:23:38.119 --> 0:23:41.439 be topped with a bunch of syrup and butter. Charging 0:23:41.440 --> 0:23:44.879 a dollar per waffle. The Vermershas needed to keep two 0:23:45.040 --> 0:23:48.680 dozen waffle irons going and have ten people come help 0:23:48.760 --> 0:23:52.320 them slice strawberries just to keep up with the orders. Yeah, 0:23:52.320 --> 0:23:54.560