48 Fun Facts About Waffle

The English word 'waffle' comes directly from which language?

Dutch 'wafel' gave English the word; behind it sits the Frankish word for honeycomb, which is exactly what the iron leaves behind.

Krumkake, Norway's thin patterned waffle cookie, is rolled into what shape while warm?

A cone: krumkake, whose name means 'bent cake', is baked thin in a decorated iron and rolled around a wooden cone while still soft, then often filled with whipped cream.

In which year did the word 'waffle' first appear in English?

1725 is the year 'waffle' first appears in English, in a recipe beginning 'Waffles. Take flower, cream'; by then waffles had been cooked in Europe for some four centuries.

What did the ancient Greeks cook between hot metal plates?

Flat cakes came off those plates, which evolved into the long-handled irons of medieval Europe, held over an open fire.

What was the medieval ancestor of the waffle called?

The oublie, a medieval wafer of flour and water much like a communion wafer, is the waffle's direct ancestor; it was cooked between two hinged iron plates held over a fire.

In which year did the guild of medieval wafer-makers form?

1270 is the year the oublieurs, the medieval wafer-makers, were recognised as a guild; their light wafers evolved into the waffle over the following centuries.

What 11th-century movement brought flavourings like orange blossom water into the medieval wafers that became waffles?

The Crusades carried new ingredients into Western Europe; before that, sweetness came from local honey, if it came at all.

The first known waffle recipe, from the late 14th century, was written by whom?

A husband instructing his young wife wrote it: Le Ménagier de Paris (c. 1393) gives the earliest known waffle recipe and ends by advising an oiled cloth on the iron if the dough sticks.

Which 16th-century painter's work shows waffles in enough detail to count the grid?

Bruegel's 1559 painting The Fight Between Carnival and Lent shows waffles with a 12 by 7 grid of square cells, implying a thin batter much like a Brussels waffle.

Brussels waffles are easiest to tell from Liege waffles by what?

Their rectangular sides give Brussels waffles away; they are leavened with egg white or ale yeast, which is what gives them the big open pockets.

Who formalised the Brussels waffle recipe in 1842?

Florian Dacher, a Swiss baker working in Ghent who had trained under pastry chefs in central Brussels, formalised the Brussels waffle recipe in 1842.

Where does the term 'Belgian waffle' actually come from?

A brand called Bel-Gem: Maurice Vermersch of Brussels sold his thick waffles to American fairgoers as 'Bel-Gem Waffles', using 'Belgian' because few Americans knew Brussels was Belgium's capital.

At which event was the thick Belgian style popularised in America?

The 1964 New York World's Fair is where Americans met the thick style, sold at Maurice Vermersch's stand; the deeper, airier waffle topped with strawberries and whipped cream caught on nationally.

What leavens a standard American waffle?

Baking powder does the lifting; Brussels waffles use egg white or ale yeast instead, which is what gives them the big open pockets.

How is a Hong Kong 'grid cake' eaten?

Folded into a semicircle: the Hong Kong grid cake is spread with butter, peanut butter and sugar on one side, then folded in half and eaten warm from street hawkers.

Who patented the first stove-top waffle iron, in 1869?

Cornelius Swartwout of Troy, New York, received the first US patent for a waffle iron in 1869; it was built to sit on a stove top rather than be held over an open fire.

What did the 1869 US waffle-iron patent add to the design?

A handle and swivelling hinge let the cook flip the iron without slips or burns; irons had existed since the 1400s, but flipping one over a fire was a good way to lose the waffle.

Which company introduced the first commercial waffle maker to run on mains power, in 1918?

General Electric built a prototype electric waffle iron in 1911 and put the first commercial model on sale in 1918, moving waffle-making from the hearth to the kitchen counter.

How many professional waffle craftsmen remained in Paris by the early 20th century?

29 professional oublieurs were all that remained in Paris by the early 20th century; the trade had collapsed into home cooking, helped along by boxed mixes in the 1930s.

Who invented the frozen Eggo waffle, in 1953?

Frank Dorsa and his brothers launched Eggo frozen waffles in 1953, having built a rotating machine that could cook, freeze and package waffles at scale.

Where does the Eggo brand name come from?

An earlier mayonnaise: the Dorsa brothers first sold Eggo mayonnaise in the 1930s, named for its fresh eggs; the name later covered waffle mix and potato chips before the frozen waffle took over.

On which date is National Waffle Day celebrated in the United States?

August 24: US National Waffle Day marks the day in 1869 when the first American patent for a waffle iron was granted to an inventor from Troy, New York.

At the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, what did Ernest Hamwi curl into an ice cream holder?

A waffle cookie curled into a cone was Hamwi's improvisation when the ice cream vendor beside him ran out of paper cups.

Chicken and waffles began as part of which culinary tradition?

Pennsylvania Dutch cooking's original version is plain waffle, pulled stewed chicken and gravy, no syrup anywhere.

Which 1938 Harlem establishment popularised soul-food chicken and waffles?

Wells Supper Club, opened in Harlem in 1938, served fried chicken beside a butter-and-syrup breakfast waffle to late-night jazz crowds, popularising the soul food version.

Before chicken, which food did hotels outside Philadelphia serve with waffles in the early 1800s?

Fried catfish and waffles was the early-1800s speciality of inns and hotels outside Philadelphia; catfish was seasonal, so kitchens switched to chicken, which was available all year.

Whose waffle iron did the Nike co-founder ruin by pouring rubber into it?

His wife's: Bill Bowerman ruined Barbara Bowerman's waffle iron by pouring rubber into it; the iron was dug out of a rubbish pit on the family property decades later and now sits in Nike's archive.

Where did the first Waffle House open, in 1955?

Avondale Estates, Georgia, just outside Atlanta, got the first Waffle House on Labor Day 1955; the original building was later turned into the Waffle House Museum.

Who founded the Waffle House chain?

Joe Rogers Sr. and Tom Forkner opened the first Waffle House in 1955; Rogers had started as a short-order cook in New Haven in 1947, and the two men died within two months of each other in 2017.

At Waffle House, hash browns ordered 'smothered' come with what added?

Onions: in Waffle House's hash-brown code, 'smothered' adds grilled onions, 'covered' adds cheese, 'chunked' adds ham and 'topped' adds chili.

The stroopwafel was first made in which Dutch city?

Gouda is the stroopwafel's birthplace; folklore says a Gouda baker around 1800 sweetened leftover scraps and crumbs with syrup to make the first ones.

Hong Kong's egg waffle, gai daan jai, is baked as a sheet of small what?

Balls: the egg waffle is cooked in an iron of hemispherical cells, so it comes out as a sheet of small hollow spheres, crisp outside and soft inside, torn off one by one.

How is a stroopwafel split into its two thin wafers?

The hot disc is sliced apart while warm: each stroopwafel is baked as one thin waffle, trimmed round with a cutter, split horizontally while still soft, and glued back together with syrup.

Which country has over a dozen regional waffle varieties?

Belgium has over a dozen regional waffle varieties, most sold warm by street vendors and dusted with confectioner's sugar rather than drowned in syrup.

What depth of iron distinguishes a Belgian waffle from an American one?

An inch and a half: a Belgian waffle needs an iron with plates about 1½ inches deep, which produces the tall, deep-pocketed grid that shallower American irons cannot.

Which 1806 event pushed European sugar prices up, briefly threatening the waffle trade?

A British naval blockade in 1806 cut continental Europe off from Caribbean cane sugar, sending prices soaring; the beet sugar industry that grew in response drove prices to historic lows within decades.

What are professional waffle irons usually made of?

Uncoated cast iron is the professional choice; domestic ones are electric, with thermostats and sometimes plates you can lift out and wash.

What household item is commonly made in a 'waffle weave' fabric?

Towels: waffle weave, also called honeycomb weave, forms a grid of raised squares that soaks up water and dries fast, which is why it is used for kitchen and bath towels.

In Stranger Things, Eggo waffles are the favourite food of which character?

Eleven, the telekinetic girl played by Millie Bobby Brown, adores Eggo waffles; the 2016 story beat gave the Kellogg brand a wave of attention far beyond its North American home market.

FEMA's informal 'Waffle House Index' is used to gauge what?

Disaster recovery after storms: FEMA's Craig Fugate coined the index in 2011, reading an area's condition from whether its Waffle Houses were open, on a limited menu, or closed.

Liège waffles get their caramelised crust from chunks of what baked into brioche-style dough?

Pearl sugar: chunks of it are kneaded into a brioche-like dough and caramelise on the iron, giving the Liège waffle its crunchy crust; it is the most common waffle sold in Belgium.

On which date do Swedes celebrate Våffeldagen, their national waffle day?

March 25: Våffeldagen sounds like Vårfrudagen, 'Our Lady's Day', the feast of the Annunciation nine months before Christmas; cloudberry jam is a classic topping.

Bergische waffles from Germany's Bergisches Land are always made in what shape?

Heart: Bergische Waffeln are baked in a heart-shaped iron and served with cherries, whipped cream and sometimes rice pudding as part of the Bergische Kaffeetafel, a traditional Sunday afternoon feast.

Which chicken sandwich was sold at Waffle House in the 1960s until it outsold the house menu?

S. Truett Cathy then ran a diner called the Dwarf House. Losing the deal pushed him to spin the sandwich off into its own chain.

Waffle House claims to use roughly what share of all eggs in US food service?

2%: Waffle House says it uses about two percent of the eggs that go through the US food service industry, and also claims to be the world's leading seller of T-bone steaks, ham, pork chops and grits.

Because another chain owned the name in Indiana, the Georgia diner chain traded there as what?

Waffle and Steak was the name used in Indiana because an unrelated local chain already owned 'Waffle House' there; that Indiana chain later rebranded as Sunshine Cafe.

Which agency coined the 'L'eggo my Eggo' slogan in 1972?

Leo Burnett, Kellogg's long-time agency, coined 'L'eggo my Eggo' in 1972; the line survived decades of campaigns, including the 2009 shortage caused by a listeria shutdown and Atlanta flooding.

Walter Cleyman first served Brussels-style waffles in the US at the 1962 world's fair in which city?

Seattle: Walter Cleyman served Brussels waffles at the 1962 Century 21 Exposition, topped with whipped cream and strawberries, four years after they had debuted at Expo 58 in Brussels.