Waffling

Summer limbo and actual waffles

Dear Bread Pen Pals,

I’ve been in the thick of summer limbo, school looming for my son and the neighborhood kids, and for the me that will never grow out of the schoolyear’s clock. In the in-betweens, I lost track of time. Nighttime temps dropped and iced down the house, but I was in shorts until noon, when I remembered I had long pants and warm socks!

Felix left for Buffalo yesterday, and all of us are shifting. Had I known it was National Waffle Day, I would have made them for our last breakfast together. The event is pegged to Troy resident Cornelius Swarthout’s patent, dated August 24, 1869. I knew this but forgot and am chagrinned. As a heavy supporter of grain-based breakfast foods, this stuff should be top of mind!

I rediscovered the fact on my twilight walk downtown, listening to Stuff You Missed in History Class. As I watched people gather at curbside tables and inside dark bars, I wondered what Cornelius and his folk would think of our nightlife, and the string of technology that made me remember him. Troy had about the same population, 45,000 compared to the 50,000 Trojans we are now, but the architecture we admire was brand new.

One of the major industries in Troy and nearby Albany was cast iron stove making. Given the activity around that enterprise — Troy foundries had made ironsides for Union ships and horseshoes in the Civil War — no wonder Cornelius made a cast iron, stovetop waffle tool. Plus, his Dutch family had been here for two centuries, and he would have eaten a lot of waffles, and seen that making them was dangerous. His patented model sat in one of the burner holes on the top of a cast iron stove, and had a handle and clamps to protect the cook.

I have two waffle irons that sit on the stove, but my first one was electric, a premium I got for opening a bank account when I was a kid. I don’t make nearly as many waffles as pancakes, but my baking booklets have plenty to say about the food. My favorite instruction is from the Gold Medal Flour Cook Book, which says:

Any of the recipes for pancakes can be cooked in a waffle iron by adding more butter to make the proportion equal to two ounces butter for each pint of flour. Yoks and whites are best beaten separately.

This is from 1909, and the minimal amount of fat reflects the relative preciousness of this ingredient. Newer recipes contain so much butter and fat! One of the reasons I’m glad for my collection of cooking pamphlets is being able to notice differences like this. Also, I’m hungry for time travel! And will never stop itching to know what it might have been like inside someone’s mind and life at another time.

Do you collect things, too? Waffle irons maybe, or early electric toasters? Earrings, bicycles, dahlias? Lists of bakeries you want to visit?

AND last but not least, did you make waffles this weekend? I will soon — buckwheat, cornmeal and rye will be the stars.

Until next time, Amy