FOOD NEWS
The History Of The Waffle Dates All The Way Back To The Middle Ages
By Gregory Lovvorn
What do democracy, geometry, and waffles have in common? As it turns out, they were all invented by the ancient Greeks, who created a waffle-like rough bread called obelios made with a dough of flour, water, and leavening agents cooked between two metal plates. However, the waffle would take several hundred years to transform into what we might recognize today.
Waffles transformed when the church started imprinting patterns on its communion wafers, inspiring the aristocracy to adopt similar designs for the waffle irons used to prepare their cakes at home. At this time waffles began turning into what we might recognize, although the earliest waffle recipe from 1393 calls for wine in addition to regular eggs, salt, and flour.
Waffles followed the pilgrims to the New World, but it wasn’t until Thomas Jefferson brought back a waffle iron from Paris in 1789 that waffles became en vogue, with colonists hosting parties called waffle frolics. Then, with the 1911 invention of the electric waffle maker and the 1930s invention of instant waffle mix, waffles became the breakfast staple that we love today.