National Waffle Day on August 24th commemorates the anniversary of the first waffle iron patent issued. Celebrate by savoring your favorite kind of waffle!
- On August 24, 1869, Cornelius Swarthout of Troy, New York received his patent for the waffle iron. While waffles existed long before then, the invention made waffles more readily available.
- Waffle irons and waffles originated around the 14th century. An anonymous husband penned the first known waffle recipe as a set of instructions for his wife. According to the manuscript, Le Ménagier de Paris, each of the four recipes began:
- Beat some eggs in a bowl, season with salt and add wine. Toss in some flour, and mix. Then fill, little by little, two irons at a time with as much of the paste as a slice of cheese is large. Then close the iron and cook both sides. If the dough does not detach easily from the iron, coat it first with a piece of cloth that has been soaked in oil or grease.
- The birth of the waffle dates back to the middle ages, where they were cooked over a fire using two metal plates with wooden handles. The plates back then often had the grid pattern we know today, but some waffles had fancier designs, like a coat of arms.
- 1911 – First electric waffle iron introduced by General Electric.
- 1953 – Frank Dorsa’s Eggo Frozen Waffles are sold in Supermarkets for the first time.
- 1964 – Belgian Waffles debut at New York’s World’s Fair.
- The word “waffle” first appears in the English language in 1725.
- Waffles inspired Nike’s first pair of sneakers. Appropriately enough, they were called the Waffle Trainer. Bill Bowerman was watching his wife use their waffle iron one morning in 1971 when he was suddenly struck by the honeycomb shape of the waffle. He realized it would be the perfect shape for the sole of an athletic sneaker. Then, Bowerman actually used a waffle iron to create the first Nike sneaker sole.
- The Waffle House has sells 145 waffles a minute. In total, since its inception 60 years ago, The Waffle House has sold 877 million waffles.
- The founders of Eggo Waffles were originally mayonnaise moguls.
- Thomas Jefferson brought to first waffle iron to America.
- A shortage of cups and a surplus of waffles inspired the ice cream cone. When a Missouri ice cream vendor at the St. Louis World Fair ran out of ice cream cups in 1904, he asked the nearby waffle vendor to help him out. The ice cream vendor folded the waffles and used them to make the first ever ice cream cones.
- Belgium waffles were originally called Brussels waffles. The Belgium waffle was introduced in America at the 1962 Seattle World Fair. Maurice Vermersch, a Brussels native, was using his wife’s famous recipe to sell waffles as a fair vendor. Nervous that Americans wouldn’t know where Brussels was located, he changed the name to Belgium waffles, which stuck with US crowds.
- 8 in 10 Americans love waffles.
- Senior Citizens love waffles the most. 76% of Americans say they love waffles. Americans over 65 love waffles more than any other age group—89% say they reign supreme.
- Women like waffles more than men do. 80% of women like waffles, while only 69% of men say the same.
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