Now that I've got a source for eggs again I can get the waffle maker out.
I got a heavy Sears-Roebuck Challenger iron, one of those massive 1930s models that looks like an art deco manhole cover.
ROFL.
Wonderful description, I can really imagine it!
I do appreciate it when people think about the words they are using, and take care how they arrange them. Good writing is such a wonderful thing to read.
And I have a technical question. I was given a waffle maker as a present, and it was not the sort I would have bought for myself (we try to buy things that will last a lifetime and are able to be repaired), but I'm using it anyway. The problem was flimsy construction. The metal inner parts are fine, but the outer shell was flimsy friable plastic that screamed "inbuilt obsolescence" and broke within a year - just after the expiration of the warranty, as if it had been furnished with a date-activated time bomb.
I still use the broken waffle maker regularly, 5 years later. We've got trip switches (which it's never set off) plus I use insulators to handle the broken appliance when it's plugged in. Since the top shell is broken, I can no longer use the inbuilt handle to lift the lid (yeah,
really bad construction, grrr), but have to use an insulated utensil to lift the lid to get waffles in and out.
The shell can't be repaired - I looked at gluing it, but it's like a party ice fracture, and friable and clearly got degraded by the heat of operating the appliance over time. And you can't get replacement parts. So I guess my question is, do you have any suggestions which are better than continuing to use the now top-shell-less waffle maker as is - any ideas for repairing such a built-not-to-be-reparable item?
I swear, if I ever see an old waffle maker in a second-hand shop I will buy it. I had one made with a metal outer shell that was 20 years old when I got it and lasted me another 15 before it gave up the ghost in a way that wasn't fixable...
Did you know that you can experiment with different waffle recipes in old cook-books & get entirely different waffles? Cookbooks from the modern times are going to make a fluffy waffle almost like a pancake, maybe sweeter by just a little bit. Very old cookbooks gave recipes where you beat egg whites to stiff peaks & fold them into the batter--making a waffle that nearly glazes itself, is crunchy, and (though delicious) isn't very sweet. They even used to have rice waffles, bacon waffles, cornmeal waffles (These are actually good) and all kinds of stuff.
This is great! I usually use an old recipe from John Seymour's famous old self-sufficiency bible written sometime in the 60s/70s - wholemeal rye waffles. I make them with milk and one egg and a bit of melted butter or (good) oil, for a batch of around 6-8. No added sugar, that's a new-fandangled addition from the lifestyle disease age. If you've got sweet toppings like fruit or ice-cream, the plain waffle makes a good contrast, rather than having the saccharine sort of avalanche of many modern cakes etc.
Nice idea to work with beaten egg whites, cornmeal, etc etc, must try it!
One time just to experiment I took a 1940s cookbook & tried cooking breakfast the way it would've been done then. I used a Sunbeam vacuum coffeemaker designed in 1939, free-range eggs to make an omelet, waffles made according to the old folded egg-white recipe, and then gave up on paprika & such and used black pepper & Worcestershire sauce (because I was using 1940s white-people directions and they'd not yet heard of spices, sadly.) Still, it came out very good. Waffles are fun.
I think I have to give savoury waffles a go.
If you like recreating time-period foods, and you've not seen this series, you're in for a treat - and it's all on YT:
Great fun, very informative, with period costumes and great research and this wonderful multi-layered humour from the two presenters!
