The modern waffle has its origins in the late middle ages. Waffle irons consisted of two metal plates connected by a hinge, each plate was connected to a wooden arm. Some plates had imprinted designs such as a coat-of-arms or landscape, while some had the now-familiar honeycomb/gridiron pattern. The iron was placed over a fire and would need to be flipped manually to cook both sides of the waffle. These irons were used to produce a variety of different flat, unleavened cakes (usually from a mixture of barley and oats, not the white flour used today). Some were rolled into a horn or tube, others were left flat. In many cities, waffles were sold off carts by street vendors. Judging from extant illustrations, these vendors gave people their money’s worth, as the waffles in question were about the size of a small pizza, although there was a hidden cost: because of stone grinding methods, there was so much grit in flour that teeth were often worn to the gum-line by middle age.
In medieval French, the term for this pastry was “oublie” (from Latin “oblata”), sold by “oubloyeurs” in the streets of Paris and other major cities. (via Wikipedia)
