A staple of family bushwalks when I was growing up was the jaffle at lunchtime. These would be cooked easily on a fire using a jaffle iron. When I joined Sydney University Bushwalkers (SUBW), I found jaffles were popular there too. Talk at club meetings (in those days every Wednesday on the Botany Lawn) would be sharing jaffle recipes, the merits of single versus double jaffle irons etc. Legend was that that someone in the club had once cooked an “icecream jaffle” – the ultimate! Also – the perfect jaffle should be cooked on a fire without any need to open the iron part way through the cooking process. An experienced bush jaffle maker should be able to tell when the jaffle was cooked without inspection, and take the iron off the fire at exactly the right time without the jaffle burning.
Well, over the years jaffle irons became hard to find. Old irons were passed down through families. Later made, square shaped irons, would not do. They had the wrong shape and were often too heavy to take on walks. Some walkers (those without access to the old round shaped traditional iron) argued that square bread should be cooked in a square iron. Traditionalists argued that the round iron gave a perfect seal, even though a bit of bread was lost as the corners need to be trimmed off. Walkers would looked through antique shops or village markets seeking out old round irons. Sometimes they would be successful and score a great jaffle iron – and also score some respectability in the bushwalking club.
