There was a long period of my life when I was always on the lookout for vintage waffle irons. It started when I was around nine years old and my dad’s 40 year old chrome model blew a connection and stopped heating on one side. He tried to replace it with a new model, but found all those made after 1970 to be entire inadequate to his needs. And so, it was a family effort to search out the old ones. It was never enough to have just one, either. Must like the British aristocracy, we needed to have both an heir and a spare.

When I moved out to Philadelphia, I continued the hunt and any time I found an old chrome bodied one for less than $10, it would come home with me. There was a time when I had four or five, but I’ve slimmed down the collection considerably since then.

One way that I divested myself of waffle irons was by shipping one to my sister a couple years back. This morning, we pulled it out and cooked up waffles for a crowd. Raina whipped up a gluten-free batter and I managed the iron. The first one was a complete disaster (as they so often are), but once the sacrifice to the waffle gods had been made, the rest came off gloriously brown and ready to receive syrup.

Truly, there’s nothing like a vintage waffle iron.