Leggo My Eggo

October 19, 2020 8:42 AM

How frozen waffles are made This crushed a lot of preconceived notions about those frozen waffles at the supermarket and who is actually making them. Turns out, they're made almost EXCLUSIVELY by machines!
posted by GernBlandston (72 comments total)

That guy at the waffle factory wasn't wearing his face mask correctly, and now I'm not hungry for waffles any more.
posted by box at 8:46 AM on October 19, 2020

whoa, how are frog waffles made?!

what are frog waffles?!

oooh, frozen
posted by Foci for Analysis at 8:48 AM on October 19, 2020

And now I know where the Mercury Rev title comes from after nearly 30 years.
posted by aesop at 8:56 AM on October 19, 2020

That guy at the waffle factory wasn't wearing his face mask correctly, and now I'm not hungry for waffles any more.

I don't think that even was a mask but a hairnet for his beard.
posted by aubilenon at 8:58 AM on October 19, 2020 [26 favorites]

Yep, beard cover.
posted by notsnot at 9:01 AM on October 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

It was posted to youtube 4 years ago so almost certainly not intended to be a facemask.

How It's Made is one of the best shows on TV. Honestly I'm more surprised when something is made entirely by hand! In one season they did a trip through manufacturers Thailand, China, and some other Asian countries and it was pretty fascinating IMO.
posted by muddgirl at 9:04 AM on October 19, 2020 [10 favorites]

I found it surprising that they are basically made the exact same way as waffles at home just in larger quantities, minus the dehydrated fruit vs fresh-ish fruit at home. And then flash frozen for freezer storage, same as at home. I am going to be looking for those stab marks from the Freddie Kruger thing though.
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:08 AM on October 19, 2020 [7 favorites]

I always wondered what the stab marks were, and now I know.

Also, the narrator at the end... The writing to wrap it up could have been so much better. "That deserves a toast." Come on that's the best journalistic pun you could pull? It was incredibly weak.
posted by deadaluspark at 9:12 AM on October 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

How do they separate those two that were stuck together?!
posted by SansPoint at 9:12 AM on October 19, 2020

FWIW I would have been disappointed if it had ended with anything other than an excruciating pun. I was not disappointed.
posted by aesop at 9:13 AM on October 19, 2020 [3 favorites]

I want to see the doc where they track down some of these waffles 7 years later to see how they got on.
posted by aesop at 9:14 AM on October 19, 2020 [30 favorites]

Once I got a waffle maker and figured out how to make a solid Liege Waffle, I became a total waffle snob.
posted by remo at 9:19 AM on October 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

I wanted to add this note to the historical record: the Eggo frozen waffle was invented in San Jose in the 1950's. Even before Silicon Valley was the epicenter of video games and computers, there was a significant industry of fruit canning and other food-processing machinery.
posted by JDC8 at 9:19 AM on October 19, 2020 [4 favorites]

Turns out, they're made almost EXCLUSIVELY by machines!

Did someone actually assume otherwise?
posted by Thorzdad at 9:29 AM on October 19, 2020 [16 favorites]

That guy at the waffle factory wasn't wearing his face mask correctly, and now I'm not hungry for waffles any more.


That was a hairnet worn on his chin to hold in his beard, an incredible common sight in food prep by dudes with facial hair. Neither of the two people shown are wearing face masks of any kind, although the unseen people handing the flour were likely wearing them.
posted by sideshow at 9:29 AM on October 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

Did someone actually assume otherwise?

Having spent more time watching How It's Made then I probably should have, I was often amazed at the amount of stuff that you'd think would be automated or mechanized that is still done almost entirely by hand.
posted by Clever User Name at 9:33 AM on October 19, 2020 [3 favorites]

Like, sewing. All of it is done by people. There are no robots who can sew fabric quickly and reliably enough to make clothing in a production environment.
posted by seanmpuckett at 9:36 AM on October 19, 2020 [9 favorites]

Yep, beard cover.

Sorry I believe you'll find they're actually called BEARD SNOODS
posted by showbiz_liz at 9:45 AM on October 19, 2020 [12 favorites]

Also, the narrator at the end... The writing to wrap it up could have been so much better. "That deserves a toast." Come on that's the best journalistic pun you could pull? It was incredibly weak.

That particular pun is huge in Canada. You know, where this show is made? In fact, it's the national pun of Canada, so ease off, sport!
posted by NoMich at 9:47 AM on October 19, 2020 [8 favorites]

I was often amazed at the amount of stuff that you'd think would be automated or mechanized that is still done almost entirely by hand.

I guess so, but wouldn't it be prohibitively expensive to make that perfect grid of holes in every single waffle by hand?
posted by aubilenon at 9:47 AM on October 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

Aubilenon, now I've got this mental image of a guy cutting a grid of grooves in aluminum-casting sand molds. Hilarious in its incongruousness.
posted by notsnot at 9:52 AM on October 19, 2020

My favorite part was the metal detector bit at the end, where the offending packet of waffles is blasted off the conveyor belt like it's just been attacked with an energy weapon.
posted by showbiz_liz at 9:53 AM on October 19, 2020 [3 favorites]

In the Before Times I would frequently visit my kids' schools to talk about robots. I would almost always start by telling them that the most amazing robots we've got right now don't look like Voltron. They look like yard-wide boxes with potato chips shooting through and they blast overcooked/green/broken/non-potato chips out of a 40mph potato-chip waterfall with targeted compressed air. The Strategic Missile Defense system might be vaporware forever but our Potato Interceptor game is ON POINT.
posted by range at 10:03 AM on October 19, 2020 [19 favorites]

Folks who designed the waffle factory have the best job ever.
posted by JackFlash at 10:06 AM on October 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

The compressed-air-vision systems are rad, but you haven't seen anything until you've watched this robotic pancake stacker do its thing.
posted by mookoz at 10:06 AM on October 19, 2020 [7 favorites]

This was exactly how I expected frozen waffles to be made. It's actually a bit of relief for me.
posted by ShakeyJake at 10:07 AM on October 19, 2020 [10 favorites]

Dispiritingly bad puns are part of How It's Made's whole thing. It's as much a part of the formula as the surreal panning product shot at the outset.

I still prefer The Making, which is a sort of Japanese How It's Made, primarily because they don't have the beauty shot at the start, and since I can't read or speak Japanese, I'm often halfway through the episode before I can even figure out what they're manufacturing.
posted by phooky at 10:08 AM on October 19, 2020 [13 favorites]

I mean, sometimes I get to the end of an episode and still don't know what they're manufacturing.
posted by phooky at 10:10 AM on October 19, 2020 [5 favorites]

If you like "How It's Made", you might get a laugh out of this parody YouTube channel "How It's Actually Made". They take video segments from the real show and add on their own increasingly absurd explanations. Some are funnier than others, but the good ones are really funny.
posted by briank at 10:12 AM on October 19, 2020 [6 favorites]

since I can't read or speak Japanese, I'm often halfway through the episode before I can even figure out what they're manufacturing.

There is a certain joy in this. I have been to Japan a couple of times and my Japanese is rudimentary at best outside of my professional requirements and basic pleasantries. On the occasion of my first visit my competence was minimal (spoken) and minuscule (written). I had just been working writing grant proposals in English and when you spend every day immersed in words, it’s liberating to be free of them.

I recall standing in a grocery store at 2:00 AM, still in the Eastern time zone on my body clock, trying to suss out what the products were from the pictures and cartoon logos on the packaging. I had not been illiterate since I was three years old, so it was an awakening.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:21 AM on October 19, 2020 [7 favorites]

My favorite part was the metal detector bit at the end

I mean, on the one hand, I guess I'm glad they go through a metal detector. On the other hand, I find it pretty disturbing that MY WAFFLES NEEDED TO GO THROUGH A METAL DETECTOR.
posted by solotoro at 10:25 AM on October 19, 2020 [4 favorites]

Metafilter: I always wondered what the stab marks were, and now I know.
posted by emelenjr at 10:33 AM on October 19, 2020 [9 favorites]

...you haven't seen anything until you've watched this robotic pancake stacker do its thing.

Every time I see that video I get to the pancake buffer and wonder how far down the rabbit hole you have to be to decide that implementing Random Pancake Access Memory is easier than just building a set of spring-loaded chutes like in the waffle video.
posted by range at 10:35 AM on October 19, 2020 [8 favorites]

If all you have is an articulated three axis mechanical arm and multi camera vision system, everything looks like an image recognition robotics problem.
posted by roue at 10:53 AM on October 19, 2020 [11 favorites]

Frozen waffles are to waffles what frozen pizza is to pizza. Look up Goodnight Waffles, make them and you’ll never eat frozen waffles again. Also, stop by waffle and pancake mix, you’re being scammed.
posted by misterpatrick at 11:06 AM on October 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

Ideal application of image recognition technology: move pancakes to a separate buffer if they feature anything mildly resembling the face of Jesus.
posted by quacks like a duck at 11:06 AM on October 19, 2020 [3 favorites]

Look up Goodnight Waffles, make them and you’ll never eat frozen waffles again.

"READY IN: 8hrs 30mins"

Pfft
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:11 AM on October 19, 2020 [5 favorites]

"The introduction of frozen waffles in the 1950s marked a new dawn for a new era..."

Well, that's certainly a hell of an introduction.
posted by geoff. at 11:12 AM on October 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

Was that a pun because people eat waffles for breakfast, which happens in the morning, which is (if you're not at like 60º latitude and the wrong time of year) when dawn is?
posted by aubilenon at 11:15 AM on October 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

I mean, sometimes I get to the end of an episode and still don't know what they're manufacturing.

In that video they're making fish cake (chikuwa). Well, one of many different kinds of processed fish product that are generally called fish cake in English [basically, take fish, turn it into paste like in imitation crab, then make some kind of processed food from it].
posted by thefoxgod at 11:18 AM on October 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

I eat a single frozen waffle with peanut butter or something like that on it nearly every morning. It's just the right amount of food and isn't too heavy to then go for a jog or work out for an hour. I'm not busting out a waffle iron for a single waffle every morning, plus my waffle iron makes a horrible piercing siren to indicate the waffle is done and I'd get murdered if I subjected my partner to that at 6am.

Vegan frozen waffles rundown: It's hard to find the not-gluten-free Vans in a lot of stores for some reason, and the GF ones are hot garbage. The Kashi multigrain waffles have a great flavor but you have to toast them for twice as long as other brands and they still seem to disintegrate at the mere suggestion of a topping with any moisture in it. The week I had some homemade apple butter coincided with Kashi waffles in my freezer and it was very disappointing until I added a moisture barrier layer of peanut butter. The Whole Foods house brand homestyle variety is pretty good. None of the Eggo or other supermarket house brands/varieties are vegan.
posted by misskaz at 11:20 AM on October 19, 2020 [7 favorites]

Come on that's the best journalistic pun you could pull?

I vaguely recall that the show is made out of Quebec and even more vaguely recall that one or another of the narrators doesn't speak English very well and is just doing it all phonetically, so we might expect the extent to which their English pun game is blown to be somewhat less than fully.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 11:22 AM on October 19, 2020

> Also, stop by waffle and pancake mix, you’re being scammed.

Earlier this year when bags of flour were harder to find at the grocery than hens' teeth, there was a period when pancake and waffle mix was cheaper than flour, as well as still being available when plain flour was not.

In other times and other circumstances, the degree of "scam" kinda depends on what you're getting. Some mix packages include all the proteins and leavening and all you have to add is water and oil. In which case their prices are not that bad -- higher than constituent ingredients, but not by a whole lot and there are times when it's good to have a single box of this rather than separate packages of flour, milk, eggs, butter, baking powder, baking soda and salt -- for example, when traveling.
posted by ardgedee at 11:26 AM on October 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

If all you have is an articulated three axis mechanical arm and multi camera vision system, everything looks like an image recognition robotics problem.

Yes! I was having to do research into marijuana robotics (really!) and came across Bloom Automation. To trim marijuana you have to cut the leaves around the bud. They basically take the way people do it and turn it into the aforementioned "use AI in a 3D space" problem. That's an incredibly complex, though highly accurate and flexible solution to the problem.

Compare this to EZ Trim where they just have a Plumbus machine they feed it into and then another couple manual steps.
posted by geoff. at 11:27 AM on October 19, 2020 [3 favorites]

Frozen waffles are to waffles what frozen pizza is to pizza. Look up Goodnight Waffles, make them and you’ll never eat frozen waffles again. Also, stop by waffle and pancake mix, you’re being scammed.

You know why I don't own a waffle iron? because

FUCK

CLEANING

A WAFFLE IRON
posted by showbiz_liz at 11:50 AM on October 19, 2020 [9 favorites]

This thread reminds me of a youtube video I stumbled across awhile ago about the place to shop for all the stuff to build your factory automation machines: Where the factories shop.
posted by smcameron at 12:06 PM on October 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

misterpatrick: "Look up Goodnight Waffles"

It turns out they AREN'T made out of mush.

I am disappoint.
posted by chavenet at 12:15 PM on October 19, 2020 [3 favorites]

"That deserves a toast." Come on that's the best journalistic pun you could pull?

I understand the writer had another ending he was considering, but he...flip-flopped or vacillated or something...and couldn't decide which one was better.
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:17 PM on October 19, 2020 [7 favorites]

Folks who designed the waffle factory have the best job ever.

Now I want to play Waffle Factory Architect ™
posted by oulipian at 12:17 PM on October 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

If waffle irons could use silicon molds, would that make cleaning less horrible? Like a waffle iron condom?
posted by emjaybee at 12:28 PM on October 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

If waffle irons could use silicon molds, would that make cleaning less horrible? Like a waffle iron condom?

I was with you all the way through the first sentence, and then
posted by showbiz_liz at 12:33 PM on October 19, 2020 [11 favorites]

What are people doing with their waffle irons where it requires more than a quick wipe? Am I going to die from Unsanitary Waffle Iron Syndrome?
posted by zamboni at 12:33 PM on October 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

Maybe COVID-19 was caused by eating dirty waffles....
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:36 PM on October 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

Anyway aren't most waffle irons nonstick nowadays?
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:37 PM on October 19, 2020

I always believed that the British English narration to these was word for word identical, but it's finished with “and that merits a toast. Or indeed a toaster.” in the Discovery UK dubbing. I once went 4 months without internet at home, and reliable access to How It's Made from over the air TV was one of the things that kept me going. So there's something comforting about the UK narration.
posted by ambrosen at 12:37 PM on October 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

That needle picking drum is DEEPLY unsettling.
posted by cilantro at 12:39 PM on October 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

That needle picking drum is DEEPLY unsettling.

Why, because you can't help but imagine a massive horror movie version where instead of waffles it's your fragile human body? That definitely didn't occur to me at all
posted by showbiz_liz at 12:47 PM on October 19, 2020 [8 favorites]

it's your fragile human body

sobs
posted by cilantro at 1:01 PM on October 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

Something something waffle iron maiden
posted by oulipian at 2:06 PM on October 19, 2020 [5 favorites]

Folks who designed the waffle factory have the best job ever.

Now I want a waffle-making mod for Factorio.
posted by nickmark at 2:06 PM on October 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

I mean, I like a good overnight waffle or even just regular waffle a lot. Like A LOT. But dammit, sometimes I just want a waffle RIGHT NOW and don't want to go through the effort required to make them from scratch.

Also, some people don't like to make food from scratch and that is okay. We need to stop telling people the Right Way to eat.
posted by cooker girl at 3:01 PM on October 19, 2020 [5 favorites]

Also, stop by waffle and pancake mix, you’re being scammed.

They are great for camping. The Costco mix we buy just needs water for pancakes and that is exactly how much effort I want to exert when camping and packing for camping (the pre-mix bag can just live in our camping box ready to go at a moments notice).

If waffle irons could use silicon molds, would that make cleaning less horrible? Like a waffle iron condom?

Can stuff get crispy in silicone?
posted by Mitheral at 4:51 PM on October 19, 2020 [3 favorites]

you haven't seen anything until you've watched this robotic pancake stacker do its thing.

cue the rick and morty meme:

Robot: What is my purpose?
German Industrial Engineer: you stack pancakes
Robot: oh my god
posted by GuyZero at 5:22 PM on October 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

Also the potato chip sorter is cool but the similar high speed tomato sorters are even cooler - the paddle smack falling tomatoes out of the air faster than you can even perceive what's going on.
posted by GuyZero at 5:24 PM on October 19, 2020 [3 favorites]

And of course tonight my 12 year old clues me in to the Michael Reeves Machine to Take Tomatoes Out of My Salad...
posted by range at 5:29 PM on October 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

My jaw dropped at the metal detection scene. Machines are so flipping cool sometimes.
posted by Kitchen Witch at 10:09 PM on October 19, 2020

Yeah, why specifically a metal detector? Did one of the needles get stuck in one before?
posted by RobotHero at 10:09 PM on October 19, 2020

Metal is one of the most common contaminants of food products; a lot of different foodstuffs are inspected for metal one way or another. I used to work for a company that basically made x-ray machines and our third biggest market was food safety, behind medical and defense.
posted by muddgirl at 11:37 PM on October 19, 2020 [6 favorites]

Metal contaminants are are usually things like slivers of metal from worn parts or nuts/bolts that have come loose. There are probably hundreds of thousands of bolts/nuts/washers holding the line together; it's pretty easy to loose one without otherwise noticing.
posted by Mitheral at 6:09 AM on October 20, 2020 [6 favorites]

And yes, I would imagine that one of those picker needles getting lost inside a waffle was very specifically Nightmare Scenario A they were worried about, in addition to just generally wanting to catch nuts and bolts and stuff that might generally fall. It's way easier to send everything through a metal detector than to check that barrel for missing needles every 5 minutes.
posted by range at 7:56 AM on October 20, 2020 [4 favorites]

Re: metal in processed food. It's no joke. Years ago I was eating chocolate chips out of the bag when I felt an excruciating pain in my molar and spit out half of my tooth along with a small metal fragment. I filed a complaint and the company paid for my dental work, no questions asked. They sent me a whole bunch of Nestle products, too!
posted by Transl3y at 1:41 PM on October 20, 2020 [4 favorites]

Did you check them for shrapnel?
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:13 PM on October 20, 2020 [2 favorites]