‘Scoe’s Special: What Chicken and Waffles Can Tell Us About the Economy

Chicken and waffles – an iconic dish. The mention of it immediately invokes an image for the hearer or reader, the consumer, whether that looks like “soul food,” Southern, sweet, savory, with or without white gravy. While some have rendered it “as American as shoefly pie,” a deeper dive into the dish’s history renders it more akin to apple pie: originating across the pond. Earliest accounts of dipped, breaded, and fried poultry comes from the Isle of Skye in Scotland, and in George Washington’s possession was a mid-18th century British cookbook that explicitly suggested brining, dipping in egg, batter, and frying in lard. On the waffle side, the Pilgrims brought over the idea after discovering it in Holland, as did many Dutch who moved to New Amsterdam, but they were popular throughout the Netherlands, among the Flemish, and especially the French.    Click below to continue reading. 

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