Anyone who knows me, knows that I absolutely love learning obscure facts - especially when it relates to food... so when I found out that Eggos had a previous moniker, le FROFFLE, I couldn't be more tickled!
That said - would love to share a few of the fun facts that I've learned about FROFFLES (and yes I'm going to always call them that instead of Eggo from now on.)
FROFFLES were invented in 1953
After WWII - the American culinary palate went through a, let's face it, SAD TIME where technology and invention + the entry of women to the workforce = the rapid development of fast, easy, and processed foods. The Froffle was one such invention...Frank Dorsa, a quintessential "inventor" was only slightly ahead of his time. He created an automatic potato peeler, a fryer that wouldn't curl bacon, a large rubber squeegee for laying cement, and perhaps one of the most influential pieces of machinery ever - a massive "merry-go-round" waffle machine that was 30 feet in diameter and could make thousands of waffles an hour.
Frank started in the food biz when he and his brothers created a mayonnaise company called... you guessed it... Eggo. At some point they decided to branch out into fresh waffle batter which grew in popularity significantly more than their mayo counterpart.
Realizing they had a successful product on their hands, they formulated a dry mixture that only required the addition of milk for restaurants and homemakers. But even mixing was too much for the quickly growing working generation and he realized that America wanted their waffles frozen rather than fresh.
When they launched they were called FROFFLES... aka Frozen Waffles
I need to take a minute right here to give credit to another amazing invention from Frank Dorsa... the automatic potato peeler - which he made after acquiring the Garden City Potato Chip plant! We can probably thank him for rapid potato growth as well.In 1962 the Dorsas had built quite the little food empire with their Eggo Food Products line and eventually sold it to Fern International, who eventually was bought by... Kellogg's.
"Leggo My Eggo"
Thank goodness for Leo Burnett - the agency and man who gave birth to pretty much every campaign, slogan, and character we know and love from the 20th century (think Tony the Tiger, Marlboro Man, Allstate's "Good Hands," Jolly Green Giant, the Keebler Elves, Toucan Sam) including the esoteric and almost dadaist catch phrase "Leggo my Eggo!"
A play of gibberish on the former mayo company name, it's basically turned into slang lingo all on its own. One fun definition of it from Urban Dictionary says...
"Leggo my eggo" is a former German expression for "Bite Me" used in the late 70's and 80's. "Leggo" comes from "Lecken" or "Lick". "My" is Bavarian for "mein." and "Eggo" equals "ego" or the first person equivalent of "me." So think of it either as "Bite Me" or "Lick Me."
But now that you know the history behind these simple frozen treats, won't it make eating them just that much sweeter?