I think it’s time that we talked more about the mighty jaffle.

For hundreds of years, people have been putting fillings between two pieces of bread and putting it all in a cast iron jaffle maker and sticking it into an open fire. Ok, perhaps I made most of that up, but it could very well have been true.

The question of what to put between those two slices of bread is an enduring one – and one that needs more scientific research. Clancy started with a poll of sorts – on Facebook. Some seriously good suggestions came up. We had (amongst others):

• The roast lamb dinner jaffle
• The breakfast jaffle
• The eggs bennie jaffle
• The banana cheesecake jaffle
• The banana and Nutella jaffle
• The apple pie jaffle
• The Peking duck jaffle
• Mexican pulled pork, taco sauce and guacamole
• The ham and pineapple pizza jaffle
• The meat-lovers pizza jaffle
• The plastic cheese and peanut butter jaffle…yes, really…apparently late at night
• The kid’s favourite – the spaghetti bolognese jaffle

We spread the survey wider and opened most meetings in the day job with the question: ‘what’s your favourite jaffle filling?’

The key findings from all of this research were clear:

Everyone has a favourite jaffle filling – and, as long as there is lots of cheese involved, pretty well anything can go into the middle of one.

Also:

• A good jaffle has to be able to be eaten in one hand
• The jaffle has to involve either leftovers or basic esky and pantry staples.
• The jaffle shouldn’t involve the pre-cooking of any filling for the express purpose of being used in the jaffle (see the comment above about leftovers)
• Any sort of bread or bread-like product is permitted in the jaffle
• The jaffle can be cooked either directly on the fire or on the hot plate.

The best sort, though, are the jaffles you make on your final lunch when you have a heap of leftovers that need to be used up before you pack up. Think chicken and camembert, chicken, chorizo and cheese.