WAFER, a small round piece of dried paste, which is used to fasten letters. The host, as given to laymen at the sacrament in the Itomish Church, and the piece of consecrated cake given in extreme unc tion, Is also called a wafer, and it is recommended to be swallowed whole if possible. Thin cake formed into a roll, and called wafers, is still sold by pastrycooks. In fact the word was used in England to signify a thin cake long before wafers for sealing letters were invented.
Waft/ is the name given by tbo Germans to a thin cake made with flour, eggs, sugar, itc.; the Dutch call much a cake wafel, and the Danes rote/. The French call it gaufre. The French name for a wafer Is pain a cackler, and wafers are pains a catheter. The Anglo-Saxons also had the name waffel.
To make common wafers, a liquid paste is made with flour and cold water, very smooth ; and colouring matter is then mixed with It. The baking is done with an instrument similar to that which is used to make yaufres and waftln. It consists of two thin plates of iron; the upper plate closes upon the lower, which is made with a ledge, and thus forms a mould for the paste. Both plates having been warmed and greased to prevent adhesion, some of the liquid paste is poured into the lower plate, and the upper plate is then shut down, which forces out any superfluous paste and forms the rest into a thin and even layer. The instrument which is held by a handle like that of a
frying.pan, is placed for a few moments over a fire, and the sheet of baked paste is then taken out and dried in the air, when it becomes firm and brittle, and is cut with a suitable instrument into wafers.
Gelatine or transparent wafers are thus made. Good gelatine or glue is dissolved In warm water. The mixture, while still warm, is poured on a warm and slightly oiled glass plate, having a bordering formed of slips of cardboard; another warm plate is laid on it, and pressed. When cold, the gelatine is removed in a very thin, semi transparent sheet, and is cut into small pieces of the proper shape by means of a punch. Sometimes a little sugar is added to the gelatine.
Mcdallivn wafers have a device in cameo or relief. The device is first engraved in intaglio on a metal plate. A pasta is then made of any convenient powder mixed with gum-water or size; a background is formed of melted coloured gelatine; and the two are so applied to the engraving as to lead to the production of a sheet of medallion wafers, which aro separated liy cutting or punching.