If you have not used your griddle or waffle-iron for some time, wash it
off hard with hot soap and water; wipe and rub well with dry salt. Heat
it and grease with a bit of fat salt pork on a fork. It is a mistake,
besides being slovenly and wasteful, to put on more grease than is
absolutely necessary to prevent the cake from sticking. A piece of pork
an inch square should last for several days. Put on a great spoonful
of butter for each cake, and before filling the griddle test it with
a single cake, to be sure that all is right with it as well as the
batter.
The same rules apply to waffles. Always lay hot cakes and waffles upon
a hot plate as soon as baked.