Mother’s Pecan Waffles with Orange Syrup

Predictably, it was the ever-curious Thomas Jefferson who returned from France to Virginia with the first long-handled, patterned waffle iron at the end of the eighteenth century, inspiring a culinary tradition that is as popular today in the South as it was two centuries ago. I’ve heard about but have yet to taste a Baltimore Sunday specialty called kidney stew on waffles, but I have eaten gritty rice waffles in Georgetown, South Carolina, and cornmeal waffles (or “Virgini