Gastronomy as Intangible Cultural Heritage: The ‘Miller’s Wafer’ Tradition in Borsodnádasd

Arkhely, Fruzsina (2025) Gastronomy as Intangible Cultural Heritage: The ‘Miller’s Wafer’ Tradition in Borsodnádasd. In: Living eating habits, revitalized foodways and the concepts of tradition and food heritage. ELTE HTK Néprajztudományi Intézet; Néprajzi Múzeum, Budapest, pp. 481-491. ISBN 9789634165200; 9789635670840

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Abstract

In this article I discuss how the tradition of baking the ‘Miller’s Wafer’ (‘Molnárkalács’) was established in Borsodnádasd, a small town in Northern Hungary. The town’s Metal Plate Works, a major industrial centre, significantly shaped the local community and its identity. After the factory's closure in 1990 local employment opportunities vanished, weakening the community's attachment to the town. The wafer-baking tradition, linked to the factory's history, was once widespread in Northern Hungary, but Borsodnádasd had the most surviving baking irons needed for wafer baking. By the early 2000s, only older generations practised the tradition. Local primary school teachers then proposed revitalising it as a means of fostering community spirit and to create value. This led to the establishment of the annual Festival of the Miller’s Wafer, where community baking groups celebrate the tradition, and also to the creation of the House of the Miller’s Wafer to produce the wafers. In 2012, Borsodnádasd's wafer-baking tradition was included in the National Inventory for Intangible Cultural Heritage, further boosting its development.

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