Northern Ontario Dialects and Tie Plates

When I was taking a linguistics course in university, one of the assignments was to describe examples of the language specific to the region you grow up in. I didn't do very well on the assignment as it's hard to think of differences in day-to-day language between regions that are only a few hundred kilometres apart. 

TVO interviewed linguistics expert Sali Tagliamonte about the Ontario Dialects Project and northern Ontario dialects. 

I grew up in northern Ontario and as the interview points out, there are quite a few examples of language specific to that region. A common one, for example, is "camp" instead of "cottage", which is the usage that's common in southern Ontario where I live now. Another example is "packsack", which is a backpack. 

Here's one example that isn't mentioned in the interview, tie plate. In most of the world a tie plate is a piece of hardware used to fasten railroad ties to the rails. In Sault Ste. Marie, it's an Italian pastry, known everywhere else as a pizelle. 

Back in the early part of the 20th century, workers at Algoma Steel would make pizelle irons out of tie plates and the term crossed over to pastry. I had no idea it was a term local to the Sault until I started asking for them in bakeries in Pickering and was met with complete incomprehension. I have searched for an article I read years ago that explained the history of the term but haven't been able to find it. Nor is there any mention of it on the Ontario Dialects Project site, so I will contact them about it.