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Amazing Popcorn Recipes – Not What You Thought!

Amazing Popcorn Recipes – Not What You Thought!

Popcorn is the second snack food in U.S. history (the first was peanuts). It’s tasty, crunchy…well, you know the rest. AND – just about all Americans agree on one thing: They like popcorn. BUT, we modern Americans may be missing the popcorn boat. Not only is popcorn a great snack, but it is more versatile than you can imagine. Here are some recipes – we’ll supply the popcorn, ground or freshly popped.

POPCORN SANDWICHES

This lunchtime popcorn delight is perfect for the kid – or even grown-up – who wants to add fun to function mid-day, with just the right health benefits. This recipe is from 1915 – you can definitely change the filling.

Recipe: Put the popped corn through the food chopper and make a paste of it mixed with cream cheese or peanut butter. Spread this paste between thin slices of bread.

TIP: Forget the paste and chopper – it’s too much work. Just chop up popcorn and mix it in the peanut butter or cream cheese for a satisfying crunch. Don’t be shy – add raisins, tiny marshmallows, even chocolate chips to the mix, as the spirit moves you.

Comment: THIS IS DELICIOUS! I couldn’t stop eating the peanut butter sample. You can use other breads – even wholegrain would be great.

Popcorn Pudding

For Old Souls (from 1915). You’ll want to call this porridge it’s so old school.

Recipe: Use the finest blade of the chopper and put through enough popped corn to make two cupful’s. Cover the corn with three soak an hour. Beat three eggs. Add half a teaspoonful of salt, a tablespoonful of butter and half a cupful of brown sugar. Stir in the corn and milk, and cook in a slow oven forty minutes. Serve hot.

TIP: In the days of old, recipes changed depending on who was making them, often passed down orally. So this perfect comfort food may be even more perfect with a dash of vanilla extract (new and hard to find at the time) or a sprinkling of cinnamon. Or both. I vote for raisins here, too – they’ll plump up nicely and…mmmmm.

Sounds great, but you don’t want to chop the popcorn? Why not get some our Popcorn Cereal, where we do the chopping for you! If you have extra you can use it for the recipe just below.

Popcorn Cereal

From the 1940s, precisely like the ones starting in the late 1800s.

DO NOT scoff at this! It’s WONDERFUL – just like oatmeal but with more texture! You might be thinking it would be too soggy. Soggy? Think about Corn Flakes or Rice Krispies after about 15 seconds swimming in milk. Soggy? No – mushy. Popcorn cereal – textured, with a very subtle crunch. If you don’t like it, we’ll double your money back! Just kidding. That’s what they used to say – not now.

Recipe: The cereal recipe goes like this: Pop the corn, run it through a food chopper and add four cups of the corn to two cups of boiling water. Then cook until thickened. They say the cereal will come up fluffy, something like oatmeal that isn’t over wet or underdone. What’s left over you can slice and fry for next morning’s breakfast.

Tip: We provide the cereal – you add the water. PS: this is really good with butter, salt and sugar. Eat while hot.

 

Popcorn – the Garnish

Simple, but true! Esteemed Master chef Louis P. DeGouy of the acclaimed New York Waldorf-Astoria (1930s to 1950s)  recommended popcorn as a garnish for salad and soup. For soup, he explains: “Serve the soup in heated soup plates, each plate garnished with a little popcorn, lightly toasted.” From: The Gold Cookbook, 1947.

Tip: Get some of our Baker’s Popcorn. It’s only slightly salted so it won’t interfere with other flavors. OR go all in and get…maybe… Breakfast Crunch? But don’t use that on Tomato Soup 🙂 .

 

 

The True Treats Experience

Welcome to the True Treats Experience!  The club for discerning, curious and fun-loving folks who love history.

BECOME PART OF THE TRUE TREATS EXPERIENCE!

Coming your way via our email correspondences and social media appearances:

  • Opportunities to be a True Treats taster, whether one of our historic candies, teas or snack foods. We send the sample – you tell us what you think!
  • Contests with hardly any rules and a tasty prize.
  • Interesting, hard-to-find recipes, many undiscovered and primarily made by women at home.
  • An insider’s view of True Treats EXCLUSIVE gift boxes and collections – with first dibs on limited edition products.
  • Unique historic cards, perfect for birthdays, congratulations messages, & more.
  • Links to lost-and-now-found movies, candy ads, photos, and more.
  • PLUS – a special email address for our True Treats Experience friends, so you can contact us about finding hard-to-find recipes, candies that your Grandma loved, and candies, snacks, even drink mixes that you’d like us to carry.

All about True Treats

True Treats is unique. YES! We carry old time and retro candy – but our timeline is older than that! Our sweets, snack foods, teas, and cookbooks span the FIRST in history to the 20th century. True Treats has 500+ products for you to discover, try, and share!!

Since Susan Benjamin opened True Treats in 2010, we have been the nation’s ONLY research-based historic sweets, treats and candy store. You can find our products in museum gifts, specialty shops, AND, of course — on our Web site and at our brick-and-mortar stores.  No matter where you find True Treats, you’ll find the product’s story on the label, box, and tag with an historic image to match.

 

True Treats Chocolate Table Mid-1800s-Mid-1900s

 

  Meet our Founder, Food Historian Susan Benjamin

       Susan talking to customers at our Harpers Ferry store

A nationally recognized food historian, Ms. Benjamin, has devoted her time to researching the history of candy, snack foods, teas and treats since 2010.  A former academic, cultural researcher, and communications strategist, Ms. Benjamin digs deep into American food culture from kitchens to fields to the frontlines of American history. You may know Ms. Benjamin from one of her many media appearances from the History Channel, PBS, and Vice.com, on radio shows ranging from ABC news to NPR affiliates, or publications such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, or through TV productions such as Jeopardy, which featured her store on one of their questions.

As an author, Ms. Benjamin has written ten books which have sold internationally and been translated into five language. Her most recent book, “Sweet as Sin,” was on the Smithsonian’s list of “Best Books about Food.” AND she is working on #11 – due out in 2024! Always – she brings her findings to visitors at her brick-and-mortar and online stores and, as part of the True Treats Experience – TO YOU!

     Susan at the Smithsonian with her new book!

                                                                                         

The Many Faces of Our True Treats Experience Tasters

Our First Ever Grapefruit-Ade Tasting!!

Funny Face
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Grapefruit Tasters feedback
Better! Thanks to True Treats’ Vanilla Sugars

 

Grapefruit Tasters
Grapefruit -Ade with Grapefruit Slices

 

****LOOKING for the perfect -and perfectly unique- gift? Looking for lost candy? An important recipe? As part of the True Treats’ experience, you get an exclusive connection. Reach us by phone, email, or Facebook and we’ll get right back to you with answers and ideas***

Our 3-Century Candy Collections – 1700s, 1800s, 1900s – 36 Samples and the story of each

CANDY PLUS!!!

We offer other historic experiences such as teas – the origin of medicine which was the origin of…. CANDY: Here are a few of them:

 

 

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The History of the Illustrious Buttercreams

Buttercreams are usually not first-in-mind for chocolate-lovers when deciding on just-the-right chocolatey snack. But, at one time, buttercreams and other cream candies, were the pièces de résistance of the chocolate world. Their story begins, of course, with chocolate itself and culminates in the heyday of chocolate innovations – the mid-1800s through the 1920s.

When did Americans start eating buttercreams?

Before there were buttercreams, there was the cacao tree which originated in Mesoamerica…and from this tree grew the cacao bean. The bean, by the way, springs directly from the trunk of the tree – a true sight to behold!

Cacao pods hanging from bark – Wikipedia

The cacao’s route was circuitous, to say the least, having left Mesoamerica for Mexico, to, variously, Native Americans of the Southwest and Spain with Spanish conquerors, then elsewhere in Europe, via the marriage of royalty from one chocolate-loving nation to another, THEN back on British ships to North America where European settlers got hold of it.

Frothing chocolate depicted on ancient Maya ceramic container

Chocolate in the “New World”

The first sighting of the cacao amongst European immigrants appeared in a petition drafted in 1670 by Dorothy Jones and Jane Barnard “to keepe a house of publique Entertainment for the selling of Coffee and Chucalettoe [sic].” The officials agreed although, as in Europe, chocolate had its detractors, primarily those who considered it a sin.

About 100 years later, an Irish immigrant, John Hannon, started the first chocolate mill, turning the cacao bean and its internal “nibs” into the ingredients for a coveted, if not bitter, drink. Hannon was brilliant but not entirely business-like and not at all wealthy. So, he brought in James Baker, a wealthy Harvard College graduate and businessman, for help.

The Birth of Baker’s Chocolate

After literal nose-to-the-grindstone, the company was producing 900 pounds of chocolate for the Colonists. Not all 18th century inhabitants were equal, of course, and neither was their chocolate. Baker’s shamelessly made three varieties: “No. 1 Premium” or “Best Chocolate” the purest, and most expensive line for the wealthy few; “No. 2” or “Common Chocolate,” was a grade below, and used by workers of European descent; and “No. 3,” known as “Inferior Chocolate” used by enslaved workers in the South and West Indies. This version was thick with rice – more a gelatinous brew than a satisfying drink.

The Hannon-Baker partnership ended for reasons unknown, but one thing is certain: Hannon went on a trip, possibly to the West Indies in search of cacao, and was never heard from again, likely killed in a shipwreck. The business was called “Baker’s Chocolate’, forever misleading people to believe the brand was just for bakers.

 

Card for Baker’s Chocolate

 

Baker’s Chocolate Logo, 1873

Early Chocolate Enthusiasts

Then, as now, chocolate had many fans, some illustrious. One was Judge Samuel Sewall, who, from 1674 to 1729, kept a journal where he recorded uniquely commonplace goings-on, giving historians access to the lives of the Puritans and candy enthusiasts a glimpse of the early life of chocolate.

 

Judge Samuel Sewall, 1729, by John Smibert Wikipedia

In his diary, Sewall wrote in 1697 about having “chockalett” and venison for a breakfast where “Massachuset and Mixco meet.” In 1702, he recorded bringing Minister Samuel Whiting “2 balls of Chockalett and a pound of figs,” because he was “languishing” and Mrs. Stoddard “two half pounds of chockalett” instead of Commencement Cake. Chocolate as medicine and gift was common, as were its alleged aphrodisiac properties. Today, in that regard, little has changed.

Page from Samuel Sewall Diary, from Massachusetts Historical Society

By the way – Sewall was a prominent merchant, and one of the judges who bestowed the tortuous sentences at the Salem Witch Trials. Within five years, he was wracked with shame and guilt, publicly apologized, fasted yearly in repentance, and became an early and ardent abolitionist.

Chocolate and the American Revolution

Other celebrated chocolate enthusiasts included Benjamin Franklin. He admired the exotic bean for its alleged health and medicinal value which included curing smallpox.  His shipments to officers in the French and Indian War included “6 lbs. of chocolate” (plus sugar, tea, coffee, vinegar, cheese, Madeira, Jamaican spirits, and mustard). His friend and fellow Revolutionary, Thomas Jefferson, said: “The superiority of chocolate, both for health and nourishment, will soon give it the preference over tea and coffee in America, which it has in Spain.”

Another benefit: chocolate was a great alternative to British tea.

How did Chocolate Taste?

This early chocolate was a bitter drink that wealthy New Englanders enjoyed at various times, particularly at breakfast or, possibly, instead of breakfast. They had to work to get it, too, first by boiling water which they poured over a cake of chocolate, then stirred constantly in a chocolate pot until the chocolate had dissolved, and, at last, the liquid was rich and frothy. (This process changed little from the original where chocolate was poured back-and-forth to create a frothy consistency.) Depending on the hour and purpose, they may have added sugar, spices, milk, or even wine, which they probably needed after all that effort.

An Aztec woman generates foam by pouring chocolate from one vessel to another. (1553) Wikipedia

 

 

A Lady Pouring Chocolate by Jean-Étienne Liotard (1744) Wikipedia
Collection of chocolate post – former home of Wilbur Chocolates. Taken by author. 2016.

 

So – Buttercreams?

Starting in the early 1800s, the Industrial Revolution was on the march and innovations were on the rise. While the U.S. was embroiled in a Civil War, Europeans were creating innovations in the world of chocolate. Among the leaders were the British Quakers with such familiar names as the Cadburys, Rowntrees, and Frys who went on to pioneer the use of factory methods for making chocolate and the steam engine for grinding beans. They also invented the candy bar!

Fry’s Chocolate Ad, 1901

 

The new possibilities for chocolate were endless, producing enrobed creations be they chocolate bonbons, truffles with gnash centers, or creams including “buttercreams.” They were voluptuous, yes, and the best ones of all were French. By French, the chocolates weren’t necessary from France, but were in the “French style,” such as the French style cream-filled candy, introduced in 1851 at the Great Exhibition in London. It won an adoring audience in the US, who had long been enamored in all things French.

Chocolate ad Cacao Lacte by Lucien Lefevre-1903

The “French-style” creams and other chocolates were marvelous, sweet, yet gritty. Things changed in 1879 when Swiss chocolatier Adolphe Lindt (yes – that Lindt of Lindt chocolate) invented a “conching” machine, which massaged the gritty chocolate into soft and supple submission.

 

Chocolate Lindt Chocolate Ad 1890

Buttercreams in the U.S.

So popular were these chocolates that some post-war U.S. “chocolatiers” devoted themselves to their existence. Others, such as the illustrious Shrafft’s Confectionary of Boston, made them en masse then wholesaled them to smaller companies. Schrafft also carried chocolates in their own retail shops, complete with the French-ish names such as “D’Or Elegante,” and distinct gold-hued packaging. Their ads said:

“From the French comes the motif for this distinguished package, but only Schrafft could have supplied such chocolates. Search among the most exclusive shops of London, Paris, Rome-you will find nothing to compare to them. The golden box of chocolates is now offered for the first time. It contains the daintiest of our French truffle, nuts, fruits, and cream centers.”

Not all creams were touted as being “French” but all did have upscale sounding assortments with names like “Society Chocolates,” “Lady Fairfax Chocolates,” and “Paradise Chocolate.” Their advertising was sensual and sublime. Here’s one from Mead Chocolate in 1920: “A box of Belle Mead chocolates is an open door to the magic realms of chocolatery where all’s delicious. Made from the purest ingredients moulded into sweets of rare delight-into bon bons and raspberry creams, into peppermint and orange paste, mapled creams and caramels, and many other luscious morsels.”

Belle Mead Advertisement, December 19, 1920

 

Gradually, creams, as well as other glamourous chocolates, found a new home in daily settings. During Prohibition, restauranteurs sold them as an after-dinner replacement for alcohol. During WWI and World War II, chocolate-makers recommended that families at home send packages to the troops – while supplies lasted.

Whitman’s Ad, World War II

Buttercreams Today

Today, creams have returned to their status as the perfect punctuation for events, tucked in Valentine’s Day collections, given as gifts – be it thank-you’s or birthdays, or bought and saved for just-the-right moment. As before, they’re still luxuriously sweet and flavorful.…with roots reaching deep into Mesoamerica.

 

The Amazing NECCO Wafer: Where Retro Began

You may love Necco Wafers (as I do) or not like them at all…depending on your taste and memory of when you ate them. As for me – I once lived near the Necco factory in Cambridge Massachusetts and would knock on  a side door of the building on an occasional Thursday.  That was the day when the company store was open to workers, and a woman, maybe a manager, would open the door and give me some samples. I always offered to pay, and she always brushed me away. But why the side door? Why not go to my local pharmacy, candy store, or so many other spots and buy some there? BECAUSE: Tropical! My favorite Necco Wafers were the hard-to-find tropical varieties and the factory had rolls a’plenty. Not that the other flavors weren’t good enough. For me, they too were good enough and then some.

Necco Company in Cambridge, Massachusetts (Courtesy: BOSTON.com)

Love them or not, one thing is TRUE: Necco Wafers were an early candy, a true first footprint on the path to Retro candy and the story is amazing…starting with OLIVER CHASE!

Who Invented the NECCO Wafer?

Today’s retro candy was invented, more or less, in apothecaries where sugar reigned as a flavoring and curative. Some were actual pharmacies – some, shall we say, were sketchy. So, it makes sense that Oliver Chase, a genuine pharmacist, would be among the first to create what would be an early retro candy. Chase had immigrated from England in the 1840s and set up an apothecary in Boston with his brothers Silas and Daniel. One of his products was “soft paste,” lozenges consisting of sugar, gum Arabic, a flavoring and possibly gelatin.

As a medicine, Chase, like other pharmacists, mixed in numerous arcane and familiar ingredients: peppermint or ginger for stomach problems, rhubarb for constipation, ginger for nausea, and opium for just about everything else. As a candy, Chase replaced the bad tasting ingredients with tasty flavorings that would appeal to grown-ups and kids alike. The ingredients are pretty much the same as stick candy or Turkish delight, but the texture was both smooth and chalky. Customers report they used NECCOs as a practice communion wafer and their grandmothers used them as a sugary sedative to keep the grandchildren quiet at church.

NECCO Wafer: Problem/Solution

Chase’s lozenges were exceptionally popular, which created a problem. The production process was so slow, he got further and further behind the orders. Besides, making the lozenges was tedious, exact work: according to Scientific American of 1868, the “plastic” sugar was rolled into a sheet then cut, lozenge after lozenge, like crackers from dough. The batter was temperamental, it had to be just the right consistency, measured and pressed to make close-to-exact doses, with as little handling as possible.”

So, in 1847, Oliver Chase developed a lozenge cutting machine where he cranked dough onto plates with lozenge-size indentations. The lozenges tumbled out in uniform sizes as quickly as his hand could turn.

 

Oliver Chase Making Wafers on His New Machine

Chase called the result the “Chase Lozenge” or “Hub wafer” – one with a glazed and the other with a transparent wrapper. “Hub”, by the way, was a nickname for “Boston”.  Later, the confection was called the Necco Wafer. For the first time, candy-makers could quickly produce consistent pieces and medicine-makers create predictable doses. Chase’s machine was revolutionary.

What Other Candies Were People Eating When Chase Created the NECCO Wafer?

Grown-ups and kids were eating other candies, but few survive today. One was Turkish delight also called Turkish “paste,” which actually resemble fruit squares and an invention from around 1805 – the Gum Drop. Others include the Gibralter, made in the nation’s first commercial candy company in 1806; pulled creams, which evolved in the mid-1800s; hand-pulled sticks which go back who-knows-how long…probably 1600s; and sugar plums, a broad range of candies with a tiny nuts or seeds surrounded with sugar such as Cream Filberts (late 1700s) and sugared or Jordan Almonds (ancient Romans).

What distinguished Chase was his use of machinery to make the candy, so it was every-ready to enjoy.

    Turkish Delight, Rose, Assorted Fruit    Buy Traditional Multicolored Gum Drops, Harpers Ferry West Virginia, true treats historic candy,

Turkish delight                                                                         Cream Filberts                                                                     Gum Drops

Romance and the NECCO Wafer

Oliver soon partnered with his brother Silas to make a sugar pulverizing machine that, according to their patent application of 1850 “…consists of a cylindrical vessel or mortar made of caste iron or other suitable material and of such thickness and dimensions as circumstances may require.”

Almost twenty years later, another Chase-inspired change was on the way, this one by Daniel Chase. During the 19th century “conversation lozenges” were popular in England, where little sayings were hand-printed on the candy. Some were romantic, such as “Love me” while others inspired precisely the opposite. The temperance movement was behind many of those, with such sobering comments as: “Drink is the Ruin of Man,” and “Sobriety is the way to riches.” In the U.S., Daniel invented a “motto-making” machine that printed sayings quickly and directly on heart-shaped candies, focused entirely on matters of the heart, not the liver. The result is called “Sweethearts.”

Sweetheart Candy – the Original

As the candy industry grew, the confectioner’s role seemed to have taken on greater stature.  In 1912, the Americana, an encyclopedia, says:

“Of course, we know that in the early days, the art of manufacturing confectionery was confined almost exclusively to the apothecaries and physicians, both of whom made use of these sweets in their attempts to disguise the unpleasant characteristic of their medicines…During the 19th century the confectionery trade has experienced its greatest development for it is since the dawn of that century that it has become what it is to-day, one of the world’s great business enterprises. In the making of this transition, the druggist has not ceased to be a factor in the trade. He still requires his medicated candies but, in this respect, he has become a purchaser…”

The Americana also noted that:

“…candy usually was confined to such ordinary products as the old fashion stick candy, sugar plums, and the ordinary molasses candy…In 1846, Oliver R. Chase, who with his brother, formed the firm Chase & Company, invented a machine for the making of lozenges…In 1866, a further innovation in lozenge innovation was produced by Daniel G. Chase. This was a machine for printing on candies and it was to those invention that the well-remembered conversation lozenges owe its existence… Since that day, the history of the confectionary trade has been a constant record of development.”

 Packing Necco Wafers Mid-1900s

The Necco Wafer Goes to War (Or does it?)

The Chases may have ushered in the industrialization of candy, but there’s more. It’s possible, and I underscore possible, that the Chase Brothers sent Oliver’s lozenge to the Union soldiers. This distinction is relevant because many in-the-know people such as reenactors, historic Web sites, and NPR’s quiz show Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me indicate this exchange of sweets definitely happened. I called the New England Confectionary Company for confirmation after I failed to find original sourcing. A young, chipper-sounding employee from their outsourced PR department merrily informed me that the Necco was not in the war. Silly, silly NPR.

Here’s my opinion. Seeing how friends, family, and businesses sent candy to Civil War soldiers during the war, why wouldn’t Oliver Chase and his popular lozenge be among them? So, did they send or didn’t they? My vote is yes.  Either way, Admiral Byrd definitely did take 2 ½ tons of the lozenges on his expedition to the South Pole and during World War Two, when Hershey was busy with the D – Ration, the U.S. sent Neccos to troops because they were “practically indestructible”

Necco Wafer Eaten by Soldiers in WWII

The NECCO Candy Company – Moving On and Up

Over the years, the company underwent many changes. After building a factory on Melcher Street in Boston, the Chase brothers opened a “Western” branch in Chicago. It was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. In 1872, the Boston factory burned down as well. The company rebounded, and in 1901, joined the other companies to rise up as the New England Confectionery Company. All went well as the company opened a factory in South Boston, then one in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1927 and where I went to buy candy decades later.

NECCO- Boston Early 1900s

NECCO- Boston Early 1900s

 

Necco Chimney in Cambridge Massachusetts

 

Necco Wafers, Sweethearts, Clark Bars, Mary Janes, Slapstick & Squirrel Nut Zippers

But, as fate would have it – and does with so many companies – it changed hands in the corporate style of hand-changing…too many names to bother mentioning. At one point, in a move to stay afloat in the ever-changing world of vintage candy, NECCO bought out other candies. Their mission was simple: Be the provider of retro, old time, and vintage candy–WHATEVER you want to call it! Their selections went onto include Squirrel Nut Zippers, Clark Bars, Mary Janes, Candy Buttons, Banana Chews, Canada Mints,  Necco Wafers, Slapstick, Sweethearts and Sky Bar…among others.

Image: UK Daily News

In a story sad for all of us – the NECCO factory moved out of Kendall Square in Cambridge where it had a time-honored home. The building became the high budget, albeit soulless, property of MIT. NECCO resituated in Revere Massachusetts….just down the road… then…went bust.

                NECCO Last Stop in Masschusetts, Revere

 

The End that Isn’t (Fortunately)

While the NECCO company went under, not all the NECCO candies went with it. The Necco Wafer is now being made by Spangler, itself a venerable company with an impressively long history starting in 1906. A related Candy Button is available, and the Clark Bar (made by Davied Clark, maker of Teaberry Gum) is now made by the Boyer Company maker of Mallo Cup and comes in two shapes – cup and traditional bar. Our version of Canada Mints really is made in Canada where they were invented (no surprise!) and Mary Janes seem to be sliding on and off the retail radar since last year. We love them all – for their memories and their tastes.

THANK YOU, OLIVER CHASE!

You Know Uncle Sam – Wait ’til You Meet AUNT SAMMY!

Aunt Sammy: Shaping the Candies, Cakes & Wholesome Foods of Appalachia

You likely know Uncle Sam but probably not Aunt Sammy. So – allow me. She helped put Appalachian food on your table and mountain confections in your mouth!  In 1926, she became a welcome part of the Appalachian and other farm, coal mine, and more general rural communities. She provided advice, news items and recipes on air and in print, many sent from thousands of listeners in rural communities, answering today’s question: WHAT IS real American cooking? She first appeared in 1926 as Uncle Sam’s (yes, that Uncle Sam) wife or sister (it isn’t entirely clear) – a true flesh and blood household advisor. Well, sort, of.

Who was Aunt Sammy? All about Betty Crocker & Friends: Candies, Casseroles, and Cake Mixes

To understand Aunt Sammy – and her relationship to Uncle Sam and the Appalachian homemaker – it’s important to know about Betty Crocker, Ann Pillsbury, Aunt Jemima, and the rising presence of radios in people’s homes in the early 1900s. Betty Crocker’s “life” as it was, started in the early 1920s, when General Mills created the woman who wasn’t. Betty Crocker was an even-keeled helpful household advisor and personality, designed to be as real as you and me. Betty had her own radio show, newspaper column, endorsements, and presence on the American landscape – but was actually played by a variety of actresses for decades. She was never outed and, even today, many consider her an actual person.

Marjorie Housted – One of the authors and voices called Betty Crocker

 

One of the many Betty Crocker faces

 

Betty Crocker wasn’t alone. She was joined by plenty of others including Ann Pillsbury, Aunt Jemima, and Carnation’s Mary Blake, all women who weren’t. These women also represented the interests of large businesses, promoting everything from flours and baking soda (using the sponsor’s brands) to cake mixes, where the company did it all. Their audience was middle class women, homemakers, and domestic help. And then there was Aunt Sammy!

Tune In Appalachia! Recipes, Advice, and A Good Friend on the Radio

Like Betty, Aunt Sammy’s presence rose up in the 1920s when radio’s rise in the American landscape was meteoric to say the least.  At first, about 10,000 radios were on the American landscape, mostly homemade by radio hobbyist. Within five years, roughly 7.5 million people had a radio at home. For rural homemakers of Appalachia, radios were a link to the outside world, fueled by batteries, much more reliable than electricity, even in storms. Remember: rural homemakers were isolated on farms where they literarily made the homes, in charge of sewing clothes, growing, harvesting, and cooking food, raising kids, mending fences, and repairing whatever problem arose. Company? Little company, no television, no public transportation, and no newspapers. Even if they had newspapers, many of these women couldn’t read.

One of the friendly voices to break through the isolation was “Aunt Sammy” the wife of Uncle Sam. Unlike other advisors who represented the interests of corporations and, like Betty Crocker, focused on the middle class, Aunt Sammy represented the interests of the United Sates Department of Agriculture. Her audience was rural and town-based and her message was about many things, primary among them food. Good, wholesome, and economical food and using specific measurements and hygienic processes. In short, Aunt Sammy was bringing to rural communities’ recipes for better, healthier living – a first for a demographic others ignored.

 

Ruth Van Deman, one of the authors of Aunt Sammy’s Recipes

Listeners regularly tuned into Aunt Sammy’s productions which first aired five days a week in 1926, then called a variety of names – “Housekeeper’s Half-Hour” and “Aunt Sammy” among them. It was one of the first radio shows with regular characters, such as Ebenezer, an uncle; Billy, a nephew; Percy DeWillington, a fussy eater; and the Nosy Neighbor. Aunt Sammy was represented by 30 different women at 30 different stations – a total of 150 actresses over the years. They shared the same script, but, unlike Betty & company who were relentlessly the same, they had different regional accents. The reason: to gain the trust of listeners who welcomed them into their homes. Even the content was driven by letters sent by listeners.

By 1927, more than a million women were tuning into the program and had sent 60,000 letters seeking advice. If the questions were pertinent and interesting enough, they were raised on air. If not, the listeners received a personal letter in response. While the program covered a range of subjects, food was among the greatest places of concern.

Listening to Aunt Sammy of the Radio – Late 1920s

 

Hey Appalachia – Exercise Your Ingredients!

While radio was a miracle, and a useful miracle at that, it had flaws. It was scratchy and, at times, incoherent, a deficit when following recipe instructions. One production demonstrates the problem well, when a young husband was trying to copy a recipe for his wife. Unfortunately, the radio signals had crossed, and two shows – one, apparently an exercise show for men, and the other, Aunt Sammy, wove together. Still, the husband persisted, diligently taking notes, connections crisscrossing, and he ended up with the following instructions: “Hands on hips, place one cup of flour on the shoulders, raise knees and depress toes and mix thoroughly with one half-cup of milk…inhale quickly one-half teaspoon of baking powder, lower the legs and mash two hard-boiled eggs in a sieve…lie flat on the floor and roll the white of an egg backward and forward…”

Uncle Sam in Appalachia: Just Like a Man

As a supplement to the radio productions, Aunt Sammy joined the ranks of those producing cookbook/pamphlets in 1927. Simply called Aunt Sammy’s Radio Recipes, the instructions were simple, easy-to-follow and deemed fool-proof.  Aunt Sammy promoted the cookbook on- air, saying:  “By the way, some of you have begun to listen in quite recently. You may not have copies of the loose-leaf Radio Cook Book Uncle Sam is sending to homemakers. I want to give Uncle Sam all the credit due him, but the cookbook was not his idea at all. After he saw how neat it was, and how easily extra pages could be added, he waxed enthusiastic — he really did. His only regret was that he didn’t originate the idea himself. Isn’t that just like a man?”

  

Whatever Became of Aunt Sammy?

Within the first six months of publication, the USDA received 41,000 requests for the Aunt Sammy’s publication and soon had printed 100,000 copies. All were gone within the year. In 1931, a new edition called Aunt Sammy’s Radio Recipes Revised was released – also the first cookbook printed in Braille.  In 1931, Aunt Sammy also instructed listeners in authentic traditional Chinese cooking techniques, helping to improve the quality of Chinese-American food prepared by home cooks.  Her show continued to educate and stimulate rural homemakers in Appalachia and other areas through 1944.

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Want to try Aunt Sammy’s recipes? You can find them here: Aunt Sammy’s radio recipes: United States. Bureau of Human Nutrition and Home Economics : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

TIRED OF THE SCREEN? Sit back, relax, and listen to Aunt Sammy, and get great food ideas as you do!: (2) Selections from Aunt Sammy’s Radio Recipes and USDA Favorites by Ruth van Deman | Full Audio Book – YouTube

 

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We picked out a few easy-to-make options for Aunt Sammy’s fun foods – if you’re not up for cooking, you can get a variation from us. Her recipe book covers everything from meats to vegetables with plenty of helpful advice!

Pralines Recipe– A Classic

  • 4 cups sugar
  • 2 cups cream
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 cups pecan nut meats

Make a sirup out of 3 cups of the sugar and the cream. Cara- melize the other cup of sugar by melting it in an iron pan and stir- ring constantly with the back of a spoon. Into it pour all the sirup at one time, stirring constantly and rapidly. Add the salt. Boil the mixture to the soft-ball stage without stirring. Pour into a fiat pan and cool. Beat to a creamy consistency and add the nuts. Form into fiat, round cakes about 3 inches in diameter on a waxed paper. This amount makes about 20 cakes. During the creaming process the nuts must be added before the mixture shows signs of hardening. As this candy is to be in the form of round cakes, and not in a mass, work quickly to keep the candy from hardening before the cakes are placed on the waxed paper.

Try True Treats Pralines made in a Texas-based pecan plantation.

Sugared Popcorn Recipe – A Cousin to Kettle Corn

  • Sugared Popcorn
  • 1-1/2  cups sugar.
  • 1 teaspoon salt.
  • 1 cup water
  • 2 quarts freshly popped corm

Cook the sugar, water, and salt until the sirup forms a soft ball when dropped into cold water, or until a candy thermometer registers 238° F. Remove from the fire. Beat with a spoon until it is creamy. Drop in the popcorn and Stir quickly until each kernel is coated with sugar. Put on a greased platter and separate the grains of corn. Cook the sugar, water, and salt until the sirup forms a soft ball when dropped into cold water, or until a candy thermometer registers 238° F. Remove from the fire. Beat with a spoon until it is creamy. Drop in the popcorn and stir quickly until each kernel is coated with sugar. Put on a greased platter and separate the grains of corn.

Turkish Paste Recipe

  • 3 tablespoons gelatin.
  • 1/2 cup cold water.
  • 1 pound sugar.
  • 1/2 cup hot water.
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt.
  • 3 tablespoons lemon juice.
  • Green coloring.
  • Mint flavoring.
  • 1 cup finely chopped nuts

Soften the gelatin in the cold water for 5 minutes. Bring the hot water and sugar to the boiling point. Add the salt and gelatin, Stir until the gelatin has dissolved, and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from the fire and when cool add the lemon juice, coloring, and mint flavoring. Stir in the nuts and allow the mixture to &and until it begins to thicken. Stir again before pouring into a wet pan and have the layer of paste about one inch thick. Let &and overnight in a cool place. Moisten a sharp knife in boiling water, cut the candy in cubes, and roll in powdered sugar.

The paste is 1/2 Turkish delight (circa 900 CE) and 1/2 Gum Drop which used Turkish delight as a prototype (originated around 1805, this version likely 1860s).

Nut Brittle Recipe

  • 2 cups granulated sugar.
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla.
  • ¼ teaspoon salt.
  • 2 cups nuts.
  • ¼ teaspoon soda.

Heat the sugar gradually in a clean smooth skillet. Stir constantly with the bowl of the spoon until a golden sirup is formed. Remove from the fire and Stir in quickly the salt, soda, and vanilla. Pour the sirup over a layer of nuts in a greased pan. When cold, crack into small pieces.

The basic peanut brittle. Ours is from around the same time but uses corn syrup (an original American sweetener) and butter.

 Parisian Sweets Recipe

  • 1/2 pound figs.
  • 1/2 pound nut meats.
  • 1/2 pound dried prunes or seedless raisins.

Wash, pick over, and stem the fruits. Put them, with the nut meats, through a meat chopper, using a medium knife. Mix thoroughly. Roll out to a thickness of about one-half inch on a board dredged with confectioners’ sugar. Cut into small pieces; or make balls and roll them in confectioners’ sugar. If these sweets are to be kept for some tune, they should be put in a tin box or a tight jar.

Amazing – reminiscent of the early Middle Eastern fig cakes.

Angelica Root: Blessed and Bold

What does Angelica plant taste like?

We at True Treats had no idea. So, we did a taste test. Frankly, I was skeptical, but it tasted good. Earthy with a slight spiciness, a warm flavor. So good, we kept drinking it even after the verdict of how good it was was in!

Why is the plant called Angelica?

Some say the name “Angelica” refers to Michael the Archangel who, though a dream, informed a monk of the plants ability to cure the plague. Others say angelica blooms on Michael the Archangel’s feast day, May 8th on the old Julian Calendar. Angelica was also called the “Root of the Holy Ghost,” for its powerful healing properties.  Regardless, Angelica is a unique, aromatic plant which even grows in colder climates of Iceland, Northern Russia and Norway.

 

Is Angelica a medicine?

Throughout history, Angelica was believed to have intense healing properties, able to take on just about anything, including evil spirits, witches, spells, and the plague.  Many still consider Angelica a healing herb, rich in nutrients, such as antioxidants, vitamins, valeric acid, volatile oils and more. heal stomach ailments, insomnia, reproductive issues, and a host of others.

 

Can I make tea with Angelica?

Angelica makes a wonderful, healthful, and oh-so-unusual (in a good way!) tea.  It also makes an excellent spirited drink (more in a moment). Here are a few options:

Option 1: Simmer dried root to taste in water for 15 or 20 minutes.

Option 2: Make as with other teas, put in boiling water and steep then drink.

Option 3: Add to hot water in a tea ball, wait until it cools or whenever you like, and drink.

 

How to Turn Angelica Tea into Angelica Spirts

Here’s the long version from Eleanor Parkinson from 1864:

“Distilled Spirituous Waters for Liqueurs. — Orange, rose, pink, jes samine, and all other flowers, are made by adding eight pounds of the leaves or petals of the flowers to a gallon of pure proof spirit. Put them in a cold cellar or ice-house to infuse for a week. Distil in the bain-marie to dryness. If they are distilled on an open gentle fire, water should be added to the articles when they are put on the fire, so as to prevent their being burnt.

Lavender, mint, rosemary, angelica, the yellow rind of lemon and orange peels, and bergamot, lemon, vanilla, ginger, and orris-root for violet, and other herbs, are made by adding two pounds of the plant, &.C., partly dried, to a gallon of pure proof spirit. Let it steep in a jar close covered for twelve or fourteen days in a cool place, and distil in the bain-marie. Myrtle and balm-me, one pound to the gallon. If any of the waters appear rather turbid when they are first drawn, they will become clear and bright by standing a few days. Filter them through blotting paper-placed in a glass or earthenware furmel over a bottle to receive them.”

 

Now, here’s today’s version:

Today’s VERSION: Mix 2 tablespoons to 2 ounces of vodka or other clear alcohol (pure proof alcohol as above) and put in a sealed jar. Mason jars work well. Put in a cool, dark shelf for a month or so, strain liquid, and enjoy. A few drops give a tangy twist to cocktails.

Look! YESTERDAY & TODAY

Follow the new recipe when mixing angelica and add any of the botanicals from the old one. Orange peels appear a lot in the old-time recipes.

True Treats Angelica Tasting

 

Marshmallow Root: The Ultimate Tea

What does marshmallow root tea taste like?  

A sweet, woody flavor, the marshmallow root tea makes an interesting blend and is great on its own. I like to add a little sweetener, but that’s personal choice. The texture is smooth, as marshmallow has a high mucilage content, and thickens when cool.

 

What does the marshmallow plant look like?

The marshmallow plant, or Althaea officinalis, is a relative of the hollyhock, with pastel-colored, papery flowers. The plant, especially its roots, have a sticky substance that once gave the marshmallow its taste and texture. Today, the root is widely available as tea: the mucilage is like a syrup in hot water but thickens into a sweet gel when cool.

What does marshmallow for the body?

Marshmallows are no mere fun food but one of humanities’ earliest confections. They originated from the root of the marsh-mallow plant, an herb of the mallow family which, no surprise, grows in marshes. Ancient Egyptians boiled and mixed the root with honey to create a dense, cake-like confection reserved for the gods and royalty. But the true value of the marshmallow was its medicinal qualities. The root contains a gel-like mucilage that was said to soothe sore throats, gastrointestinal inflammation, stomach ulcers and, even, work as a laxative, among other qualities.

 

What don’t we use the marshmallow plant today?

As delicious as the marshmallow was as a confection, it was replaced by instant gelatin in the mid-1800s. The mucilage just made it too sticky and temperamental for people to make at home.

 

Marshmallow Tea Recipes

As a tea, the marshmallow lives on, enjoyed for its flavor, health benefits, and history. As a sweet – not so much, but we DO have vintage marshmallow recipes from Eleanor Parkinson’s book “The Complete Confectioner” published in in 1864 if you want to give it a try. PLEASE – let us know if you do!

For marshmallow tea, here’s the easy route:

  • Place one or two teaspoons of marshmallow root in a cup of hot water. Let steep about 10-minutes. Add sweetener and drink while warm. The tea will grow thicker when cooled.

Here’s Another Option – A Bit Harder:

Place the mixture in a covered jar and let sit overnight. Enjoy the drink with honey or other sweetener or as is.

 

Truly Old-Time Marshmallow Recipes

from Eleanor Parkinson in 1864

If you want to give this recipe a try, you may need to cut the quantities to size. Remember early cookbooks were written for domestics in the homes of the well-to-do or for the homemaker herself (aka “Woman of the House”) so she could manage the staff. The quantities might need to be adjusted for today’s smaller size of friends and family.

 

  • Marshmallow Lozenges. “Marshmallow roots in powder one pound, or slice the root and make a strong decoction, in which you dissolve the gum, fine sugar four pounds. Mix into a paste. If six drops of laudanum be added, with two ounces of liquorice, the pectoral quality of these lozenges will be improved. Good for obstinate coughs.”

 

  • Syrup of Marshmallows — Sirop de Guimauve “Fresh mallow roots eight ounces, water one quart, sugar three pounds. Cleanse the roots, and slice them; make a decoction (See Decoctions), boiling it a quarter of an hour, so as to obtain the mucilage of the root; strain, and finish as wormwood. One ounce of liquorice-root and one ounce of white maidenhair, with a few stoned raisins, may be added.”

History Is So Sweet – Featuring Susan Benjamin – MORNINGS WITH RAY AND BRIAN

 

Catch another “sweet” Halloween interview from Susan Benjamin right here! From Good & Plenty to Necco Wafers to Turkish Delight….She covers it all, just for you! Get in the spirit and listen in NOW!

LINK TO RADIO INTERVIEW:

https://www.audacy.com/podcasts/mornings-with-ray-dunaway-87/history-is-so-sweet-102821-891107179

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🔹GIBRALTERS: https://truetreatscandy.com/product/gibralter/

🔹TURKISH DELIGH: Turkish Delight, 10 Piece – True Treats Historic Candy (truetreatscandy.com)

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What’s your favorite Halloween candy? Featuring Susan Benjamin – Town Square with Ernie Manouse

 

Snickers. Jolly ranchers. Jelly beans. Gummi bears. What’s your favorite Halloween candy? Are you old school, and love candy corn and licorice? Or are you into extremely sour – or hot – candy? Today, as we continue our Halloween week, it’s all about candy, including the origins of trick-or-treating, retro candy and stories behind some of your favorites. A candy historian and an insider from the candy industry joins us with some “sweet” facts and to field your calls. What do you consider the best and worst candy? Got any favorite Halloween candy memories? Guest: Susan Benjamin: Candy historian Owner of True Treats Author of “Sweet as Sin: The Unwrapped Story of How Candy Became America’s Favorite Pleasure” Town Square with Ernie Manouse is a gathering space for the community to come together and discuss the day’s most important and pressing issues.

LINK TO RADIO INTERVIEW:

Town Square with Ernie Manouse : NPR

*BUY NOW*

🔹GOOD & PLENTY:https://truetreatscandy.com/product/good-n-plenty/

🔹CIRCUS PEANUTS: https://truetreatscandy.com/product/circus-peanuts/

🔹LICORICE: https://truetreatscandy.com/?s=licorice&post_type=product

🔹CHOCOLATE: Assorted chocolates through US History – Made in the USA (truetreatscandy.com)

🔹CANDY CORN: https://truetreatscandy.com/product/candy-corn/

🔹TOOTSIE ROLL: HTTPS://TRUETREATSCANDY.COM/PRODUCT/TOOTSIE-ROLL-BIG-BAR/

 

 

Why Does Everyone Hate Candy Corn? An Inside Perspective By Susan Benjamin.

This Halloween, I was inundated with interviews about all aspects of candy, not just Trick o’ Treat. From the wildly different questions and comments came one theme: a contempt for Candy Corn. Personally, I don’t get it. Candy Corn is a harmless, gentle member of the candy family with not a ting of scandal unlike, say, the false razor-blade-in-apple-scandal.

Besides, history proves the magnificence, if not longevity, of Candy Corn. The yellow, orange and white pyramid candies began as “Chicken Feed” in 1888, made by the Wunderle Company, the candies were of the same marshmallow-ish texture of other popular sweets of the time – Circus Peanuts, Cream Candy, and Marshmallow Biscuits ie., caramel covered marshmallows, among them.

Candy Corn was unique, however, in its fall colors and corn-like look, helping it transition from an everyday candy to a Halloween extravaganza. The reason: early Halloweens, while ribboned with ghostly stories and wild pranks, were more like Harvest Festivals with sumptuous nuts, fruits, and other seasonal delights. The Candy Corn fit in.

True, for generations Candy Corn remained a penny candy mingling well with the jelly beans and gummies on the shelves beside it. Today, candy corn is primarily made by Brach’s Confections and Jelly Belly, with around nine billion pieces enjoyed (or not, as the case may be) each year, most of it during Halloween.

Guess what? NOW you can buy Candy Corn from us online right here: Candy Corn – True Treats Historic Candy (truetreatscandy.com)

LISTEN TO SUSAN’S OTHER HALLOWEEN CANDY INTERVIEWS ON OUR BLOG: Halloween Candy History with Susan Benjamin – 770 CHQR – The Drive – True Treats Historic Candy (truetreatscandy.com)

The Remarkable Life and Times of the Jelly Bean

Turkish Delight

The story of the  jelly bean is remarkable, spanning cultures and centuries, involving sultans and ancient apothecaries, wars and great literary figures. It began around 226-652 CE in the Persian Empire where the ruling power, the Sasanids, enjoyed a sweet called “abhisa” made of honey, fruit syrups, and starch.  By the 9th century, it appeared in the Arab apothecaries as a remedy for sore throats called “rahat ul-hulküm,” later shortened to “lokum,” meaning “throats ease” which many still use today. The sweet had a more or less humble life until the 1750’s when Sultan Abdul Hamid I fell in love with it and, according to legend, had his chefs prepare daily batches to satiate his many wives. Trade being what it was, word spread and folks in England started enjoying it, too, renaming it “lumps-of-delight.”

Then, in the mid-1800s, it took on a literary life, starting with Charles Dicken’s “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” (1870) where character Rosa Bud announces: “I want to go to the Lumps-of-Delight shop.” Soon, the candy was called “Turkish Delight”: a name which has endured in the English-speaking world ever since. Most notably, the Turkish Delight appeared in C.S. Lewis’ classic, “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” where it reigned as young Edmund Pevensie’s greatest passion. Thanks to the book and, more recently, the movie, most Americans seem to know the Turkish Delight although far fewer have tried it. Or so they think.

War and Love in the U.S.A.

In the mid-1800s an unknown candy maker panned the confection–a 16th century process of rolling a nut, seed, sugar crystal or other food in layers of sugar for a smooth shell. Soon after, in 1861, Boston candy-maker William Shrafft reportedly encouraged Bostonians to send his jelly beans to Union soldiers in period-style care packages.

Record Cover              
Early Jelly Beans

Eventually that sweet become part of a new confectionery family known as “penny candy,” an inexpensive and fun sort of confection that allowed everyone, rich and poor, access to sweets. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle mentioned the candy on October 2, 1898 and soon a pound was selling at nine to twelve cents. It was in this new, penny candy guise that the panned delight took on a yet another name: the “jelly bean.”

But why “jelly bean”? Obviously it resembled a bean. But culturally, the name sprouts up everywhere; it referred to a fellow who shows up for a date well dress, nicely coifed, but has nothing else going for him. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote a story “The Jelly Bean” in 1922, in which he wrote: “’Jelly-bean’” is the name throughout the undissolved Confederacy for one who spends his life conjugating the verb to idle in the first person singular—I am idling, I have idled, I will idle.” And Phil Harris wrote a song “Jelly Bean (He’s a Curb-Side Cutie)” in 1940. In other words, this guy was useless.

The Jelly Bean Shines

               David Klein

The jelly bean won its most enduring acclaim around 1930, as an Easter candy, reasons unknown except that, since the late 1800s, candy-makers were busy finding a niche at religious events, the stripped candy cane (late 1800s) an excellent example. About 40 years later, enter the Jelly Belly. Candy distributor and entrepreneur, David Klein, came up with the idea to infuse the entire bean with flavor, not simply the shell. And those flavors – why settle for overly sweet, washed out fruit flavors? Why not make them bold, unusual, delicious?  As for the name – Klein was watching blues musician Lead Belly perform on the 1970s sitcom “Sanford & Son.” Only, Klein thought the name was “Jelly Belly…” And the rest is food marketing history.

 

Since then, the jelly bean has made appearances everywhere, from movie theater concession stands to corner store displays. They showed up at a presidential inauguration in1981 and were the first candy to go on a space mission in 1983. In fact, people ate enough jelly beans last year to circle the earth five times, so says the Jelly Belly company on their Web site.

Jelly Belly Beans

Which leads to the not altogether happy ending of the jelly bean story. Klein was a candy genius but not a candy cook. So he hired his friends at the Herman Goelitz Candy Company to make the candy for him. The Goelitz family was so inspired they decided to buy Klein out (aka steal) the candy, concept, name, and flavors. After a five-year legal battle, and a movie  on the subject produced by Amazon, Klein received a small settlement. The multi-billion dollar company Goelitz family company is

Ad for Candyman
Movie about Klein

now called “Jelly Belly.” Their multi-billion dollar owners have left Klein a scant legacy – he can publicly acknowledge he invented the candy.

Of course, events like these, large and small, are part of the landscape of human experience and demonstrate the timeless importance of comfort foods like candy.

 

 

 

 

Retro Candy You May Have Missed

The universe of “retro” candy is a large one, spanning over 150+ years – Wax Lips (early 1900s), Good n’ Plenty (1893), NECCO Wafers (1847) and such sensations as Fruit Slice Gum (1960s) and Turkish Taffy (around 1931)… to name a few. But wedged into this clutter of wrappers, flavors and advertising stints are candies long forgotten but still among us – alive, well, and ever fascinating. Here is a sample of some of them:

Cherry Cocktail (1926). Still made by the family-owned Idaho Spud Candy Company which opened in 1901. The candy bar is not your everyday cherry cordial, but a “whole maraschino cherry crème center buried in a mixture of ground peanuts and milk chocolate” the company says. The result – no classic smooth, chocolate coating but a textured mound of chocolate.

Pulled Creams (around 1840s). If you like cake frosting, you will love these – smooth, creamy and oh-so-sweet. While the Kentucky-based shop started making these sweets in 1921, they originated in the mid-1800s with the first penny candies. By the way – those early candies gave working class kids their first taste of affluence, as the low prices offered them an opportunity to enter a store and buy something. The sweet promise of success.

Contraband. Actually, these peppermint-molasses candies (late 1800s) have always been legal and were a favorite hard candy. In 1935, the candy store owner was enamored by the Prohibition-era G-men, James Cagney and bootleggers.  Like many others of the time, he gave children broken pieces of candy as the passed by to school. Of course, candy was forbidden in school so, in the Prohibition-era spirit, he named the candy “Contraband.” (His other hard candies were called…bullets).