About candy Candy timeline (U.S.) About sugar & sweeteners early American candy (Colonial-Civil War eras) modern American candy (Post Civil War-1920s) Candy packaging

almonds brittle Buckeye candy candy canes candy corn chocolate & white chocolate chocolate truffles conversation hearts cotton candy divinity dolly mixtures Easter chocolate fudge halva

jelly beans liquorice lollipops marmalade marshmallows marzipan mints opera fudge & creams Pop Rocks pralines salt water taffy sugar plums & comfits sweetmeats toffee, taffy, butterscotch & caramels toffee apples (aka taffy apples, caramel apples) Valentine's Day candies

Have questions? Ask!

About candy

While we Americans tend to think of candy in terms of supermarket and convenience stores displays, this sweet culinary family offers a much broader and complicated lineage. Food historians propose the first sweets were consumed as a sort of medical treatment for digestive troubles. Today's cough drops and peppermint sticks descend from this tradition. As time and technology progressed, so did the art of confectionery. The English word "candy" derives from Arabic "qandi," meaning something made with sugar. Indeed, the first candies were sugar coated nuts, seeds and fruits. Conserves and preserves (fruit preserved in sugar) eventually became it's own type of food.

"All of the peoples of antiquity made sweetmeats of honey before they had sugar: the Chinese, the Indians, the people of the Middle East, the Egyptians and then the Greeks and Romas used it coat fruits, flowers, and the seeds or stems of plants, to preserve them for use as an ingredient in the kind of confectionery still made in those countries today. Confectioner and preserves featured in the most sumptuous of Athenian banquets, and were an ornament to Roman feasts at the time of the Satyricon, but it seems that after that the barbarian invasions Europe forgot them for a while, except at certain wealthy courts were Eastern products were eaten...At the height of the Middle Ages sweetmeats reappeared, on the tables of the wealthy at first...In fact the confectionery of the time began as a marriage of spices and sugar, and was intended to have a therapeutic or at least preventative function, as an aid to digestive troubles due to the excessive intake of food which was neither very fresh nor very well balanced...guests were in the habit of carrying these sweetmeats to their rooms to be taken at night. They were contained in little comfit-boxes or drageoirs...."
---History of Food, Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat [Barnes & Noble Books:New York] 1992 (p. 565-6)
[NOTE: This book has an excellent chapter on the history of confectionery and preserves. Ask your librarian to help you find a copy.]

"Candy...The ancient Egyptians preserved nuts and fruits with honey, and by the Middle Ages physicians had learned how to mask the bad taste of their medicines with sweetness, a practice still widespread. Boiled "sugar plums were known in the seventeenth-century England and soon were to appear in the American colonies where maple-syrup candy was popular in the North and benne-seed [sesame seed] confections were just as tempting in the South. In New Amersterdam one could enjoy "marchpane," or "marzipan," which is very old decorative candy made from almonds ground into a sweet paste. While the British called such confections, "sweetmeats," Americans came to call "candy," from the Arabic qandi, "made of sugar," although one finds "candy" in English as early as the fifteenth century...Caramels were known in the early eighteenth century and lollipops by the 1780s..."Hard candies" made from lemon or peppermint flavors were popular in the eary nineteenth century...A significant moment in candy history occured at the 1851 Great Exhibition in London, where "French-style" candies with rich cream centers were first displayed...But it was the discovery of milk chocolate in Switzerland in 1875 that made the American candy bar such a phenomenon of the late nineteenth century."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 54-5)
[NOTE: This source has much more information than can be paraphrased. Ask your librarian to help you find a copy. It also contains separate entries for specific types of candies.]

Recommended reading

• Sugarplums and Sherbet: The Prehistory of Sweets/Laura Mason
• Candy: The Sweet History/Beth Kimmerle
• The Great American Candy Bar Book/Ray Broekel

Why are confections sometimes called "sweetmeats" in England? Laura Mason, British confectionery history expert, explains:

"The anamolies in our own language are due to the origin of sweets or sweeties...as diminutives of sweetmeat. This word, still not entirely obsolete, was in common use for over 400 years to the end of the nineteenth century. The suffix-meat has an archaic meaning of food in the widest sense (surviving in the phrase 'meat and drink'), so sweetmeat simply means a sweet food...To the inhabitants of Tudor and Stuart England, sweetmeats were sugary foods in general, including pieces of flavoured candy and sugar-covered nuts and spices, products of medieval theories on the medicinal value of sugar, as well as dishes which used sugar as one ingredient amongst many, for structure, sweetness and an air of the exotic...Medieval feasts had provided several roles for sweetmeats."
---Sugarplums and Sherbet: The Prehistory of Sweets, Laura Mason [Prospect Books:Devon] 2004 (p. 22)
[NOTE: We highly recommend this book if you need details on the history of all sorts of English candies.]

The Art of Confectionery, Ivan Day

Candy packaging through time
Food historians confirm confectionery packaging through time is a complicated issue. Not only is packaging period-dependent (technologically possible options), but venue (penny-candy street vendors vs shops catering to wealthy clients), occasion (Valentines gift, everyday candy bar) and product (chocolate bars are packaged quite differently from gumdrops) factor in as well Laura Mason, confectionery history expert, offers these notes:

"Containers are essential; they help maintain low humidity, hold sweets together, and protect them during transport. Before the nineteenth century, options were limited. Fruit in syrup was mostly stored in earthenware gallipots, and small sugar confections and pastes in oblong or round boxes made of thin sheets of matchwood...'Jar glasses' (small, cylindrical glass containers) were in use by the seventeeenth century but they are rarely mentioned. They were expensive, limited to wealthy households or enterprises. Glass jars probably did not become common until the late eighteenth century when, though used as storage containers, their emphasis had switched to a means of display. They include straight jars presumably for conserves or jams, small, stemmed glasses for jellies and larger ones with lids for sweets and comfits. Tall straight-sided and later ones with lids are also shown. Glass was used more and more to show off the bright colours and clarity of newly fashionable, transparent acid and fruit drops to brilliant advantage in the 1830s and '40s...Another imporant innovation, from the 1850s onwards, was the airtight tin--especially for toffee. Functional yet decorative, these became coveted in their own right. Commemorative versions were produced for national events, or the patterns designed so that a set of tins with themed pictures was avaialble. Transparent wrapping is a product of our own age. Cellophane was introduced in the 1920s and plastics followed later."
---Sugarplums and Sherbet: The Prehistory of Sweets, Laura Mason [Prospect Books:Devon] 2004 (p. 202-3)

"Wrappers, although treated as so much waste paper, account for much of the colour perceived in confectionery by the modern observer. This is a phenonemnon of the last hundred years. Before, a scrap of paper wrapped round a sugar stick or twisted into a cone (the origin of the triangular paper bag) was the most one could expect when buying sweets in the street. These wrappers were themselves waste paper. Henry Mayhew recorded how one street-seller of sweet stuff bought paper from stationers or secondhand book shops, including the Acts of Parliament, 'a pile of these a foot or more deep, lay on the shelf. They are used to wrap rock &c. sold.' Smarter confectioners used paper wrappers with cut or fringed ends twisted around sweets. A French custom of making these up as packets of bonbons for presents at New Year is metioned by Jarrin. The London confectionery Tom Smith is said to have commercialized the idea in Britain. His bonbons consisted of several sweets wrapped together in tissue paper, with mottoes enclosed. They were first introduced as a Christmas novelty in the late 1840s. Shortly afterwards, Smith added a 'bang', evolving the modern Christmas Cracker. The theory is that the idea was provided by a spark leaping out of the fire one night. However, exploding 'cracker bonbons' were apparently known some years earlier."
---ibid (p. 205)

"Initially, chocolate was packed as unwrapped bars in wooden boxes with paper labels, displayed on the shop counter. Individual paper wrappers developed soon afterwards. Gold printing and metal foils repeated this luxury message which gold leaf had given to sweets in earlier centuries. Designs used the latest images, and graphics publicized the desirability of chocolate. Even more status was attached to special boxes, decroated with pcitures, lined with tissue and paper lace. As the package, not the contents, occupied more and more of the foreground, so advertising has shifted almost entirely from the taste of confectioenry towards style by association."
---ibid (p. 207-8)

"Most companies concentrated on indivudally wrapped toffees as opposed to bulk tray toffee sold by weight. They were popular, kept well, and sold at a lower price than chocolate while maintaining a luxurious image. This was done partly by advertising and packaging. Robert Opie examined the role of packaging, especially tins, in marketing confectionery, and commented on toffee: 'splendid and glamorous tins abounded with bright colours and decorative patterns. The use of a tin also enhanced the status of the toffees, making them a more acceptable gift in comparison with the prestigious box of chocolates'."
---ibid (p. 191)

About sugar & sweeteners

• History of sugar marketing through 1974
• brown sugar
• confectioners's sugar
• corn syrup
• granulated sugar
• high fructose corn syrup
• honey
• maple syrup
• molasses
• refined sugar
• sorghum
• sugar beets
• sugar cones & loaves
• treacle

• Sugar, history & medicinal uses

RECOMMENDED READING
Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History, Sidney W.Mintz
---history of economics and production
Cambridge World History of Food, Kenneth F. Kiple and Kriemhild Conee Ornelas, Volume I, Chapter II.F.2 "Sugar."
---botany, historical geography, products/byproducts
Medieval Arab Cookery, Maxime Rodinson, A.J. Arberry & Charles Perry
---food & medicinal uses, early candy production, recipes & primary documents

SUGAR CONES & LOAVES
From Medieval times to the 19th century, refined sugar was sold in solid form, often in cones, blocks or loaves. The standard unit of measure in the United States and United Kingdom (also used in recipes) was the pound and increments thereof.

"Sugar finally came to the sixteenth- and seventeeth-century consumer in blocks or cones, in varying degrees of refinement. This accounts for the elaborate directions for clarifying sugar, and the reiterated instructions to searce (sift) or powder it. (Powdered sugar was only finely sifted sugar, not confectioners' sugar). Block sugar also accounts for the strewing of scraped sugar that made for a charming textural and taste contrast that we have all but forgotten.The presence of sugar in so many of our meat recipes, almost in conjunction with fruits and spices...is part of our heritage from medieval cooking, which, in turn, had come from the Arabs. It is virtually impossible to give precise amounts of sugar It is virtually impossible to give precise amounts of sugar required..."
---Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery and Booke of Sweetmeats, Transcribed by Karen Hess [Columbia University Press:New York] 1995 (p. 11)

"Large and prosperous households bought their white sugar in tall, conical loaves, from which pieces were broken off with special iron sugar-cutters. Shaped something like very large heavy pliers with sharp blades attached to the cutting sides, these cutters had to be strong and tough, because the loaves were large, about 14 inches in diameter at the base, and 3 feet high [15th century]...In those days, sugar was used with great care, and one loaf lasted a long time. The weight would probably have been about 30 lb. Later, the weight of a loaf varied from 5 lb to 35 lb, according to the moulds used by any one refinery. A common size was 14 lb, but the finest sugar from Madeira came in small loaves of only 3 or 4 lb in weight...Up till late Victorian times household sugar remained very little changed and sugar loaves were still common and continued so until well into the twentieth century..."
---English Bread and Yeast Cookery, Elizabeth David [Penguin:Middlesex] 1977 (p. 139)
[NOTE: Mrs. David has much more to say on the subject of sugar than can be paraphrased here. Ask your librarian to help you find a copy of this book.]

"Conical molded cakes of granualted sugar, wrapped in blue paper & tied, as customary for maybe centuries in Europe, & in US in 18th - early 19th C. This one is from Belgium, but form is the same. About 10"H x 4 3/4"diam...The blue paper wrapped around sugar loafs was re-used to dye small linens a medium indigo blue...Sugar nippers were necessary because sugar came in hard molded cones, with a heavy string or cord up through the long axis like a wick, but there so that the sugar should be conveniently hung up, always wrapped in blue paper...Conical sugar molds of pottery or wood were used by pouring hot sugar syrup into them and cooling them until solid. They range from about 8' high to 16" high. These molds are very rare, especially those with some intaglio decoration inside to make a pattern on the cone...Loaf or broken sugar-A bill of sale form Daniel E. Baily, a grocer of Lynchberg, VA, dated 1839, lists two types of sugar sold to John G. Merme (?). "Loaf sugar" and "Broken sugar," the latter cost half as much...Loaf was 20 cents a pound, and broken it was only eleven cents a pound. For cooking, the broken would have been more convenient by far...Perhaps the fear of adulturation...made people want the Loaf."
---300 Years of Kitchen Collectibles, Linda Campbell Franklin, 5th edition [Krause Publications:Wisconsin] 2003 (p. 100-101)
[NOTE: other sources say blue paper was employed because it made the sugar appear whitest/most pure.]

"Various kinds of sugar were available in the 18th century, with names indicating either the extent of the processing which they had undergone or the manner of presentation for sale. It normally came in a loaf', of a conical shape...Some of these terms are self-expalnatory, while others are readily understood in the light of early methods of refining sugar. There were succinctly described by the great Swedish naturalist Linnaeus [1741]...Here the coarse and unrefined raw sugar was pulverized and boiled in water, diluted with lime-water, mixed with ox blood or egg white, skimmed and poured into inverted cone-shaped moulds, perforated at the tip; from these a syrup trickled down into a bottle; this was repeated, and then the mould was covered with a white, dough-like French clay in Sweden, but it has to be imported.' What Linnaeus witnessed was sugar refining...Lump sugar was just lumps broken off the loaf, whereas powdered sugar had been grated from the loaf'"
---The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, Hannah Glasse, facsimile first edition, Introductory Essays by Jennifer Stead and Priscilla Bain, glossary by Alan Davidson [Prospect Books:Devon] 1995 (p. 200)

"Colonial cooks used many grades and kinds of sweetening, both solid and liquid. Virtually all were derived from sugarcane...At earliest settlement in America, sugar was used both medicinally and to season dishes lightly. By the beginning of the nineteenth cnetury, it was called for in a substantial number of recipes for baked goods, puddings, and pies...To supply this increasing demand for sugar, the Caribbean islands and the American South became ever more involved in growing canesugar and refinings its juice for export. A labor-intensive crop and process, the production of sugar consumed the lives of many African slaves without whose unpaid work it would not have been so profitable. The primary forms in which sugar was sold during the Colonial period were white refined sugar in loaves; soft, brown sugar; and molasses. All sugar was boiled out of the juice extracted from the crushed sugarcane. The juice was cooked until granules of sugar began to appear in the thick molasses, whereupon it was packed in barrels. Molasses was allowed to drain out, and the barrels were sent to the refiners or sold as raw, or muscavado, sugar. Refining was another complicated process, and there were several refining methods used in the Colonial era."
---Food in Colonial and Federal America, Sandra L. Oliver [Greenwood Press:Westport CT] 2005 (p. 77-8)

"...it would be useful to review the various grades of whole-sale sugar as they were designated in Pennsylvania during the nineteenth century. The following list is taken from Hope's Philadelphia Price-Current for October 5, 1807:
Havana white
Havana brown (like Brasilian Demarara)
Muscovado 1st quality
Muscovado 2nd quality
Muscovado ordinary
West India clayed white
West India clayed brown
Calcutta white
Batavia white
Of these, ordinary muscovado was the cheapest, just about half the cost of Havana white, the most expensive sugar then available and the one most like the white granulated sugar of today. Cheap, black, sticky moscovado or brown Demarara-type sugars were the most common table sugars used by the Pennsylvania Dutch. Like molasses, moscovado sugar was always in great demand, even in the eighteenth century, for it was one of the first sugars to be advertised in the Philadelphia America Weekly Mercury of 1719. Regardless of grade, sugar was imported in large cones or loaves...Once the loaves of sugar reached the United States, they were usually purged or refined again and converted into smaller loaves for retail sale and wrapped in blue paper to preserve the whiteness. In spite of this precaution, none of the retail loaf sugar was usable until it was boiled again in water to remove insects and other extraneous material. This irksome process involved egg whites, charcoal, and constant skimming. The syrup was then strained thorugh a cloth bag until clear, returned to the fire, and boiled down."
---Sauerkraut Yankees: Pennsylvania Dutch Foods and Foodways, William Woys Weaver, 2nd edition [Stackpole Books:Mechanicsburg PA] 2002 (p. 152-4)

GRANULATED SUGAR
Our survey of American Historic Newspapers (Readex) reveals the term "granulated sugar" was used from the 1820s forward. Prior to this time, white sugar was sold in solid cones. The sugar was scraped off and pounded to achieve the desired textures.

General overview of 19th century manufacturing processes:

"Granulated sugar. This very popular and strictly American style of sugar was first made and introduced about thirty years ago at the Boston Sugar Refinery. Although extremely popular in the United States since its origin, it has become popular in England only withn a few years past. The apparatus at first consisted of a steam table fifteen or twenty feet long and three to five feet wide, on which the moist sugar was, by an ingenious process or movement of wooden rakes, gradually worked the length of the table, becoming thoroughly dried in so doing. Afterward it was separated by sieves of different grades or mesh, into coarse and fine, and barreled and sold accordingly. This apparatus was superceded ten or twelve years since by a large cylinder of wood or iron, some four feet in diameter and fifteen to eighteen feet long, slightly depressed at one end. The inner surface carries small projecting buckets, by which, as the cylinder revolves, the sugar, entering at the upper end, is lifted and poured through the heated interior. The heat is supplied by a small steam cylinder running through the length and center of the large one, and the position of the buckets is such as gradually to work the sugar throught the length of the cylinder, during which it becomes thoroughly dried. An arrangement of sieves, as before, completes the operation. The upper one has the coarsest mesh, to retain the largest grains, which are run directly from it into barrels and branded "extra granulated." The sugar which falls throught his first sieve drops into the next below, which has a mesh just fine enough to retain the grains next in size to those before mentioned, which are run into barrels and designated as "medium granulated." The remaining sugar, too fine to be retained by either sieve, is packed in barrels under the name of "fine granulated." Powered sugar is mostly manufactured from the coarsest granulated sugar, after it has been thoroughly cooled. The powdered articles, are mostly manufactured in smaller establishments as a specialty. Other grades of sugar are obtained from the liquor or syrup which is thrown out by the centrifugul, in the process of separating the crystallized sugar from the "mother liquid.""
---The Grocers' Hand-Book and Directory for 1886, Artemas Ward [Philadelphia Grocer Publishing Co.:Philadelphia PA] 1886 (p. 227-228)

MOLASSES
A popular, economical 17th/18th century substitute for refined white sugar. One of the primary points of the Triangle Trade (the other two being rum and slaves). Well known by period cooks in England and America.

"Molasses...as sweetener made from refined sugar, including cane sugar, sugar beets, and even sweet potatoes. The word is from the Portuguese 'melaco', derived from the Latin 'mel' for honey. The first use of the word was in Nicholas Lichefield's 1582 translation of Lopez de Castanheda's First Booke of the Histoire of the Discoverie and Conquest of the East Indias, which described 'Melasus' as a 'certine kind of Sugar made of Palmes of Date trees'. Molasses became the most common American sweetener in the eighteenth century because it was much cheaper than sugar and was part of the triangular trade route that brought molasses to New England to be made into rum, which was then shipped to West Africa to be traded for slaves, who were in turn traded for molasses in the West Indies...By the end of the [19th] century molasses vied with maple syrup and sugar as the sweetener of choice, but when sugar prices dropped after World War I, both molasses and maple fell in popularity, so that today both are used as sweeteners in confections only when their specific taste is desirable, as in Boston baked beans."
---The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 207-8)

"Molasses first came to America from the Caribbean. The British started sugarcane cultivation in Barbados in 1646, and by the late 1670s there was a flourishing two-way sea trade between Barbados and the American colony at Rhode Island. The colonists shiped agricultural and forest products, such as pork, beef, butter, cider, barrel staves, and shingles, to the West Indies, and the ships returned with cargoes of cotton wool, rum, molasses, and sugar. The large volume of sugar and molasses going to Rhode Island could not be used there, so much of this cargo was resold in Boston. The New England colonists used molasses not only as the primary sweetener in cooking and baking but also as an ingredient in brewing birch beer and molasses beer and in distilling rum. In the early 1700s rum made in New England became an essential element in a highly profitable triangular trade across the Atlantic. The colonists exported rum to West Africa in trade for slaves; the ships brought the slaves from Africa to the French West Indies, tranding them for more molasses and sugar; these products were then shipped to New England to make more rum. Because imporation of molasses to New England from the French West Indies seriously harmed British farmers in the Caribbean, the British government passed the Molasses Act in 1733. This law imposed a duty on "foreign" molasses or syrup imported into the American colonies or plantations...The Molasses Act of 1733 and the Sugar Act of 1764 caused the price of moasses to rise, leading to the use of less expensive maple sugar as a sweetener. When the cost of refined sugar dropped at the end of the nineteenth cnetury...molsses lost its role as an important sweetener in the American diet."
---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor [Oxford University Press:New York] 2004, Volume 2 (p. 122-3)

"Molasses, from the Latin word melaceres, meaning honey-like, is a thick dark syrup that is a byproduct of sugar refining. It results wen sugar is crystallized out of sugar cane or sugar beet juice. Molasses is sold for both human consumption, to be used in baking, and in the brewing of ale and distilling of rum, and as an ingredient in animal feed. The pressing of cane to produce cane juice and then boiling the juice until it crystallized was developed in India as early as 500B.C. However, it was slow to move to the rest of the world. In the Middle Ages, Arab invaders brought the process to Spain. A century or so later, Christopher Columbus brought sugar cane to the West Indies."
---How Products Are Made, Jacqueline L. Long, editor, Volume 5 [Gale:Farmington Hills MI] 2000 (p. 316-320)
[NOTE: this book has much more history and an excellent description of how molasses is made. If you need more details please ask your librarian to help you find this book.]

"When cane sugar began to reach the colonists from the West Indies, it was for a long time far too expensive for general use. Hence there was instead wide use of its cheaper by-product, molasses. The abundance of cheap molasses created the profitable New England rum industry."
---Eating in America: A History, Waverly Root & Richard de Rochemont [William Morrow:New York] 1976 (p. 83)

Recommended reading: Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History/Sidney W. Mintz

See also: treacle.

TREACLE

"The word treacle originally had nothing whatsoever to do with 'syrup'. Until as late as the nineteenth cnetury, it was used with reference to antidotes for poison...It comes originally from the Greek phrase theriake antidotos, literally 'antidote to a wild or venomous animal'. The adjective theriake came to be used on its own as a noun, and passed via latin and Old French (where it acquired its l) into fourteenth-century English. its ingredients varied from apothecary to apothecary, but usually included, presumable on homoeopathic grounds, a touch of viper's venom. Bt the sixteenth century, the word was becoming generalized to mean any 'soverign remedy', and often had rather negative connotations...The modern application of treacle to sugar syryup (common in British English, relatively rare in American) seems to date from the seventeenth century, and probably arose literally from the sugaring of the pill: the mixing of medicines with sugar syrup to make them more palatable. The practice continued well into the nineteenth century, particularly in the administration of brimstone [sulphur] and treacle to anyone with the least symptom of anything...In technical usage, treacle now refers to a cane sugar syrup which has been boiled to remove some of the sucrose (it has less removed than molasses, which is therefore darker but less sweet). The famous treacle well in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, at the bottom of which, according to the Dormouse, the three little sisters Elsie, Lacie, and Tillie lived, had its origins in the medicinal sense of treacle. Treacle wells really existed--they got their name from the supposed curative properties of their water--and there was apparently one at Binsey near Oxford with which Carroll may have been familiar."
---An A to Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 349)

"Treacle, a term in Britain may be correctly applied to various sugar syrups including golden syrup obtained during the process of sugar-refining, ranging in colour from just about black to pale golden, is in practice used mainly of the darker syrups, brown or black, which are called molasses elsewhere. Treacle tart is a favourite dessert in England."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 804)

"When the production of molasses in Britain's refineries outstripped the needs of both apothecaries and distillers, it was sold off in its natual unmedicated state as a cheap sweetener, Its name of molasses was taken by the early settlers to America. But in Britain in the later seventeenth century the alternative term 'common treacle' came into circulation, and thereafter it was known simply as treacle. One of the first usus to which it was put was the making of gingerbread. Medieval gingerbread has been coloured red with sanders. In Tudor times dark gingergread was made with powdered licorice. When the licorice was replaced by black treacle, it became possible to omit the honey which had sweetened the old gingerbread, and to add a much smaller mount of sugar instead. Treacle gingerbread, said to have been made for Charles II, had as ingredients three pounds of treacle, half a pound each of candied orange peel, candied lemon peel and green citron, two ounces of powdered coriander seed, and flour to make it into a paste. But ordinary folk made do with no more than two ounces candied peel and one ounce ginger and new spice to three pounds of flour and two of treacle. By the later eighteenth century treacle consumption was much higher in northern England than in the south; for the diet of the poorer classes now differed considerably between the two regions. In the north a spoonful of treacle was often added to a bowl of oatmeal porridge, a dish almost unknown in the south...Treacle went into parkin (the northern form of gingerbread, containing oatmeal), and into oatmeal biscuits of various kinds. it was still a thick, dark brown syrup...The increasing use of sugar and treacle meant a gradual decline in beekeeping."
---Food and Drink in Britain From the Stone Age to the 19th Century, C. Anne Wilson [Academy Chicago:Chicago IL] 1991 (p. 305-6)

See also: molasses.

BROWN SUGAR
Basically, white sugar (granulated to XXX confectioner's) is the product of the most refined processes and has historically been the most expensive/desirable. Real brown sugar takes its color and texture from molasses. Modern food production methods can also create brown sugars by adding colored syrup to white sugars. Which brand of brown sugar did you buy? We can check that company's Web site to find out what they have to say about it.

"Brown sugar...Less refined than white sugar, brown sugar consists of sugar crystals contained in molasses syrup with natural color and flavor. It may also be made by adding syrup to white sugar and blending."
---Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999(p. 316)

How is brown sugar produced?
There are two methods for producing brown sugar - boiling and blending - and both are currently in use in Canada. Boiling involves heating a purified sugar syrup, which still contains some of the colour and flavour elements from the sugar cane, until it crystallizes to form a soft yellow or brown sugar. Blending is a process that combines the separately purified white sucrose crystals and refiners' syrups (something like fancy grade molasses) to produce yellow or brown sugar. The difference in the method used to produce brown sugar should not result in a difference in taste or affect the texture and consistency of baked goods. The difference between light (yellow) and dark brown sugar is that the darker brown sugars have more of the refiners' syrup ("molasses") left in the product. Turbinado, Muscovado and Demerara sugars are all specialty brown sugars."
---Canadian Sugar Institute

Types of brown sugar & their uses:

"Turbinado sugar: This sugar is raw sugar which has been partially processed, where only the surface molasses has been washed off. It has a blond color and mild brown sugar flavor, and is often used in tea and other beverages.
Brown sugar (light and dark): Brown sugar retains some of the surface molasses syrup, which imparts a characteristic pleasurable flavor. Dark brown sugar has a deeper color and stronger molasses flavor than light brown sugar. Lighter types are generally used in baking and making butterscotch, condiments and glazes. The rich, full flavor of dark brown sugar makes it good for gingerbread, mincemeat, baked beans, and other full flavored foods. Brown sugar tends to clump because it contains more moisture than white sugar.
Muscovado or Barbados sugar: Muscovado sugar, a British specialty brown sugar, is very dark brown and has a particularly strong molasses flavor. The crystals are slightly coarser and stickier in texture than “regular” brown sugar. Free-flowing brown sugars: These sugars are specialty products produced by a co-crystallization process. The process yields fine, powder-like brown sugar that is less moist than “regular” brown sugar. Since it is less moist, it does not clump and is free-flowing like white sugar.
Demerara sugar: Popular in England, Demerara sugar is a light brown sugar with large golden crystals, which are slightly sticky from the adhering molasses. It is often used in tea, coffee, or on top of hot cereals."
---Sugar Association

How available was brown sugar in 19th century America?
These notes from 1807/Philly market lists three types: "...it would be useful to review the various grades of whole-sale sugar as they were designated in Pennsylvania during the nineteenth century. The following list is taken from Hope's Philadelphia Price-Current for October 5, 1807:
Havana white
Havana brown (like Brasilian Demarara)
Muscovado 1st quality
Muscovado 2nd quality
Muscovado ordinary
West India clayed white
West India clayed brown
Calcutta white
Batavia white
Of these, ordinary muscovado was the cheapest, just about half the cost of Havana white, the most expensive sugar then available and the one most like the white granulated sugar of today. Cheap, black, sticky moscovado or brown Demarara-type sugars were the most common table sugars used by the Pennsylvania Dutch. Like molasses, moscovado sugar was always in great demand, even in the eighteenth century, for it was one of the first sugars to be advertised in the Philadelphia America Weekly Mercury of 1719. Regardless of grade, sugar was imported in large cones or loaves...Once the loaves of sugar reached the United States, they were usually purged or refined again and converted into smaller loaves for retail sale and wrapped in blue paper to preserve the whiteness. In spite of this precaution, none of the retail loaf sugar was usable until it was boiled again in water to remove insects and other extraneous material. This irksome process involved egg whites, charcoal, and constant skimming. The syrup was then strained thorugh a cloth bag until clear, returned to the fire, and boiled down."
---Sauerkraut Yankees: Pennsylvania Dutch Foods and Foodways, William Woys Weaver, 2nd edition [Stackpole Books:Mechanicsburg PA] 2002 (p. 152-4)

The recipe below confirms brown sugar (no description, though) was available in the Midwest (Wisconsin) during the 1840s. We did not find any period/place specific advertisements for brown sugar. We cannot tell if this item was commonly available or the provenance of wealthy families who could afford to purchase expensive goods from larger markets. Neither can we tell what is meant here by "ordinary."

"Ordinary brown sugar may be used, a larger portion of which is retained in the syrup."
---"Recipe for Making Tomato Figs," Wisconsin Democrat, September 28, 1843 (p. 3)

CONFECTIONERS' SUGAR
Powdered sugar is the finest grade of granulated white sugar. Confectioners' sugar (also known as icing sugar) is the finest grade of powdered sugar. These sugars are graded by "X," indicating the fineness of the powder.

"Powdered Finely-ground granulated sugar to which a small amount (3%) corn starch has been added to prevent caking. The fineness to which the granulated sugar is ground determines the familiar "X" factor: 14X is finer than 12X, and so on down through 10X, 8X, 6X (the most commonly used) and 4X, the coarsest powdered sugar." ---Sweetener glossary

Food historians tell us powdered sugars were used by European confectioners as early as the 18th century. Technological advances in the 19th century made them available to a wider audience. It is no coincidence that cake icing appeared during this time:
About sugar grades & processing

Sorghum

"Sorghum...There are several varieties of this Old World grass (Sorghum vulgare) that are cultivated for grain, for forage, and as a source of syrup. Sorghum is native to East Africa,w ehre it was being cultivated around 5,000 to 6,000 years ago. Sometime in the distant past (at least 2,000 years ago), the grain crossed the Indian Ocean to India and subsequently made its way to China. More recently, various sorghums reached the New World via the slave trade. Today, grain sorghums are grown extensively in Africa and Asia for use as human food and in the Americas as animals. Some sorghums in North America--like "Johnson grass" and "Mississippi chicken corn"-- probably arrived as the as the seeds of important cultivars, only to escape from cultivation and become annoying weeds. The juices of sorghums have provided humas with syrup for sweetening and in Asia and Africa for the plant supplies malt, mash, and flavoring for alcoholic beverages, especially beers. Sorghum grains are made into flour (for unleavened breads) and into porridges, and they are also prepared and consumed much like rice."
---Cambridge World History of Food, Kenneth F. Kiple & Kriemhild Conee Ornelas [Cambridge University Press:Cambridge] 2000, Volume Two (p. 1854)

"Sorghum...a cereal related and simlar to and sometimes confused with millet, is an important staple food of the upland, drier, parts of Africa and India. In other parts of the world it is chiefly grown as animal fodder. It is native to Africa, and was probably first cultivated in Ethiopia between 4000 and 3000 BC. It spread thence to W. Africa, the Near east, India, and China, and later to the New World...In the USA, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, sorghum syrup was popular as a cheap alternative to maple syrup. Production, mainly in the southerns tates, was as much as 20 million gallons or more annually."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson, 2nd edition, Tom Jaine editor [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2006 (p. 733-4)

"Historical records trace the sorghum plant...to Africa. Benjamin Franklin was thought to have introduced sorghum to the United States in the late 1700s...Syrup-making techniques came into prominence in the United States around the mid-1800s. Because of the scarcity of sugar during wartime, sorghum syrup was the principal sweetener in many parts of the county."
---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor [Oxford University Press:New York] 2004, vol. 2 (p. 458)

"In earlier days, no kitchen table in the mountains was complete without its glass cruet of sorghum. Many poured sorghum on badly cooked meats and vegetables to give them a sweet kick.. And when the cow went dry, fold would make a butter substitute by micking sorghum and pork drippings. Sorghum came into its own in colonial America as a substitute for sugar. When sugar became available in the 1700s, it was very expensive, being sold in cones and sliced off as needed. Sorghum also was relied upon as a sweetener during the Civil War when Union blockades halted sugar shipments to Southern ports. Syrup made form sweet sorghum is primarily a hill country sweetener with a light amber color. Darker-colored "molasses"--made of sugar cane--is mostly a Deep South product coming from Louisiana and surrounding states. Applachian people call their sorghum sweetener "molasses," the precise term is sorghum or sweet sorghum or sorghum syrup. Sorghum was a key ingredient in moonshine in earlier days...It was during the Prohibition era (1920-33) when whiskey-making progressed to the point where moonshiners, to meet increased demand, turned to sugar to speed up fermentation of what formerly had been pure corn whiskey. The smoother-tasting "sugar whiskey"--corn combined with sugar--zoomed. During the years leading up to World War II, sugar supplied dropped sharply, forcing moonshiners to turn to sorghum for their mash barrels. The syrup, in shiny tin cans, would arrive at distilleries by the truckload...There are mountain folk yet today who love to sweeten their coffee with sweet sorghum."
---Smokehouse Ham, Spoon Bread, & Scuppernong Wine: The Folklore and Art of Southern Appalachian Cooking, Joseph E. Dabney [Cumberland House:Nashville TN] 1998 (p. 424-5)
[NOTE: This book contains far more information than can be paraphrased here. If you need mroe information ask your librarian to help you find a copy.]

More on sorghum.

Corn syrup

Corn syrup was an accidental discovery based on past experiences with other vegetables, most notably potatoes and sugar beets. High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is a more refined and sweeter version. Invented in 1967, HFCS is widely used in today's processed foods.

CORN SYRUP CHEMISTRY & VARIATIONS
"In the language of corn refining, once the starch matrix has been separated from its protein gluten, the starch is converted by chemical action (an acid or enzymes, or both, are added to starch suspended in water) into "simple" sugar, called a "low-dextrose solution." Sweeteners and tecture (crystal or syrup) are controllled at every point to produce different products, depending upon how much starch is digested by the acid or enzyme...By the same initial process through which the Hopi made "virgin hash," our modern corn refiners make glucose, maltose, dextrose and fructose. The larger the number of these long glucose chains in the molecule, the more viscous the syrup, a quality important to the baking and candy industries because it prevents graininess and crystallization. Without corn syrup, no easy-to-make chocolate fudge. The more complete the digestion of starch, the sweeter the syrup, because the rate of glucose and maltose is higher. Maltose is a "double unit" sugar produced, as in brewing, by enzyme-manipulated starch. By manipulating the glucose unites with an enzyme derived form...Streptomyces bacteria, the refiner can get a supersweet fructose called High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). Today, this is where the king's share of cornstarch goes, becasue this syrup is the sweetener of choice...for the soft drink, ice cream and frozen dessert industries. Although supersweet fructose tastes about twice as sweet as ordinary sugar, we do not as a result consume half as many soft drinks or ice cream cones. On the contrary, American sweetness consumption spirals ever upward..."The family of corn syrups includes hyrdol, or corn sugar molasses, a dark, viscous syrup useful in animal feed and in drugs; lactic acid, a colorless syrup useful as a preservative and flavorer for everything from pickles to mayonnaise; and sorbitol (dextrose plus hydrogen), and emulsifier that shows up in toothpaste and detergents as well as processed edibles."
---The Story of Corn, Betty Fussell [North Point Press:New York] 1992 (p 272)

ORIGINS & EVOLUTION
"Gottlieb Sigismund Kirchhof accidentally discovered that sweet substances could be prepared from starch while working at the Acadmey of Science, St. Petersbug, Russia, during the Napoleonic Wars. Kirchhof needed gum arabic for use in manufacturing porcelain. No gum arabic was available because of the continental blockade imposed by the British at that time. However, a Frenchman, Bouitton-Lagrange, had reported that dry starch, when heated, acquires some of the properties of the vegetable gums. Kirchhof attempted to make a substitute gum arabic from starch by adding some water and acid before heating. As a result, instead of a gummy substance, he obtained a sweet-tasting sirup and a small amount of crystallized sugar (dextrose), a finding he reported in 1811. Because of the extreme shortage of sugar in Eruope at the time, the discovery attracted immediate notice in scientific and commercial circles. Starch, largely obtained from potatoes, was already being manufactured in a number of countries in Europe. With this supply of raw material available, numerous small factories were erected to convert starch to either sirup or sugar. Means were soon discovered by which either sirup or sugar could be obtained as desired. The fact that neither beet sugar nor any other acceptable substitute for imported can sugar had as yet become available encouraged the development of starch sweeteners. However, the new industry, after the defeat of Napoleon and the lifting of the blockade, declined almost as rapidly as it had grown. Sugar became very cheap for a while...Few statistics are available concerning the early operation of the starch sweetener industry in Euope. But 11 million pounds of dextrose were reported to have been produced from potato starch in France in 1855 and about 44 million pounds in Germany in 1874...Starch sweetener production developed more slowly in the United States than in Europe, since there was no sugar shortage here early in the 19th century. A small factory near Philadelphia processed potato starch in 1831-1832. The next plant established in this country to make dextrose from cornstarch was in New York City in 1864."
History of Sugar Marketing Through 1974, US Dept. of Agriculture (p. 7-8)

EARLY 20TH CENTURY DESCRIPTIONS

[1911]
The Grocer's Encyclopedia, Artemis Ward: Corn syrup & Commerical glucose.

[1916]
"Corn syrup. This is a product of clear but thick, syrupy consistency which is derived from corn, as the name implies. It is commonly called 'glucose' among the [confectioners] trade, but this name is rapidly dying out due to the constant effort of the authorities to discontinue the name 'glucose' because of the unfounded associations people have connected with the purity and wholesomeness of this prodouct. In all formulas contained in this book the however mention is made, the term 'corn syrup' is use instead of 'glucose.' Corn syrup is sometimes used in candy because it is cheaper than sugar, but that is not the only reason for using it. In a great many cases it is essentially used as a 'doctor' to prevent a batch from graining or returning to sugar. It performs a purpose parallel to that of cream of tartar, but as corn syrup is cheaper to use than cream of tartar and does not require such extacting attention in the batch, it is use oftener as a 'doctor' than cream of tartar. Corn syrup good stand up better than cream of tartar goods; hence the more common use of corn syrup in candies intended for wholesale business. Some pieces cannot be made without corn syrup, as, for instance, caramels and fudges. Honey was formerly used in place of corn syrup in making caramels but it was very expensive to use, and allowed the batch to grain unless extreme care was taken. Like all materials the batch to grain unless extreme care was taken. Like all materials, there are different grades of corn syrup, depending on the grade of corn used in making the finished product. Corn syrup should be used less in the summer than in the winter as it tends to make goods sticky."
---Rigby's Reliable Candy Teacher, W. O. Rigby, 19th edition [1916?] (p. 16)

ABOUT KARO BRAND CORN SYRUP
The most famous corn syrup in the USA is Karo brand, introduced by the Corn Products Refining Company in 1902. History here.

"Corn syrup. A sweet, thick liquid derived from cornstarch treated with acids or enzymes and used to sweeten and thicken candy, syrups, and snack foods. By far the most popular and best-known corn syrup is Karo, introduced in 1902 by Corn Products Company of Edgewater, New Jersey. The name "karo" may have been in honor of the inventor's wife, Caroline, or, some say, derivative of an earlier trademark for table syrup, "Karomel." So common is the use of Karo in making pecan pie that the confection is often called "Karo pie" in the South."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 98)

HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP
"In 1967 new Japanese enzyme technology brought about a revolution in corn syrup development. High fructose corn syrup was made by a more complete hydrolysis of glucose to fructose. IsoSweet, a hugh fructose corn syrup developed by [A.E. Staley Manufacturing Company], was approximately 92 percent as sweet as sugar."
---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor, [Oxford University Press:New York] 2004, Volume 1 (p. 346)

"...the premium is high-fructose corn syrup, first commercialized in 1967 by the Clinton Corn Processing Co. of Clinton, Iowa, which patented Isomerose (named for the enzyme xylose isomerase, which converts glucose to fructose). By 1872, the company had increased the sweetness from 14 to 42 percent fructose, to make it equivalent to ordinary sugar. As sugar prices rose, food and beverage industrialists began to replace more and more sucrose with "Isosweet." Within four years, production of the supersweet syrup jumped from two hundred thousand to two and a half billion pounds a year, and within the decade it had become a major component of all major soft drinks. Today, HFCS can be made 25 percent sweeter than sugar...and in crystalline form is an important rival to saccharin in the sugar-substitute industry."
---The Story of Corn (p. 273-274)

What exactly is HFCS?
General current US Dept. of Agriculture definition: "High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS): A corn sweetener derived from the wet milling of corn. Corn starch is converted to a syrup that is nearly all dextrose. HFCS is found in numerous foods and beverages on the grocery store shelves."

A more technical definition: "High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)—A corn sweetener derived from the wet milling of corn. Cornstarch is converted to a syrup that is nearly all dextrose. Enzymes isomerize the dextrose to produce a 42 percent fructose syrup called HFCS-42. By passing HFCS-42 through an ion-exchange column that retains fructose, corn refiners draw off 90 percent HFCS and blend it with HFCS-42 to make a third syrup, HFCS-55. HFCS is found in numerous foods and beverages on the grocery store shelves. HFCS-90 is used in natural and "light" foods in which very little is needed to provide sweetness. (ERS, USDA). Total fiber is the sum of dietary fiber and functional fiber.

• About American consumption of high fructose corn syrup
• Facts about fructose, American Dietetic Association

About chocolate & white chocolate

WEB SITES

• History of Chocolate, Field Musuem
• Sweet Lure of Chocolate, Exploratorium
• History of Chocolate, National Confectioners Association
• Bakers' chocolate, [1765]

RECOMMENDED READING
The True History of Chocolate, Sophie Coe and Michael Coe
---comprehensive study of the history and evolution of chocolate
Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson
---best overview of the topic (chocolate, chocolate candy)
Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani
---brief overview of the history of chocolate, including introduction of candy in America

ABOUT WHITE CHOCOLATE
White chocolate is a confection that (until recently) has not been specifically defined. Culinary evidence confirms this product may, or may not, contain a chocolate derivative (cocoa butter, for example). Early 20th century companies marketed this product "vanilla chocolate." Interestingly enough it was promoted as health food.

Recipes for "vanilla tablets" appear in cookbooks published by chocolate manufacturers. Vanilla tablets/Walter Baker & Company [1913]
Choice Recipes/Water Baker [promotional booklet]

A cheap vanilla chocolate (wholesale)
35 pounds sugar
17 pounds corn syrup
1 1/2 gallons water
Cook to 238 degrees; pour on dampened cream slab and when lukewarm stir into a creamy consistency.
Now take:
20 pounds sugar
10 pounds corn syrup
3 quarts water
Cook to 238 degrees, then remove from the fire and add the first batch which has been creamed. When the batches are thoroughly mixed, add 5 pounds of Mazetta Creme and 2 ounces of extract of vanilla. When well mixed, set entire batch over a steam bath and get quite hot, then cast in starch and when set dip in chocolate. You may make any flavor desired by blending flavor when the Mazetta Creme is added."
---Rigby's Reliable Candy Teacher, W. O. Rigby, 19th edition [1916?] (p. 98)

So what exactly IS white chocolate? U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently defined this product and set forth standards for its manufacture. They can be found in 21 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Section 163.124:

"Sec. 163.124 White chocolate. (a) Description. (1) White chocolate is the solid or semiplastic food prepared by intimately mixing and grinding cacao fat with one or more of the optional dairy ingredients specified in paragraph (b)(2) of this section and one or more optional nutritive carbohydrate sweeteners and may contain one or more of the other optional ingredients specified in paragraph (b) of this section. White chocolate shall be free of coloring material. (2) White chocolate contains not less than 20 percent by weight of cacao fat as calculated by subtracting from the weight of the total fat the weight of the milkfat, dividing the result by the weight of the finished white chocolate, [[Page 62178]] and multiplying the quotient by 100. The finished white chocolate contains not less than 3.5 percent by weight of milkfat and not less than 14 percent by weight of total milk solids, calculated by using only those dairy ingredients specified in paragraph (b)(2) of this section, and not more than 55 percent by weight nutritive carbohydrate sweetener. (b) Optional ingredients. The following safe and suitable ingredients may be used: (1) Nutritive carbohydrate sweeteners; (2) Dairy ingredients: (i) Cream, milkfat, butter; (ii) Milk, dry whole milk, concentrated milk, evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk; (iii) Skim milk, concentrated skim milk, evaporated skim milk, sweetened condensed skim milk, nonfat dry milk; (iv) Concentrated buttermilk, dried buttermilk; and (v) Malted milk; (3) Emulsifying agents, used singly or in combination, the total amount of which does not exceed 1.5 percent by weight; (4) Spices, natural and artificial flavorings, ground whole nut meats, ground coffee, dried malted cereal extract, salt, and other seasonings that do not either singly or in combination impart a flavor that imitates the flavor of chocolate, milk, or butter; (5) Antioxidants; and (6) Whey or whey products, the total amount of which does not exceed 5 percent by weight. (c) Nomenclature. The name of the food is ``white chocolate'' or ``white chocolate coating.'' When one or more of the spices, flavorings, or seasonings specified in paragraph (b)(4) of this section are used, the label shall bear an appropriate statement, e.g., ``Spice added'', ``Flavored with ------ '', or ``With ------ added'', the blank being filled in with the common or usual name of the spice, flavoring, or seasoning used, in accordance with Sec. 101.22 of this chapter. (d) Label declaration. Each of the ingredients used in the food shall be declared on the label as required by the applicable sections of parts 101 and 130 of this chapter. Dated: September 27, 2002. Margaret M. Dotzel, Associate Commissioner for Policy. [FR Doc. 02-25252 Filed 10-3-02; 8:45 am]"
[NOTE: This excerpted from White Chocolate; Establishment of a Standard of Identity, Federal Register, October 4, 2002.]

About white chocolate & the 1980s: "So called "white chocolate" is made out to cacao butter only, but in the United States it must be called "White confectionery coating," since it contains no cacao solids and therefore does not fit the legal requirements for "chocolate." It has the disadvantage of a relatively short shelf-life and a tendency to pick up foreign flavors." ---The True History of Chocolate, Sophie D. Coe and Michael D. Coe [Thames and Hudson:New York] 1996 (p. 29)
[NOTE: this book is THE definative history of chocolate. Ask your librarian to help you find a copy]

Related food? White chocolate mousse

Brittle

Brittle-type recipes were quite possibly the first candies. These simple combinations composed of honey and sesame seeds were favorites of ancient middle eastern cooks. Like many foods, brittle evolved over time due to regional culinary preferences, ingredient availability (refined sugar, molasses; almonds, peanuts), and technological advances. According to the food historians peanut brittle, as we know it today, is probably a 19th century American invention.

A survey of old cookbooks confirms recipes for peanut brittle (as we know it today) appear in 19th century. They are called by different names. Peanuts were orginally called groundnuts. One must examine these recipes carefully with regards to ingredients and method to determine the finished product. Skuse's Complete Confectioner (late 19th century British professional confectionery text) does not contain such a recipe. It does, however, contain recipes for comfits, a related item.
About peanuts

"The ancient Egyptians preserved nuts and fruits with honey."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 54)
[NOTE: This book has a very nice concise history of candy]

"Brittle is a simple and ancient sweet, and has been made for centuries in many countries. It is very similar to some types of nougat made with honey and nuts only (no egg white). Two examples are the Provencal 'croquant' made with sugar, honey, and almonds; and Italian 'croccante' with sugar, sometimes a little butter (which makes it less hard), and almonds. Similar confections of nuts, especially pistachios, almonds, and cashews, or sesame seeds, are popular in parts of the Arabic speaking world. Versions of nut and sesame seed brittle are to be found in many parts of Asia...peanut brittle is a popular sweet in North America."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 107)

"In the late 1850s...people were talking about peanut candy, peanut and molasses candy, or peanut brittle (though the last term didn't become truly popular until about 1900)..."
---Listening to America, Stuart Berg Flexner [Simon & Schuster:New York] 1982 (p. 138, 141)

EARLY PEANUT BRITTLE RECIPES

[1847]
"An Excellent Receipt for Groundnut Candy
To one quart or molasses add half a pint of brown sugar and a quarter of a pound of butter; boil it for half an hour over a slow fire; then put in a quart of groundnuts, parched and shelled; boil for a quarter of an hour, and then pour it into a shallow tin pan to harden."
---The Carolina Housewife, Sarah Rutledge, facsimile copy 1847 edition, with an introduction by Anna Aells Rutledge [University of South Carolina Press:Columbia] 1979 (p. 219)

[1908] "Peanut candy.
Have ready one cupful of peanuts shelled and chopped. Be sure you are rid of all the brown skins. Put one cupful of white sugar in a hot iron frying plan and stir until it is dissolved. Add the peanuts and turn immediately. As it cools cut into squares."
---The Evening Telegram Cook Book, Emma Paddock Telford [Cupples & Leon:New york] 1908 (p. 157)

[1919] "Peanut brittle.
5 pound sugar
2 1/2 pounds corn syrup
1 1/2 pints water
Cook and boil and then add 3 pounds Spanish shelled peanuts, and stir and cook until peanuts are done, then set kettle off fire and stir in it 1/2 teaspoonful of baking soda. After the soda is well stirred, drop in a little more soda, about 1/4 teaspoonful, and stir good. Pour on the slab and spread as thin as possible. When partly cold turn batch over. By adding soda as above batch will be the same color on both sides, not yellow on one side and brow on the other."
---Rigby's Reliable Candy Teacher, W. O. Rigby, 19th ed., [1919?] (p. 160-1)
[NOTE: this book also contains a recipe for non-sugar peanut brittle. This is not a diabetic alternative. It substitutes corn syrup and molasses for refined white sugar.]

[1925] George Washington Carver's Peanut recipes
(see "Peanut Wafers," #22-24)

Early American candy

Sugar candy (including molasses and maple), candied fruits & flowers (a Renaissance-era favorite), sugar coated nuts (comfits), marzipan (almond paste), brittles, and toffee were all enjoyed by Americans in 17th and 18th centuries. Period cooking texts typically group candy with "sweet meats" or confectionery. Sweet meats also included preserves, jams, jellies, syrups, small cakes/cookies, ice cream and sherbet. Some of the candies we Americans enjoy today (liquorice, marshmallows, hard candies, peppermint) were originally used for medicinal purposes. "Recipes" for these items were often included in medical texts as well as cookbooks. A wide variety of different types of sugar were used to make these candies.

What kinds of candy did the first Americans eat? Native Americans in the northern regions were adept at tapping maple trees for syrup. European settlers introduced the foods they enjoyed in the Old World. The following confections were known in Medieval and Renaissance Europe:

• Liquorice
• Marshmallows
• Marzipan
• Pralines
• Sugar plums & comfits

"Confectionery was another art practiced by efficient housewives. It took several forms. Whole fruits or berries cooked and stored in syrup were called preserves. Mashed, they became marmalade, conserve, or jam. "Dried" (that is, candied like modern crystallized fruit) they were confections or sweetmeats. When their juices were mixed with syrup and reduced sufficiently to form hard candies, they were chips; when mashed pulp was used in the same way, they were called pastes. Strained juices were also used to make jelly, as in modern practice, and there were fruit and berry syrups. Brandied fruits were prepared by adding brandy to the syrup in which whole fruits were stored. Mrs. Randolph's selection of recipes, reflecting Virginia tastes at the end of the [18th] century, emphasized preserves-- peaches, pears, quinces, cherries, strawberries, gooseberries, raspberries, and sweet tomato marmalade. Her preserving kettle was made of bell metal, "flat at the bottom, very large in diameter, but not deep," with a tight-fitting cover and "handles at the sides of the pan, for taking it off with ease wthen the syrup boils too fast." Other desirable equipment included a large chafing dish with long legs "for the convenience of moving it to any part of the room," a ladle "the size of a saucer, pierced and having a long handle" for "taking up the fruit without syrup," small glasses or pots of a maximum two-pound capacity, and "letter paper wet with brandy" to cover the containers...Mrs. Custis' "Book of Sweetmeats" reflected the elegance and artificiality of tastes in Queen Anne's court. In addition to the conventional preserves, she included the more elaborate confectionery that usued flowers and herbs, roots and nuts as well as fruits and berries in a variety of crystallized preparations and hard candies to decorate dessert tables...Walnuts and almonds, eryngo and ginger roots, angelica stalks and roots, and marjoram and mint leaves were sometimes crystallized. Mrs. Custis also chopped or mashed them and stirred them into a manus Christi syrup, which was dripped into "rock candies" or "cakes" about the size of a sixpence. Fruit juices carefully strained produced clear drops and cakes. The pulp of fruits and berries, treated like almond paste in marchpane, made pastes in a great variety of flavors and colors: apricots, peaches, pears, plums, quinces, pippins, raspberries, gooseberries, barberries, cherries, oranges, lemons. Even more decorative was Paste Royall, printed in molds and then gilded."
---Colonial Virginia Cookery, Jane Carson [Colonial Williamsburg Foundation:Williamsburg VA] 1985 (p. 120-122)

A survey of candy recipes published in cookbooks used by early American cooks

[1753]
Red crisp almonds or Prawlings (pralines)
Iced almonds (iced with sugar)
Candied cherries
Candied orange peel
Candied ginger
Barley sugar (a precursor to toffee)
March-pane (marzipan)
Pastils (soft gum-like candy)
Comfits
---The Lady's Companion, [London:1753] 6th edition
[NOTE: Colonial-era cooks used books they brought from home. Many of these were published in London.]

[1749-1799]
Candied flowers (roses, marigolds, violets, rosemary--yes! Real flowers!)
Candied ginger
Suckets (candied fruits, oranges and lemons were most popular)
Sugar candy (boiled refined sugar)
Losenges (diamond shaped sugar candy...think of today's throat lozenge...flavored with orange, lemon, rose water)
Fruit pastes (dried, thin sheets of pounded fruit...think of today's "Fruit Roll-ups"...made with real apricots, peaches, raspberries, gooseberries, apples, plums, quinces, oranges, lemons)
Marchpan (aka marzipan; almond paste which was often colored and deoratively shaped)
---Martha Washington's Book of Cookery, transcribed by Karen Hess [Columbia University Press:New York] 1995
[NOTE: If you want to see these recipes ask your librarian can help you find a copy of this book.]

[1792]
Lemon and orange peel candied
Melon citron candied
Anglelica candied
Cassia candied
Orange marmalade
Apricot marmalade
Red quince marmalade
White quince marmalade
Raspberry paste
Currant paste
Gooseberry paste
Orange chips
Apricot chips
Ginger tablet
---The New Art of Cookery According to the Present Practice, Richard Briggs [W. Spotswood, R. Campbell, and B. Johnson:Philadelphia] 1792

[1847]
Kisses & meringues (sweet, frothy egg white confections; some have hazel nut or cocoanut centers)
Coconut candy
Lemon candy (rock candy)
Cream candy
Common twist (like candy canes/sticks)
Peppermint, rose or horehound candy
Molasses candy (taffy)
Candied orange or lemon peel
---Mrs. Crowen's American Lady's Cookery Book, Mrs. T. J. Crowen [Dick & Fitzgerald:New York] 1847

Need to make something for class? Selected modernized recipes:
...while most of these candies were enjoyed throughout the country, those with specific colony/state designations in their respective cookbooks are noted. "Nut Sweet
2 cups maple sugar (or brown sugar)
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup hickory nuts, or walnuts, broken. In a saucepan combine sugar, water, and butter. Cook over low heat until a candy thermometer inciates 238 degrees F., or until the syrup dropped in cold water forms a soft ball. Add the nuts. remove from heat and stir until the candy is thick. Drop in spoonsful onto waxed paper and let the patties harden."
---The Thirteen Colonies Cookbook, Mary Donovan et al [Montclair Historical Society:Montclair NJ] 1976 (p. 77) [Connecticut]

"Candied Peel
Cut rind of 8 oranges into quarters. Cover with cold water. Brink slowly to the boiling point. Remove pan from fire. Drain well. Repat this process, boiling the orange peel in a total of 5 waters. Drain well each time. With scissors, cut into strips or leaf designs. Make a syrup with 1/4 cut water and 1/2 cup sugar. Add the peel and boil until all the syrup is absorbed. Cool briefly. When thorouhgly dry, the peel may be dipped in chcoolate coating. Peel may also be rolled in freshly grated coconut, then sugared. Store in airtight tins, or freeze."
---ibid (p. 115) [New Jersey]

"Apricot Leather
Wash 1 package dried apricots and put them in water to soak overnight. Next morning, bring apricots and water to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and drain thoroughly. (Be sure all the water has drained off.) mash the apricots through a sieve, or belnd in a blender until smooth. Measure pulp: return it to the saucepan and add 1 part sugar to every 3 parts pulp. Bring to a boil and boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly (at thsis tage the mixture may burn easily, so stir carefully.) Let the mixture cool for 15 minutes; then spread almost paper thin on a large piece of glass, marble slab, or aluminum cookie sheet. Form a rectangular shape. Place in a warm dry room (an attic is excellent) to dry for 1 to 2 days (it should be pliable enough to roll). Cut the leather into 3-inch squares, sprinkle with granulated sugar, and roll tightly into rolls about the size of a small pencil. Roll in granulated sugar and stroe in a tightly closed box."
---ibid (p. 251) [Georgia]

"Hoarhound Candy
Some of the candies which were made in colonial kitchens were very simple mixtures of sugar, water, and herbs. This candy was a confection as well as a lozenge for colds and sore throats.
3 ounces hoarhound
3 cups water
3 1/2 pounds brown sugar
Add hoarhound to hot water and simmmer for 20 minutes. Stain and add sugar. Cook until syrup forms a hard ball when dropped into cold water or until candy thermometer registers 265 degrees F. Pour into a buttered pan. When cooled, form into small balls or cut into squares. makes about 5 sozen pieces."
---Foods from the Founding Fathers, Helen Newbury Burke [Exposition Press:Hicksville NY] 1978 (p. 141) [Rhode Island]

"Molasses Candy
2 cups molasses
2 cups brown sugar
1/3 cup vinegar
1 cup water
2 tablespoons butter
Salt
Boil ingredients until brittle when tried in cold water. Pour into hot, buttered pan; pull when cool enough to handle."
---ibid (p. 141) [Rhode Island]

"Benne (Sesame) Brittle
2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups parched benne seed (roasted)
Melt the sugar in a heavy frying pan or saucepan over a low heat, stirring constantly. When sugar is melted, remove from stove, then add benne seed and vanilla quickly. Pour into a well-buttered pan to about 1/4 inch depth (a medium-size biscuit pan is right). Mark into squares while warm and break along lines when cold. Makes 8-10 squares."
---ibid (p. 244) [South Carolina]

"Hickory Nut Creams
3 cups brown sugar
1 cup cream or evaporated milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon butter
2 cups hickory nuts
Stir sugar and cream together until sugar dissolves. Boil to 234 degrees F. or until a little of the mixture forms a soft ball when dropped into cold water. Cool to lukewarm. Add vanilla, butter, and nuts, and beat until creamy. Drop from spoon on waxed paper. makes 3 dozen creams."
---ibid (p. 316) [Philadelphia]

"Spiced Walnuts
1/4 pound walnut halves
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1 tablespoon water
1 egg white
Heat nuts in 350 degree F. oven for a few minutes. Sift together three times the sugar, ginger, salt, nutmeg, and cloves. Add awater to egg whtie and beat until frothy (not stuff). Dip nuts in egg mixture and roll in spices. Cover bottom of baking sheet with leftover sugar and spices. Arrange nuts over top. Sift remaining sugar over them. Bake at 275 degrees F. for 1 hour. Remove from oven and shake off excess sugar."
---ibid (p. 316) [Philadelphia]

"Pralines
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup pecans
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Mix all ingredients except vanilla. Bring to a boil and boil for exactly 1 1/2 minutes. Remove from heat, add vanilla, and beat until smooth and creamy. Drop by spoonfuls onto wax paper. Makes 2 to 3 dozen."
---A Cooking Legacy, Virginia T. Elverson & Mary Ann McLanahan [Walker and Company:New York] 1975 (p. 167)

"Apricot Sweetmeats
1 pound dried apricots, ground
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup orange juice
pecan or walnut halves, or almonds
superfine granulated sugar
Combine apricots, granulated sugar and orange juice in a saucepan. Cook over low heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. Drop by teaspoon onto waxed paper. When cool, place a pecan or walnut half or an almond in the center, rolling apricot mixture around it. Drop each ball into superfine granulated sugar to coat completely. Pack in a tightly covered container to store. Makes 3 dozen."
---ibid (p. 166)

The Industrial Revolution made possible many new candies. Advances in food technology, scientific knowledge, and cooking apparatus made possible items such as jelly beans and chocolate. Most 19th century American cookbooks do not include recipes for making chocolate candy because it was primarily made by professional confectioners. "Penny candies" were a direct result of cheaper ingredients and mass production.

Primary sources/historic cookbooks

[1864]
Parkinson's Complete Confectioner, (professional text) [online full-text, courtesy of Michigan State University]
[1877]
Buckeye Cookery

These popular American brands were introduced to the American public between the late 1800s and 1929:

Wrigley's gum (Spearmint, Juicy Fruit)
Baby Ruth (Curtiss)
Hershey Bars (Hershey)
Good & Plenty
Cracker Jacks
Chase's Tween Meals
Tootsie Rolls
Candy Corn (called "Chicken Feed," by Goelitz Confercionery company)
Nik-L-Nips (liquid sugar/flavored filled wax novelties)
NECCO wafers
Hershey's Kisses
Life Savers
Goo Goo Clusters (a southern favorite)
Godenberg's Peanut-Chews (Philadephia area)
Mounds Bards (Peter Paul)
Milky Way Bar (M&M Mars)
Bit-O'Honey
Milk Duds
Heath Bars
Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
Snickers Bar (M&M Mars)
Dubble Bubble bubble gum (Fleer)
Chases's Cherry Mash
Gummi Bears
Pez
Twizzlers
Cotton candy
Conversation Hearts
Jujyfruits (Henry Heide Co.)
Chuckles (jelly candies)
Charleston Chew
Almond Rocha (Brown & Haley)
Mr. Goodbar (Hershey's)
Mike & Ike
SOURCES: Candy: The Sweet History/Beth Kimmerle, The Food Timeline, The Food Chronology/James Trager

Chocolate is a "New World" food originating in South America. It was first consumed in liquid form by the Ancient Mayans and Aztecs. Spanish explorers introduced chocolate to Europe, where it was likewise appreciated and esteemed. Chocolate candy made its debut in the middle of the 19th century (Cadbury). At that time, it was very expensive and out of the reach of most people. The Industrial Revolution enabled the chocolate industry to grow and flourish. By the end of the 19th century chocolate was enjoyed by "the masses" (Hershey). Cream candies ultimately trace their roots to Medieval and Renaissance soft cream fillings used to compose trifle and fill pastries. Later developments included creme brulee and caramel cream. Chocolate-coated cream candies of all kinds were extremely popular in the late 19th/early 20th centuries.

According to the food historians, chocolate truffles were named thusly because the finished product resembles the naturally occuring, expensive fungus of the same name. About fungus truffles. Alan Davidson's Oxford Companion to Food states this candy became popular in the 1920s.

"Many who have never encountered vegetable truffles have tucked into confectioners' truffles, sweets the colour and shape of black truffles, made from a mixture of chocolate, sugar, and cream (and often rum) and covered with a dusting of cocoa powder or tiny chocolate strands. These are, of course, a much more recent phenomenon; they made their first appearance in an Army and Navy Stores catalogue for 1926-7."
---An A-Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 351)

While references to early 19th century chocolate truffles can be found in some books on American food history, it is unlikely the confection, as we know it today, existed that early. Possibly these authors are referring to chocolate creams, a related confection. The earliest authentic/historic recipe we have for chocolate truffles dates to the 1920s:

"Chocolate truffles. Dip a plain vanilla cream center, one as small as possible in milk chocolate coating, then before the coating dries, roll each piece in macaroon cocoanut so that the cocoanut sticks to the chocolate. Now lay them on a cheet of wax paper and allow to dry."
---Rigby's Reliable Candy Teacher, W.O. Rigby, 19th edition (undated, early 1920s probably) (p. 84)

[1769]
"To spin a Silver Web for covering Sweetmeats
Take a quarter of a pound of treble-refined sugar in one lump, and set it before a moderate fire on the middle of a silver salver or pewter plate. Set it a little aslant, and when it begins to run like clear water to the edge of the plate or salver, have ready a tin cover or china bowl set on a still, with the mouth downward close to your sugar that it may not cool by carrying too far. Then take a clean knife and take up as much of the syrup as the point will hold, and a fine thread will come from the point, which you must draw as quicky as possible backwards and forwards and also around the mould, as long as it will spin from the knife. Be very careful you do not drop the syrup on the web, if you do it will spoil it. Then dip your knife into the syrup again and take up more, and so keep spinning till your sugar is done or your web is thick enough. Be sure you do not let the knife touch the lump on the plate that is not melted, it will make it brittle and not spin at all. If your sugar is spent before your web is done put fresh sugar on a plate or salver, and not spin from the same plate again. If you don't want the web to cover the sweetmeats immediately, set it in a deep pewter from getting to it, and set it before the fire, it requires to be kept warm or it will fall. When your dinner or supper is dished, have ready a plate or dish of the size of your web filled with different coloured sweetmeats, and set your web over it. It is pretty for a middle, where the dishes are few, or corner where the number is large." ---The Experienced English Housekeeper, Elizabeth Raffald, with an introduction by Roy Shipperbottom [Southover Press:East Sussex UK] 1996 (p. 92)
[NOTE: this book also has instructions for a gold web and to make a Dessert of Spun Sugar.]

[1864]
On sugar spinning
The Complete Confectioner, Pastry Cook and Baker, J.M. Sanderson [Lippincott:Philadelphia] (p. 33+)

[1894]
Spun Sugar for Ornamental Purposes
--Required: loaf sugar and half its weight in water. The best cane sugar should be used, as failure if almost sure with inferior sugar. This is to be put in a copper pan and brought to the boil, and freed from any scum thay may rise. When the surface begins to look bubbly it is nearly ready. To test it, dip a knife or the end of a steel in cold water, and be sure that it is cold, or a mistake may arise; then dip this in the boiling sugar, then in cold water again, and if it is brittle, and leaves the knife or steel, it is done; should it cling an be soft it must be boiled longer. When it is done, take small portions and pass it quickly to and fro to form threads over an oiled rolling pin held in the left hand. A fork is best to use to take up the sugar. Should this be intended for "draping" a vol-au-vent or other sweet, the pin should be moved, so that the sugar falls into position, and is not handled. To be explicit, as it leaves the pin it is wound round the sweet. There is considerable art in this operation, and it is quite likely that a number of failures will precede success; it is one of those branches of the cuisine that require a practical lesson. It is always well to rub a little oil on the hands and wrists in the case the sugar should splash them, and by standing on a stool, holding the left arm low, and moving the right hand high in the air, the work is facilitated."
---Cassell's New Universal Cookery Book, Lizzie Heritage [Cassell and Company:London] (p. 811)

Cotton candy, as fair food, began when W.J. Morrison and J.C. Wharton (Nashville, TN) patented the first electric machine for spinning sugar into edible threads in 1897. This machine produced cotton candy quickly in mass quantities. The machine was portable, the process was novel, the appeal was universal. Perfect fair food. Notes from the original patent:

Candy Machine
To all whom it may concern; Be it known that we, William J. Morrison and John C. Wharton, citizens of the United States, residing at Nashville, in the County of Davidson and State of Tennessee, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Candy-Machines, of which the following is a specification. Our invention relates to improvements in candy-making, or, as commonly called, "candy-machines," in which a revolvable or rotating pan or vessel containing cand or melted sugar causes the said candy or melted sugar to form into masses of thread-like or silk-like filaments by the centrifugal force due to the rotation of the vessel. The object of our invention is to obtain an edible product consisting of the said filaments of melted and "spun" sugar or candy."
---U.S. Patent #618,428 January 31, 1899. Application filed December 23, 1897.
[NOTE: you can view the full image of this patent online. Accessible by patent number only, requires special viewing software.]

Sugar Candy, Pink and White
Sugar candy is made in a variety of colours. The foreign, which is imported in large quantities, varying in shades between very dark brown and pale yellow, the prices charged for these qualities being very little above the sugar value, therefore unprofitable to make, but the pink and white candy is not so common, and generally command a renumerative figure, besides being attractive as a window decoration. The process is simple and interesting. Copper pans are sold by machinists for the purpose, but for small makers a rough coller or white metal pan will answer, so long as its sides are a little wider at the top than the bottom, in order that the crystalized sugar may fall out unbroken. Perforate the pan with small holes, about three inches apart, pass a thread through from one hole to another, so that the thread runs at equal distances throughout the centre of the pan, then stop up the holes from the outside with a thin coating of beeswax and resin to keep the syrup from running through. When the pan has been got ready, boil sufficient sugar to fill it, in the proportion of 7-lbs. sugar to 3 pints of water, to the degree of thread, or 230; then pour the contents into the pan and stand it on the drying room for three or four days; when the crystals are heavy enough, which you can tell by examining them, pour off the superfluous syrup; rinse the candy in lukewarm water and stand it in the drying room till dry. To make the pink, of course, colour the syrup, but be careful in tinging it very lightly. N.B.-When goods are undergoing the process of crystalizing, the vessel in which they are must not be disturbed."

In the dawning years of the 20th century cotton candy was also sold in sweet shops and department store candy counters. A Wanamaker's advertisement announcing the acquisition of "A Wonderful Candy Machine" ran in the New York Times February 11, 1905 (p.4). Price of their cotton candy? 5-10 cents, probably depending upon size.

Bruce Feiler's notes debunking the popular history of cotton candy:

"The Dictionary of American Food and Drink reports that the item [cotton candy] originated in 1900 at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Baily Circus, when snack vendor Thomas Patton began experimenting with the long common process of boiling sugar to a caramelized state, then forming long threads of it with a fork. Patton's genious, according to the entry, was to heat the sugar on a gas-fired rotating plate, creating a cottony floss. The truth may be less romantic, but it is no less appealing. In 1897 William Morrison and John C. Wharton, candy makers in Nashville, invented the world's first electric machine that allowed crystallized sugar to be poured onto a heated spinning plate, then pushed by centrifugal force through a series of tiny holes. In 1904, at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, commonly known as the St. Louis World's Fair, Morrison and Wharton sold the product, then known as "fairy floss," in chipped-wood [cardboard] boxes for 25 cents a serving. Though the price was half the admission of the fair itself, they sold 68,655 boxes..."
---"Spun Heaven," Bruce Feiler, Gourmet, February 2000 (p. 66+)
[NOTE: this is an excellent article. Ask your librarian to help you find a copy.]

About the science of sugar.

Cotton candy: notes from the National Confectioners Association (includes how cotton candy is made today. If you need more details about the manufacturing process ask your librarian to help you find this book: How Products are Made, Jacqueline L. Longe, editor, Volume 4 [Gale:Detroit] 1999 (p. 157-161).

Although recipes for various nougat and sweet meringue-type confections (with and without nuts and fruit) can be traced to ancient Turkish and 17th century European and roots, food historians generally agree that Divinity (aka Divinity fudge, Divinity candy) is an early 20th century American invention. Why? One of the primary ingedients in early Divinity recipes is corn syrup, a product actively marketed to (& embraced by) American consumers as a sugar substitute at that time. Corn syrup was affordable (economical), practical (shelf-stable), and adapted well to most traditional recipes. Karo brand corn syrup, introduced by the Corn Products Refining Company in 1902, was/is perhaps the most famous. It is no coincidence that early Karo cooking brochures contain recipes for Divinity.

Food historians have yet to determine the first person to call this delicious confection "Divinity. " The general concensus about the name? The finished product tasted "divine." A survey of American cookbooks confirms recipes for Divinity (candy, fudge, rolls) were "standard items" from the 1930s to present. Some people connect Divinity with southern roots. This is not confirmed by our cooking texts which are published all over the country. Perhaps Divinity with pecans is a Southern twist on a national favorite?

This is what the food experts have to say:

"Divinity. An American confection related to nougat and marshmallow. It is made by cooking a sugar syrup to the firm or hard-ball stage...and then beating it into whisked egg whites."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 251)

"Divinity...also divinity fudge [Prob with ref to its "divine" flavor] esp. west of Appalachians. Homemade candy made by pouring hot sugar syrup into beaten egg whites. 1913 E.H. Glover Dame Curtsey's Book of Candy Making (p. 34) Divinity Fudge. Three and one-half cups of granulated sugar, one-half cup of 90 per cent corn syrup, two thirds cup water [etc.]"
---Dictionary of American Regional English, Frederick G. Cassidy and Joan Houston Hall, editors, [Belknap Press of Harvard University:Cambridge MA] 1985, volume II D-H (p. 91)
[NOTE: This book has a map showing where this particular term is most popular. Your librarian can help you find a copy of this book/page if you need it.]

"White divinity fudge wasn't heard of until around 1910."
---Listening to America, Stuart Berg Flexner [Simon & Schuster:New York] 1982 (p. 139)

Why does Divinity sometimes choose not to set?
"Divinity is a tricky confection to make under the best circumstances--almost impossible under less than good. The recipe in one community cookbook advises a short consultation with the local meteorologist: "Please remember candy doesn't set unless the barometer reads 30 in. or over; doesn't make a difference whether it's raining or not, just watch your t.v. for the barometric pressure." Divinity like most other Southern canides shows up around the winter holidays. It is sort of a companion piece to fudge in Christmas gift boxes. ---Biscuits, Spoonbread, and Sweet Potato Pie, Bill Neal [Alfred A. Knopf:New York] 1996 (p. 138)

[1905]
"Divinity Candy. Mrs. C.C. Hall, Hollywood.--One pint golden drip syrup, one pint sweet milk one cup granulated sugar, butter size of a walnut. Boil until a soft ball can be made. Remove from fire ahd whip until it is creamy, then pour over one-half pound of shelled Califoania English walnuts."
---The Times Cookbook

[1907]
"In place of the time-honored "fudge," she may make the new "Divinity Fudge," a sweet that is no more expensive, that takes but little more time, but that is far more delicious. Melt a cupful of sugar in a saucepan; when melted, pour it into another saucepan in which there is already a cupful of cold milk. Put this pan on the fire and cook slowly until the two have blended; then add two or more cupfuls of granulated sugar, and one more cupful of cold milk, and reheat, cooking slowly until it is of proper consistency to remove from the stove. At this time add a heaping teaspoonful of butter and a cupful of finely chopped nut meats; beat the mixture with a large spoon until almost cold, then spread it over buttered pans, and line for cutting, like fudge."
---"Christmas Cheer as Ever Calls on the Housewife for Sweets, Pies and All the Rest of the Good Things of the Holidays," The New York Times, December 17, 1907 (p. SM5)

[1910]
"Divinity Fudge
Here is a recipe for Divinity Fudge, which is great:
2 cups sugar, 1/2 cup cup hot water, 1/2 cup corn syrup. Cook until it forms a soft ball when dropped in cold water. Have ready, in a rather deep dish, the whites of 2 eggs beaten to a stiff froth (1 egg may be used, not so good). Pour the cooked mixture over the whites of the eggs. Beat in the 1 cup walnuts. Beat until of a creamy consistency. Pour onto buttered pan. Cool, cut in squares. Janice Meredith."
---"Divinity Fidge," Boston Daily Globe, April 28, 1910 (p. 11)

[1915]
"Divinity.
Two cupfuls gran.[granulated] Sugar, 1/2 cupful water, 1/2 cupful syrup. Boil until it hardens in cold water. Beat whites of 2 eggs to a stiff froth, then pour syrup over them and add 1 cupful chopped nuts. Flavor with vanilla. Beat until stiff and drip with spoon on parafine paper."
---The Concord Cook Book, compiled by Mrs. Adolph Guttman and Mrs. Levi Oppenheimer for the Ladies' Auxilary, Society of Concord Syracuse N.Y. first edition [Dehler Press:Syracuse NY] 1915 (p. 276)

[1917]
"Divinity Fudge
Home candy economy seems on the increase, to judge from the requests that come to this column for recipes. M.A. wishes a recipe for "divinity." One of the colored corn sirups, probably the best known, is used by many people, but plain glucose, which costs a little less, makes a whiter candy. In making all candies I use a thermometer, because it saves time and attention and I get more uniform results, but my neighbor, fortunately i this case, does not, so Mrs. Y. lets me use her recipe herewith:
"This requires two pans or kettles. In pan No. 1, put one cup of sugar and one-half cup of water. In pan NO. 2 put three cups of sugar one one cup of corn sirup. Boil No. 1 until it spins a thread. Boil No. 2 until it forms a soft ball when dropped in water. Beat No. 1 into the whites of two eggs, and as soon as No. 2 is done beat into the egg mixture. Beat on a platter about ten minutes, or until creamy. Before it gets firm beat in a cup of pecan nuts and two teaspoons of vanilla. Beat until firm. Turn out on to a cloth that has been wet in cold water and roll up into a loaf. When cool enough cit down into slices."
---"Tribune Cook Book," Jane Eddington, Chicago Daily Tribune, February 14, 1917 (p. 10)

[1926]
"Divinity Fudge
3 cups light brown sugar
3/4 cup Karo syrup
1 1/4 cups nut meats or chopped crystallized fruit
3 egg whites
1 cup cold water.
Mix in saucepan sugar, syrup and water. Cook until mixture reaches soft-ball stage. Whip egg whites very stiff and dry, then add syrup mixture in a small stream, beating all the time until mixture begins to thicken. Stir in nut meats or fruit, continue stirring until creamy. Pour in buttered pan. Cut in squares when cold."
---Every Woman's Cook Book, Mrs. Chas. F. Moritz [Cupples & Leon: New York] (p. 599-600)

Why won't divinity set in certain types of weather?
"Divinity is a tricky confection to make under the best circumstances--almost impossible under less than good. The recipe in one community cookbook advises a short consultation with the local meteorologist: "Please remember candy doesn't set unless the barometer reads 30 in. or over; doesn't make a difference whether it's raining or not, just watch your t.v. for the barometric pressure." Divinity like most other Southern candies shows up around the winter holidays. It is sort of a companion piece to fudge in Christmas gift boxes."
---Biscuits, Spoonbread, and Sweet Potato Pie, Bill Neal [Alfred A. Knopf:New York] 1996 (p. 138)

Related foods? Meringue and fudge.

Dolly mixtures are a uniquely British treat. They seem to be related to liquorice allsorts, popular colorful candies of different shapes and sizes that are about 100 years old. About liquorice.

"...it is probably in confectionery that liquorice has found its most extensive and attractive culinary use. For this purpose, the extract from the roots is combined with sugar, water, gelatin, and flour to give a malleable black or brown paste, which is tough and chewy. These attribute are used to gread effect by manufactureres who mould it into pipes, cables, and long strips or 'bootlaces'; or combine it with brighly coloured soft sugar paste to make liquorice allsorts. These sweets, very popular in Britain, are of divers and striking appearance, mostly made of layers of black refined liquorice combined in various ways with brightly coloured paste imitating marzipan. Some lumps of liquorice rolled in coloured sugar vermicelli. Thanks to the liquorice in them, the flavour of these sweets is more interesting than that of most cheap confectionery."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davdison [OxforUniversity Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 455)

Where did the name "Dolly Mixture" come from? The food historians are still looking for a definative answer. There are several theories:

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a dolly mixture is a "mixture of tiny coloured sweets of various shapes." The earliest citation to print references using this term dates back only to 1957. One of these books, Lore and Language of Schoolchildren, Iona Opie, states "Other current sweet-shop favourites appear to be the same as thirty years ago, in fact bull's eyes, jelly babies, and dolly mixture have entered schoolchild language as descriptive nouns." (page 166). This dates the term dolly mixtures, as they relate to candy, back at least to the late 1920s.

Just below this entry is another definition for the word dolly: "Anglo-Indian [ad.Hindi Dali]...A complimentary offering of fruit, flowers, vegetables, sweetmeats and the like presented usually on one or more trays..." Perhaps this term, as it relates to candy, was borrowed from traditions begun in British India?

Another argument supporting the possible connection to India is the word dal, or dahl. These pulses (beans, peas, legumes) are one of the principal foods in the Indian subcontinent. Dal is often composed of items of various sizes and colors, thus the possible connection (in looks only) to the popular candy mix. You can find more information on Dal in the Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 241) and A Historical Dictionary of Indian Food, K.Y. Achaya [Oxford University Press:Delhi] 1998 (p. 60).

Laura Mason, British confectionery history expert, says the connection between Indian dahl and dolly mixtures is unlikely.

"Soft Bright Jellies for Dolly Mixtures
Sugar 20lb
Glucose 20lb
Water 5pt
Gelatin 4lb
Citric acid powder 4 1/2oz
Run into starch impressions. Set aside until next day. Brush thoroughly and glaze."
---Skuse's Complete Confectioner, W. J. Bush & Co. editor, 13th edition [W.J. Bush:London] 1957 (p. 200)

American confectioners introduced modern fudge to resort-area vacationers in the 1880s. Mackinac Island (Michigan) is particularly known for this confection. Early recipes for home-made fudge are more closely related to early 20th century cake icing than other confections. One of the primary differences between professional and amateur fudge is the equipment. Professionals employed huge marble tables to work their confections into the right consistency. Home cooks (& Ivy League co-eds) simply poured their mixed indredients directly into baking pans and let them cool.

This is what the food historians say on the topic:

"Fudge. A semisoft candy made from butter, sugar, and various flavorings, them most usual being chocolate, vanilla, and maple. The candy was first made in New England women's colleges. The origins of the term are obscure. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests it may be a variant of an older word, "fadge," meaning "to fit pieces together." "Fudge" had been used to mean a hoax or cheat since about 1833, and by midcentury "Oh, fudge!" was a fairly innocuous expletive. It has long been speculated that American college women, using candymaking as an excuse to stay up late at night, applied the then-current meaning to the new candy...The word "fudge as a candy first showed up in print in 1896, and by 1908 was commonly associated with women's colleges, as in "Wellesley Fudge,"..."Divinity fudge" with egg whites and often, candied cherries, came along about 1910 and was especially popular during the holidays. The name probably referred to its "divine" flavor."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar Friedman:New York] (p. 135) [NOTE: The Irish recipe for "fadge" makes an apple potato cake. It was traditionally served on the feast of Samhain (Halloween).]

"The addition of dairy products [to Scottish tablet] was a development which contributing more than must flavour...This is exploited by fudge, a confection which relies on similar ingredients and principles to tablet, but is richer, softer and requires a slightly lower temperature. On first tasting, the similarities seem overwhelming, both in flavour...and general textures. It is easy to assume that they share a common origin; but the derivation of the name fudge and the origins of the sweet are both obscure. Fudge as now understood seems to have travelled east to Britain from North America. Anecdotal evidence links it to women's colleges in the laste nineteenth century, and most early recipes include chocolate. It is possible that Scottish migrants took the idea of milk-based tablet to North America. Whether these were influenced by fudge-like mixtures of brown sugar and nuts from Creole cuisine of the southern states is unclear. Fudge appears to have been taken up by confectioners and large companies some years later. Skuse, who actively collected formulae, including North American ones, did not give one for fudge in the early editions of his Confectoners Handbook, but recipes first appear in British books in the first decade of this century."
---Sugar-Plums and Sherbet: The Prehistory of Sweets, Laura Mason [Prospect Books:Devon] 2004(p. 72)

"Fudge, which denotes a sort of soft, somewhat toffee-like sweet made by boiling together sugar, butter, and milk, is a mystery word. It first appeared, in the USA, at the end of the nineteenth century, when it was used for a kind of chocolate bonbon', and by 1902 the journal The Queen was recording tat the greatest "stunt" among college students is mo make Fudge;. It is generally assumed to have been an adaptation of the verb fudge, in the sendse make inexpertly, botch. But this merely begs the question, as the origin ofo the verb, too, is uncertain."
---An A-Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 133)

It is quite likely enterprising co-eds found "alternative" ways to melt store-bought chocolate/cocoa (Baker's, Hershey's), adding whatever ingredients they had on hand, to approximate the semi-soft, delicious confections they tasted on family holiday. Their concoctions probably tasted pretty good. Where there's a will, there's a way.

Most recipes are not invented, they evolve. Compare this recipe for "chocolate carmel" with those below for "fudge":

[1884] Chocolate Caramels
"One cup of molasses, half a cup of sugar, one quarter of a pound of chocolate, cut fine, half a cup of milk, and one heaping tablespoonful of butter. Boil all together, stirring all the time. When it hardens in cold water, pour into shallow pans, as it cools cut in small squares."
---Boston Cooking School Cook Book, Mrs. D. A. Lincoln [1884] [Dover Publications:Mineola NY] 1996 (p. 390)

Two of the earliest recipes we have for [homemade] fudge are these:

[1893] Fudges
"Four cups granulated sugar; one cup cream; one cup water; one-half cake chocolate; one-half cup butter. Cook until it just holds together, then add two teaspoonfuls extract of vanilla and pour into pans, not buttered. When cool enough to bear finger in, stir it until it no longer runs. It should not grain, but be smooth. Cut into squares."---From Mrs. J. Montgomery Smith, of Wisconsin, Alternate Lady Manager
---Favorite Dishes: A Columbian Autograph Souvenir Cookery Book, Carrie V. Schulman, facsimile edition, introductions by Reid Badger and Bruce King [University of Illinois Press:Chicago] 2001 (p. 197)

[1903] Fudge
4 ounces of chocolate
2 cups of sugar
1 teaspoonful of vanilla
1/2 cup of milk
1 rounding tablespoonful of butter
Put the sugar, butter, chocolate and milk in a saucepan over the fire until thoroughly melted. Boil, stirring constantly, until the mixture hardens when dropped into cold water; take from the fire, add the vanilla, and turn quickly out to cool. When cold, cut into squares."
---Mrs. Rorer's New Cook Book, Sarah Tyson Rorer [Arnold and Company:Philadelphia] 1902 (p. 629)

The Candy Cook Book, Alice Bradley [Little Brown:Boston] 1929 has an entire chapter devoted to fudges. The introduction reads:

"The name fudge is applied to a large group of candies made of sugar boiled with water, milk, or cream, from 230 degrees F. To 238 degrees F., and stirred or worked with a paddle until candy becomes firm. If stirred while still hot, the resulting candy is coarse and granular. To prevent this, the syrup should be cooled in the saucepan in which it is cooked, or poured out upon a marble slab, platter, or agate tray that has been slightly moistened with a piece of wet cheesecloth. It should not be disturbed until cool. It should then be stirred with a wooden spoon, or worked with a spatula forward and lifting up the mass, turning it over and bringing it back, until the whole begins to get stiff. At this stage, turn into a pan, or, better still, leave the candy between bars on wax paper on a board, regulating the size of the open space according to the amount of candy and the thickness desired."

Opera fudge

Opera fudge is one of many delicious culinary specialties connected with Lebanon, PA. This fondant candy is a seasonal treat, traditionally made from Thanksgiving to Easter (it melts in the hotter months). In other parts of the country these candies are called opera drops [Boston], french creams, and opera caramels. Cincinnati's famous Opera Creams are a chocolate-coated fondant.

Why "opera?"
There are several theories explaining why these candies are connected to the opera, none of them conclusive:

"Rueppel isn't sure why it's called opera fudge but doesn't think it has anything to do with fat ladies, at least not the singing kind. ''I think it's because it's a real rich fudge,'' Rueppel said. ''The opera is something rich - at the top - like opera fudge.''
---SUGAR, CREAM, CHOCOLATE - OF COURSE IT'S GOOD, Steve Stephens, The Columbus Dispatch, February 28, 1994 (p. 8c)

"Opera drops were chocolates with vanilla cream filling, kind of conical, haystack shaped. You would by them at intermission at the opera. There was a British brand called Between the Acts that you could buy at Bailey's in Boston."
---Dictionary of American Regional English, Frederick G. Cassidy & Joan Houston Hall, volume III (p. 890)

"Fondant...A variety of fondant which had cream amongst its ingredients was popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries under the name of 'Opera Caramels'."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 312)

The name "opera" seems indeed to be a 20th century invention, evidenced by the fact that Skuse's Complete Confectioner [an important industry text, London: 1898?] makes no reference to them. Skuse's also does not use the word "fudge."

Opera creams, Cincinnati style
There is no question confections called "Opera Creams" are a Cincinnati specialty. We respect the claim made by the Papas family with respect to their opera creams. Our culinary history sources confirme these confections existed in the early 20th century but do not specifically credit Papas (or any other person/place) with the *invention* of this candy. In fact, most foods are not invented. They evolve. Why are they called "Opera?"

"Alex C. Papas, former owner of Chris A. Papas & Son Co. - the company that makes those popular chocolate-covered opera cream Easter eggs - died Monday of cancer at St. Elizabeth Medical Center South in Edgewood. The Crestview Hills resident was 84...Mr. Papas' father, also named Chris, was a Greek who emigrated to the United States from Macedonia in 1909. When he was 11, the junior Papas helped his father support the family by cleaning furnaces and delivering coal when they decided to experiment with candy recipes in the basement. "They were just fooling around with the candy," Mr. Papas' son said. "They were trying to make a dollar any way that they could." They came up with a candy that they liked and began selling it on street corners. "When business got kind of slow in the warm months, they started making ice cream," his son said. "That's when they opened the ice cream parlor and soda shop." In 1935 - the midst of the Great Depression - they set up a retail shop named Lily's Candies after Mr. Papas' mother. Mr. Papas left school after the eighth grade to help his father make the candy by hand, full-time. Before he was inducted into the Army in 1942, he met Ann Zappa and asked her to "come work with me." She was making chocolates and he was stationed in West Virginia during the summer of 1943, when she traveled there to marry him before he was shipped out to Europe to fight in World War II. Mr. Papas was in the Battle of the Bulge. After the war, he returned to Covington and to the growing candy business. He designed machines to make candy in order to keep up with demand. Today Papas opera creams are popular from Washington, D.C., to Arizona. The factory makes as many as 100,000 eggs in an eight-hour day during peak season - the three months before Easter.Mr. Papas bought the production side of the business and renamed it Chris A. Papas & Son when his father retired in 1957. His sister Katherine Papas Hartmann purchased Lily's Candies and operated it until she sold it to her brother in 1987."
Cincinnati Enquirer [October 14, 2004]

[1924]
"Opera Creams
Melt together three-fourths cup of milk, two cups sugar, two squares chocolate. Boil three or four minutes, flavor and set in cool place until absolutely cold, then beat until it becomes creamy. Drop into balls on waxed paper."
---Carbondale Cook Book, prepared by the Young Lady Workers of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Carbondale, PA, 7th edition, revised and enlarged [International Textbook Press:Scranton PA] 1924 (p. 193)

[1929]
"Opera Bonbons. Color and flavor as desired small portions of Opera Fondant. With the hands shape in small balls, putting a piece of nut, cherry, or marshmallow in the center of each ball. Melt another portion of Opera Fondant in a double boiler over hot water, stirring constantly. Add half a teaspoon of vanilla, and drop centers one at a time in the fondant. Remove with candy dipper or two-tined fork to waxed paper. When enough white bonbons have been made, add a little pink or green color paste and raspberry or almond extract to taste ot the melted fondant. Dip more of the centers, stirring the fondant, and reheating it if it becomes too stiff. Then add to remaining fondant one square melted chocolate, and dip remaining balls. In this way a great variety of attractive bonbons may be produced. Other flavors and colors may be used for greater variety, and tops may be decorated with small pices of nuts or cherries if desired. The centers may also be dipped in melted coating chocolate. White Fondants 1, II , or III may be used instead of Opera Fondant."
---The Candy Cook Book, Alice Bradley [Little, Brown:Boston] 1929 (p. 98-99)

"Vanilla Opera Fudge.
2 cups sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1/8 teaspoon cr