Scary Candy

Halloween is busy and the whole weekend raced by. I was planning on posting some Halloween recipes but that will have to wait til next year. However, I have made a discovery that I could still say was Halloween-ish: Candy Making Revolutionized, Confectionary from Vegetables by Mary Elizabeth Hall, 1912. I don’t actually have the book, but I ran across the website Manybooks.net during my internet surfing. It’s full of free downloadable public domain ebooks, including a wealth of interesting old cookbooks. Thank you Project Gutenberg!

Now the first question on perusing this book is: are these actually edible? Are they even worse than receiving actual apples when trick-or-treating? Or is it possible that they could be a so-horrid-they-are-cool Halloween option? I’ll let you decide. But first, the advantages of these recipes:

“Mothers who formerly were all too often required to gratify their children's longing for candies that told a story--candies modeled or otherwise decorative--by giving them boughten confectionery that contained plaster of Paris, aniline dyes and other ingredients equally harmful, can now in

their own kitchen from nourishing and harmless vegetables fashion sweets that are just as beguiling to childish eyes.

Nor is this all. Children invariably have a craving for sweets that if allowed to run its course is almost sure to lead to indigestion and worse. On the other hand, if this craving is not satisfied, the children will be deprived of a food of the utmost value--a food element, indeed, that it is indispensable. Vegetable candy offers an ideal solution of this difficulty. Sugar it of course contains, but the vegetable base supplies no small part of the bulk; consequently children may eat their fill of it and satisfy their natural longing for candy without having gorged themselves with sugar.  Moreover, the vegetable base has virtues that are positive as well as negative; it itself supplies valuable food elements and equally valuable vegetable salts.”

Acquiring some of the equipment might prove challenging to modern cooks.

“A molasses-candy or taffy pull without a hook may be good fun, but it is hard on the candy as well as on the hands. A blacksmith can easily make the hook of round iron, about a half-inch in diameter and eighteen or twenty inches long. The rod should be bent until it forms roughly a letter J, with the tip about seven inches from the horizontal line. The top--the upper part of the horizontal line of the J--should be pounded flat, and two holes bored for screws. Be sure to attach the hook to the wall firmly, and about level with the shoulders. Hooks may be purchased for about fifty cents apiece, but those made by the blacksmith will do as well. Even with the hook, it is well to wear canvas gloves, so that the mass can be handled hotter, and in a more hygienic fashion than with bare hands. Canvas gloves are easily laundered--something which cannot be said of the expensive buckskin gloves recommended for this purpose.”

Time for some actual recipes!

"As the foundation for one sort of decorative confectionery, potato paste must be made. Steam or boil Irish potatoes, drain them, and force them through a fine sieve,--the finer the better. With one-half cupful of Irish potato, so prepared, mix one tablespoonful of corn starch. Gradually and carefully work in enough confectioner's sugar so that the mixture can be rolled. The "fine sieve," be it noted, plays a conspicuous and important part in the making of candy from vegetables. Moreover, it should be borne in mind that no vegetable particle will either soften in or cook up into syrup. While cooking, the vegetable particles are just as individual as though they were in separate vessels; consequently they must be kept circulating as uniformly as is possible through the syrup in order to prevent the accumulation of masses of vegetable matter of sufficient bulk and weight to sink to the bottom of the sauce pan and cause the mixture to burn. Moreover, should the mixture escape burning, it would develop gluey spots that would make the finished product lacking in the smoothness that is the ideal of the candy-cook. Flavor and color this paste to suit, place it on a surface well dusted with confectioner's sugar and roll it to the desired thinness. Cut it in shapes to suit. Cooky cutters or any other tin cutters may be used. More often, however, the amateur confectioner will prefer her own design.”

“Potato Caramel No. 1.

Stir well one pound of sugar, one cupful of milk, one cupful of Irish potato--boiled and sifted as directed before--two tablespoonfuls of butter and one-half teaspoonful of salt. Boil until thick, and thin with one-half cupful of milk, and again cook until thick; again thin with one-half cupful of milk and cook until the mass is of caramel consistency, tested in cold water. Stir as little as possible, but be careful that the mass does not stick to the bottom of the kettle. Pour on a well oiled marble between candy bars. Dry two days, cut in strips and dry again before finally cutting in squares. Place them in a cold place for several hours and then wrap them in parchment paper. They keep well. This is the kind of potato caramel that is especially good for chocolate coating, although all of the potato caramels can be chocolate coated. Make the caramels as above and allow them to dry in the open air for several hours and then cover with chocolate. The process is fully as laborious as it sounds, but the results are more than worth the trouble. The repeated cookings give the characteristic caramel taste and color.”

“=Carrot Rings.=--To make them, peel medium sized carrots and let them stand several hours in cold water. Cut cross-wise into slices about one-quarter of an inch thick and with a small round cutter or sharp knife remove the center pith. Drop the rings into boiling water and cook until tender. After they have thoroughly drained, drop them into a syrup made by boiling one part of water and three parts of sugar to two hundred and twenty degrees. Boil until the rings become translucent--probably about ten minutes. Dry on a wire rack, taking care that the rings do not touch. The next day, heat the syrup to two hundred and twenty-five degrees and again dip the rings and dry as before. If desired, when they are dry, fill the centers with bon-bon cream or marzipan. When this center has become firm, dip the candy into a syrup cooked to two hundred and twenty-eight degrees. Even if the centers are not filled, it is well to make this third dipping; the thermometer should, however, register two hundred and thirty degrees instead of merely two hundred and twenty-eight.”

“=Bean Taffy.=--Bean taffy easily takes first rank among all taffies--vegetable or otherwise. The taste is good beyond words, and the consistency is pleasingly "chewy" without being tenacious to the point of teeth pulling! Lima beans are the best to use as the basis because the skins can easily be removed, but ordinary dried beans may be substituted if care is taken. Cover the beans with cold water, let them stand over night, and the next morning boil them until soft, and force through a fine sieve to remove all the skins. Boil together two cupsful of granulated sugar, one-half cupful of water, a tablespoonful of butter, and one-half cupful of the beans, prepared as above. After the mixture has boiled thoroughly, add one cupful of milk. Add the cupful of milk, one-third at a time. Stir the mixture and let it boil a few minutes after each addition of milk. When the thermometer registers two hundred and forty-two degrees, pour the mass onto an oiled marble between oiled candy bars so that it will set about one-quarter inch thick. As with ordinary taffy, cut into pieces

of the desired size.”

Okay, definitely the trick not the treat.