1860s Period Foods - Including Good Down Home Eatin'

[Donna McCreary]

(02-15-2013 11:58 AM)Jim Page Wrote:  Thanks, Betty, for starting this thread! It should be a doozy!

MaddieM wrote in a post in another thread:
>>Perhaps the Hershey's they sell over here is not the same...

I read a history of chocolate and it mentioned speculation that the original Hershey's chocolate was made with outdated milk to save money, which gave it a distinctive flavor. According to this unproven legend, making Hershey's chocolate with outdated milk has continued into our era, as that's the taste Americans expect from their chocolate.

Whether that is true is not for me to say. I like Hershey's milk chocolate. Like Rob W, I'm no fan of dark chocolate, which tastes bitter to me. I also detest Tootsie Rolls.

I love See's chocolate, which I believe is from San Francisco. There was another brand of chocolate I love that I stopped eating when I heard that Jeffrey Dahmer had worked in their mixing plant.

Happily, I later learned that he had worked in another, strictly local, brand's factory and that poor company had to go out of the candy business when word of his employment there caused sales to absolutely plummet!

As for Necco wafers, we used to use those when target plinking when I was a much younger guy and one could shoot firearms in the woods. They didn't leave a mess like bullet-riddled cans and shattered bottles did, and were more of a challenge to hit.

--Jim

As a child, I went to local diary with my elementary school field trip. I remember our tour guide telling us that they used old milk to make chocolate milk and chocolate ice cream. Even as a seven year old kid, those two items were removed from my diet.

Sees Candies are good - but we have Schimpff's Confectionary in Jeffersonville, Indiana. They are a small, family owned business, and they are the oldest single family operated candy store in America. They have created some fantastic candies including turtles, cinnamon candy, and Modjeskas. Almost everything is made in house. They do carry Jelly Belly jelly beans which are not. The store has a 1950's ice cream soda fountain, a small lunch counter, and a candy museum.

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(02-15-2013 11:05 AM)BettyO Wrote:  Thought that I'd start a NEW thread for our interest in Period, Southern and Northern Foods -

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Maddie -

Candies popular in the 1860s were Necco Wafers; referred to as "Peerless Wafers" until after the war. They were popular since 1847

http://www.necco.com/Candy/Wafers/History.aspx

Whitman's Sugar Plums had been popular since 1854

http://www.russellstover.com/jump.jsp?it...itemID=206

Nonpareils (Chocolate wafers with little white sugar sprinkles) have been around since 1844

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonpareils

licorice, peppermint and horehound hard candies were also popular as was taffy and fudge, Turkish delight, rock candy, Peppermint humbugs & peppermint sticks, jelly beans, salt water taffy, and sugared almonds"

http://www.squidoo.com/civil-war-childs-life

A good period cook book, The Complete Confectioner,1800, is available for those who wish to sample period sweets -

http://books.google.com/books?id=A34EAAA...&q&f=false

Another cook book - The Improved Housewife,1851

http://books.google.com/books?id=gptko1Fu_8QC&oe=UTF-8

And a receipt for Molasses Candy:

Lincoln loved a good Molasses Pecan pie.