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:

I am going to gain weight just reading this thread, I know.

I think there was a variety of hard candies like the great ribbon candies? I remember horehound drops that my grandmother used to suck on. They were awful!

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I read a history of chocolate and it mentioned speculation that the original Hershey's chocolate was made with outdated milk to save money, which gave it a distinctive flavor. According to this unproven legend, making Hershey's chocolate with outdated milk has continued into our era, as that's the taste Americans expect from their chocolate.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

I'm such a sugar addict that I even love the Necco's (and they are not that fattening!) For amusement one year I remember we put those Marshmellow Yellow Peeps (I LOVE those things - best if stale, believe it or not!) into the microwave and watched them grow about 4 times their natural size! We got them out before they made too big of a mess inside the nuker and then made Smores out of them!

Betty, your a hoot! Love the story about the peeps. I've got to try that when the wife's not home to see what I'm doing.
I love Necco's, didn't know they had been around that long.

Glad you started this thread.

OMG - Gene, if you do this, please DO NOT let them get too big or they explode inside the microwave and create a real mess (not to mention the mess you'll have with your wife if she finds out!) HA!

I have always loved Nonpareils, ever since I can remember, but I had no idea they went back that far!

I never was a big fan of milk chocolate, I always loved dark. I think they used to call it bittersweet or semi-sweet, when I was little.

When I was doing merchandising for a large supermarket chain, many years ago, we did a study on whether a shopper's stated preferences for two pairs of items matched what they actually purchased.

The two pairs of items were dark vs. milk chocolate and iceberg vs. any other type of lettuce/salad green. This was to help our buyers, especially the newer ones, in determining how much stuff to order.

The results were interesting.

--Jim

Here in the UK we have Hotel Chocolat... which is the BEST finest quality you can get here.

It's £22 a box but well worth it. Not sure what that is in dollars - about $35 or so.

(02-15-2013 02:41 PM)Jim Page Wrote:  When I was doing merchandising for a large supermarket chain, many years ago, we did a study on whether a shopper's stated preferences for two pairs of items matched what they actually purchased.

The two pairs of items were dark vs. milk chocolate and iceberg vs. any other type of lettuce/salad green. This was to help our buyers, especially the newer ones, in determining how much stuff to order.

The results were interesting.

--Jim

Interesting!

My "other" job is still grocery cashier - my first real job when I turned 17. (and I always buy dark chocolate and romaine or spinach)

(02-15-2013 11:24 AM)BettyO Wrote:  OMG - Gene, if you do this, please DO NOT let them get too big or they explode inside the microwave and create a real mess (not to mention the mess you'll have with your wife if she finds out!) HA!

Thanks for the warning. I'll try it out on the microwave at the office

I just love fried chicken. Does anyone have a real authentic coating recipe?

My family has a very easy one and it has always earned raves. After washing and patting the pieces dry, we salt and pepper each piece so that the meat itself is seasoned and then dredge it in flour (not heavily). For a Southerner, the key to good chicken is the frying pan. Only the old-time, heavy, iron skillets do a good job. Gobs of solid Crisco melted down until it's bubbling hot - and then reduce the heat so that it doesn't brown the chicken too fast and leave the flesh near the bone still rare.

Some people dip their chicken in egg before dusting with flour. It just doesn't appeal to me. And, I can't stand ones that are done with heavy batter. Again, it's all in what you have been raised with.

(02-15-2013 02:51 PM)MaddieM Wrote:  Here in the UK we have Hotel Chocolat... which is the BEST finest quality you can get here.

Maddie, I wish I could remember the brand, but I was reading a British mystery several months ago and they described some brand of chocolate in such mouth-watering detail that I went to a couple of stores trying to find some. No luck!

I settled for a bar of Cadbury's Dairy Milk and a bar of Gharadelli's Milk & Caramel to get me through the weekend.

I was bouncing off the walls after all that!

--Jim

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(02-15-2013 02:56 PM)Dawn E Foster Wrote:  I always buy dark chocolate and romaine or spinach . . .

Dawn, I've often wondered how much things have changes since I got out of the grocery business in the early 1980s. At that time, the president of this grocery firm, which was an upscale biggie, predicted to me that all produce sold in the year 2000 would be frozen! He sincerely thought that fresh produce would be as seldom seen in supermarkets as raw milk.

I do know that bibb, Boston, endive, escarole and leaf lettuces were marginal sellers, at best. In some stores, romaine and fresh spinach would sell in moderate volumes, but iceberg would outsell them 67 cases to one, if I remember the numbers correctly.

As for arugula, I was heavily involved in the produce side of the business for 14 years and never heard of it!

Weird, huh?

--Jim

(02-15-2013 02:59 PM)MaddieM Wrote:  I just love fried chicken. Does anyone have a real authentic coating recipe?

My wife has used this recipe alot to fry chicken...

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-g...index.html

she will reduce the amount of shortning (doesn't use oil) and substitute butter or a small amount of bacon grease. I think the buttermilk is the key. (she doesn't fry bacon as much as she used to, - but she used to add a small spoon full of bacon grease to the shortning - yum!)

If you have any questions send me a PM and I'll have my wife respond.