[Sca-cooks] OOP mystery ingredient question

Mary + Doug Piero Carey mary.doug at pierocarey.info
Sat Apr 7 03:26:07 PDT 2012


Sorry to take so long to reply, real life managed to intervene. <sigh>

Thanks, folks, for all the ideas, my patron is thrilled with the 
suggestions. I’m going to lump a bunch of responses together here.

Yes, it very well could be an “Ohio thing”. We have LOTS of old candy 
companies here. We used to have lots more. There are many fondly 
remembered defunct candies in this neck of the woods.

Also, maple sugaring was and is still a thriving industry in N.E. Ohio, 
so calling for a maple product wouldn’t surprise me for any recipe from 
the early 1800s to now. In a Bicentennial cookbook, you’d be likely to 
ask for historic recipes. The cookbook didn’t get specific about 
individual recipe dates. So Ghu only knows how old that banana cake 
recipe is. Bananas became available fairly early around here.

However, I’m more inclined to the gumdrops/jujubes theory. Those come in 
black, but I’ve never seen Maple candy in anything but a soft tan. Also, 
maple candy doesn’t have the structural integrity to hold together in a 
cake batter, but gumdrops certainly could. And the warning not to use 
the black ones could imply picking the black ones out of the mix.

And Johnna, your confirmation that there were lots of different candies 
used in banana cakes really put my patron at ease about experimenting.

The list comes through again! You folks are THE BEST!!!

Thank you again!

Mary Piero Carey aka Maria of Alderford





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