[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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