Craig Burkinshaw making the peanut brittle
You’d think it would be easy to track down the origin of such a delicious candy like peanut brittle, but its beginning is as sticky as the candy itself! The recipe we use has been handed down through several generations of candy makers and is an old family favorite. In fact, we still make peanut brittle using the traditional methods they did long ago. Our mixture, made from only the freshest ingredients, is combined and stirred by hand in our copper kettles over an open gas flame, cooled by a marble slab, and then individually broken off into large pieces. This method is most definitely more time-consuming, but one indulgent taste of our far superior peanut brittle will make it obvious why it is worth the extra effort. So, we know how we make our peanut brittle, but let’s see what history has to say on the original origins of the recipe!
There are many different stories told on how this candy came about. The most common, and perhaps one of the more believable versions is that a woman in the south was setting out to make a batch of taffy. Following a recipe, the next step was to add cream of tartar, but she grabbed the baking soda by accident instead! Instead of creating that deliciously stretchy taffy structure, out came a breaking brittle block. Resigned not to waste what she had made, she gave it a taste and was pleasantly surprised. Sprinkle in a few peanuts for texture and the rest is history! Or is it….
The story of this delicious candy has many tales to tell, this next one is on a whole other scale. Let us look at, Tony Beaver, a beloved peanut brittle fable hero. This long-ago story talks about a man named Tony who was known to be a giant lumberjack in his village who had a large supply of jumbo-sized peanuts. Tony came to the rescue when a massive rainstorm came through. The local river was starting to rise and threatening to flood the entire village! Tony decided the only way to stop it was to dump peanuts and molasses in the river to dam it up! Unfortunately, this hardened mass blocked all the villagers’ drinking water. They started to chip away at the hardened mass when someone tasted it! They realized it tasted quite good! The villagers took some home, and carried on the delicious recipe!
Maybe an ingredient mistake is a little easier to believe than a fable about a lumberjack giant…but we still love to hear the rich stories that make up the history of our favorite candies! Come grab your supply of delicious peanut brittle from us at The Chocolate Truffle today!
