In times gone by all of the holiday treats were homemade except occasional hard candy, chocolate crème drops or sugary peppermint sticks purchased in the general store.  

Economic hard times always brought out the best in people. They took what they had or could afford and made goodies so that children and families had something tasty as a Christmas treat.

In war times and hard times, when money or sugar was scarce, they used syrup for the sweetener in candy or cakes. Mothers had great ingenuity.  

Viola and Herbert Young made a delicious candy from cane syrup that they shared with their family. They entered this in the county fair and won prizes with the recipe through the years.  

My aunt Mary Turner and father remember eating the candy and said it tasted good and had the flavor of the cane syrup.
The Young family lived next door to them while they were growing up. I spoke with Shirley Scott and Bertha Best, two daughters of the Youngs’, and they shared the recipe to the best of their recollection:

Syrup Candy with Nuts
1 quart of cane syrup
1/2 teaspoon of soda
Pinch of salt
Vanilla flavoring
1 quart nuts-parched peanuts skinned cracked with a rolling pin and finely chopped pecans
Optional coconut
Boil cane syrup in big pot until it reaches the hard ball stage. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla, salt and soda. It gets foamy. Quickly stir in nuts and/or coconut. Pour into a buttered pan. You may place some coconut on top of the nut candy as soon as you pour it into the pan. Cool and cut into pieces.  

My grandmother always made sugary fudge that she put in a glass candy dish that sat on the wooden buffet in the dining room. She got the recipe from Rudolph Deloach, a postman from Clyo. This recipe is found in “Tasty Traditions,” Historic Effingham Society’s cookbook which is on sale in the Gift Shop, now at a reduced price.

Rudolph Deloach Fudge
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 lb. butter
1 1/2 cups light Karo syrup
1 can evaporated milk
Vanilla to taste
1 qt. broken pecans
Cook all ingredients except nuts and vanilla on stovetop in pot for 45 minutes. Stir in Vanilla and mix well. Stir in nuts and pour into buttered pan to get firm — several hours. Cut into squares and store in closed container.
Great-aunt Mamie Morgan was quite a good cook. When she made divinity instead of dropping it in mounds she poured it onto waxed paper wrapped around a magazine to let the candy cool.  When thoroughly cooled she cut her divinity into small squares. Her recipes are also in the Historic Effingham Cookbook, “Tasty Traditions.”

Mamie’s Divinity
3 cups sugar
3/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup water
2 egg whites
1 teasp. vanilla
1/2 to 1 cup finely cut pecans
Cook sugar, corn syrup and water until it threads into a hard ball when dropped from a spoon. Pour 1/3 of mixture gradually over beaten egg whites. Cook syrup until hard crack stage. Pour onto egg mixture and beat in vanilla. Add nuts and beat by hand until candy loses gloss. Spread on waxed paper spread over a magazine. Cut into squares when cooled.

Mamie’s Fudge
2/3 cup Hershey’s cocoa
3 cups sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups milk
4 1/2 tabsp. butter
1 tsp. vanilla

Combine cocoa, sugar and salt in a large (3 qt.) saucepan. Add milk gradually, mix thoroughly, and bring to a bubbly boil on high, stirring continuously. Reduce heat to medium and continue to boil the mixture without stirring until it reaches a temperature of 234 degrees or until it forms a soft ball when dropped in cold water. Remove saucepan from heat, add butter and vanilla. Do not stir. Set saucepan in cold water to hasten cooling to 110 degrees. Beat by hand or portable mixer until the fudge thickens and loses some of its gloss. Quickly pour and spread in lightly buttered 8 by 8 by 2 inch pan. Cool and cut into about 3 doz. pieces.  

To be continued next week.
This article was written by Susan Exley of Historic Effingham Society. If you have comments, photos or information to share contact her at 754-6681 or email: susanexley@historiceffinghamsociety.org