1

Pk*e The Caks Around

M,I*aa«s lickin'*" and "candy pullin'a" liave long been popular in ths South* West Virginia 1 k m families gather in tha autumn to reap th* iriisn

oana* *o that it nay ho ballad down to nulaaaaa for sweetening during tha winfcar ■outha* Neighbor* con* f r m far and near wlven a family gives a *las»as linkin'* Asssmblad guest* are providad with mall wooden paddle* to aorapa th# leaving* In

tha boiling pan* games are played, song* sung in groups* and Mountain minstrels ran*

dar fuvorita ballad* to tha aooanpaninent of banjos, fiddle* and guitars* old folks spin yarn* around tha oaakling log firs, and young folks wander off in group** "Thera's been a heap of oourtin' dona at 'lasses lickin'**" VJhsn tha guests depart*

after a final round of songs* they always promise to meat "oome next harvest noon again*"

Sugarhousa parties are a Louisiana tradition* During grinding season* groups gather on the observation platfom of tha sugarhousa to watch the oonderone machinery perform its functions* Brilliantly lighted at night* bustling with

activity, and filled with tha aroaa of tha boiling syrup, tha scene is already festive* Sernas times these parties ar* quite elaborate, with dancing and refresh­ ments, but as of*5 as not the speotael# itself* and chewing sugarcane provide sufficient amusement* A century ago* in tha era of the open kettle* It mas tradi­ tional to string shelled peoans and dip them into the boiling sugar* making a con­

fection known as ohapelete da pacaass* At midnight on tha last day of the grind­

ing season* tha sugaxhous* wit is tie would blow* owner* ami mill sorters gathered, a bonfirt/aaSa of tha oana tops and a oalabnation m s held* Negro workers ware given a beef to kill and sugar wins called vin da oanna, and had their oelebration

in their quarters* serghws is used for sweetening instead of oane sugar in many places* 4

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Originally Introduced as an anti-slavery measure, designed to reduoe the sugar

demand and make slavery unprofitable in that field, sorghua molasses has grown, and is still growing, in popularity# Many a Xanbuokian, for instance, is oaught in an enoarrassing situation tdum sene sophistics tad neighbor drops in ond -"inde

hist really enjoying his no lasses, by pouring a liberal 'quantity of it over a gen­

erous portion of sweat butter, cutting the two together with his fork and piling a heap of the mixture to a perilous Height on «aoh bite of oornbread#

la Tennessee they* 11 tall . ou tlmt "they* (eorghum is never spoksn of as "it*) are "larrupin’ good truok" for the table, and that "lashings" and "s,lathers"of "than" serred with yellow butter on hot brown biscuits or batter aakes is "the best satin* ever intended to rumi"

\ Sugaroano or sorgh»aa molasses is so popular in the South that in soma scotiono it is a staple of diet# A South Carolina famer uas recently heard

to explain, regarding his family** devotion to sorghun molassest "They dona at up the hundred gallons I made last fall before Christmas# How I got to buy an­ other sixty gallons to Inst me until spring#* Missiasipplans and others are fond of molasses pies, with fillings composed of molasses to whioh is added eggs, butt­ er, oream, oorrwal, and vanilla# Some North Carolina folk use molasses for sweat­ ing during an apple butter boiling, but others believe that only brown sugar and eider oan give it tho proper flavor# Sweet older is nearly always used for this purpose in Virginia, where an apple butter boiling is as much an indication of coming winter as the falling leaves# No Virginia farmer would enter the cold season without maty gallons of apple butter being made and stored away# The apple orchards of Kentucky, originally developed for the purpose of making "hard aider," have now beoone a favorite food souroe# Apple butter and fried apples are practically always present on rural tables# is so pre­ valent that a guest inquiring as to what desnerts wore obtainable at a mountain s

hotel, m s told* "Pie - three kind.#, open-faced, orotsbarred, and Idvrored - all

apple." The jellied apples end amber apples of Mississippi arc often s e m d with syllabub - a thiok mixture of orean, sherry and sugar, eaten In alrost all Southern States. In soaa placesthe recipe varies slightlyt in Georgia it is serv­ ed cold, but without ioef in Tennessee a long sliver of Ice is pleeed in each tall glass, Barbour County, Alabama, famous for its syllabub, uses a homemade wine, in­ stead of sherry; North Carolina uses seuppernong wine. Its popularity is of long s

standing. In her description of a dinner at Charleston in 1828, Mrs, Basil flail

statedi "Far second course we had eight pies d o m the side of the table, six dish­ es of glasses of syllabub and as aany of jelly, besides one or two 'floating is­

lands, as they denominate what we oall with whipped ream, and odd cor­ ners filled up by ginger and other preserves," « Meny of the old plantation still exist. Poach leather - a

delicacy of crystallised peach pulp, sweetened, boiled, out into strips, sprinkled with powdered sugar, and dried for two days in the sun - is charleston's fnorms

confection, its recipe very old* Bonne brittle Is nearly as well known, and is tuade of beams seeds - brought from Africa in oolonial days, according to tradi­ tion, These arc parched, added to melted sugar, vanilla and lesion extracts, and baked in one-inch squares in a buttered pan. Tipsy Parson is the sousing nano of a , stuck with blanched almonds, covered irat with sherry, than with

a rich boiled custard, popular in Charleston and in Baltimore, New orlsnnians

still eat the wine oaks the Creoles aalled baba. Xn the old i reaoh Quarter of

that oity, nenmy-type Negresses still hawk ocean pralines, delicious confections

of brown sugar and poo ana and butter. Jam cakes have bean featured in tho oookory of Tennessee housewives

for generations. Almost any sort of jam may be mixed with cake dough, producing 4 a moisture th*t keeps than edibi# for ft long tin*, Many Tennessiana prefer th» simple jar cake to any sort of elaborate * Corn is an old favorite in Virginia* "Talas two mips of whole kernels, throe eggs, a tablespoon of sugar, a pint of rioh cream, an ogg- sise piece of butter, and nix it all and bales as you would a custard," is the nay to make one, according to a Virginia housewife, chess pie is another beloved des­ sert in this i tats, "It’s easy*" they*11 toll you* "Just wash the salt out of three-quarters of a pound of butter, orotua 12 egg yolks and a pound of sugar into it, and bake it slowly in a very short pis crust**

Pecan pie is a I/viieiana spoolaity* Butter* sugar, vanilla, well- beaten eggs, salt, and halved pecan moats aro the ingredients* t onetiaoe the top of the pie is embellished with other pecan halves*

Delaware** marble Cake makes use of a particular trick, using alter­ nate layers of white and brown batter, which, whan probably prepared,run into each other enough to create a marble-like effect*

Gingerbread and ginger cake have been eaten in the South since pre-

Revo lu t ionary days* Virginia*a favorite recipe oeobain* black ooffee and the juice and grated rind of oranges, as well as black molasses, brown sugar* flour* nilk* eggs, ginger and other spleen. North Carolina serves Ginger r,pioe

Cake, containing apple sauce, ginger black molasses, and other ingredients* It is usually eaten hot with a rioh Busan*s mice, made of sugar, butter* vanilla* and cream.

Virginia is particularly fond of oldf&shioneu English plum — to be set afire in the usual picturesque fashion# Florida uses its abundance of fruits for many desserts, foeonnut cakes and pies are favorites there*

In ifinston-Kalsm the Moravian Christmas could.os* oldfashloned sugar oaks* eitron pies, and braas are traditional sweets* In the northwest counties of 6

North Carolina sourwood honey is highly prized. Fruit ahortOAkes are nade la every State, and in many ways. Georgia and North Carolina use fresh or stowed peaohea. Strawberry shortcakes of various kinds never lose their popularity.

Maryland’s Lady Baltimore oake is a bailing riastorpiece of three layers, oontaining the usual ingredients, with a teaspoon of rosewater added, and a magnificent - ioing obtaining ohoppad raisins, pecan meats, and finely out figs. In the Christmas season, fruit cakes are made everywhere. Maryland’s renowned

Blaok Fruit Cake, South Carolina’s \7hito Fruit Coke, Virginia's President’s Fruit

Cake, are some favorite types, but each State has its preforred land. In some plaoes it goes further than that, many families possessing secret reoipes handed down from generation to generation. Arkansas makes a fruit oake rich with persismiona, whioh grow so tliiokly on mountainsides throughout the Osarks that they are looally termed "Arkansas dates.”

Some of Alabama’8 oldtime Negroes protest this idea of putting whiskey into oake, and of eating it with eggnog during the holiday season.

"The women folks is ’sponslblo," they say. "Menfolks like nog strong, wid nothin’ to weaken it down. But the missuses - they watoh the mans olose, and •bout the time everybody gits to fightin’ the Yanks agalnt, them ladies holler, 'Pass the oake ’round - these here mout’s need stuffin’ upl’"