July 24, 2019 • 38 mins
This soft, chewy candy has only a little bit of salt but a lot of history in the American Northeast. Anney and Lauren dive into how it’s made and how it became such a pull at summer tourist spots.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to save our protection. If I heart
radio and stuff media. I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Bogelbaum,
and today we're talking about saltwater taffy, yes, which I
am very unfamiliar with. Yeah, you just had your first
piece to your personal knowledge, like minutes before we started
recording this here minutes minutes. It was banana split. Okay,
(00:29):
it was very banana. I thought it was going to
be chewier. It was very chewy. I thought it was
gonna be harder, I guess, and saltier, but it was.
It was salty. It wasn't not salty. Yes, I am
so bad at this game. It was salty, but not
too salty. And that's okay. Okay. So, so you're unfamiliarity
(00:52):
with this product baffles me in the way that I
now suspect that my lack of familiarity with like boiled
peanuts fold you, because this is something that I grew
up with. Like, um, one of my aunts and uncles
have a taffy pull hook up in their kitchen. Wha yeah, um,
But you are probably familiar with other taffy's, which might
be why you had this concept of it being a
(01:14):
harder product UM like laffy taffy or starburst um are
high chew. If you're familiar Japanese candies, those are all
stiffer versions of this type of candy. UM. And those
taffys are going to be a whole other episode, y'all.
They're they're also sometimes called in the international market um
choose or fruit choose or taffee confusingly, or even a
(01:34):
white or fruit caramels. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, but those
are not saltwater Taffy's no, no, no, But that does
bring us to our questions. It does saltwater taffy. What
is it? Well, saltwater taffy is a sweet, sugar based
(01:56):
candy that's chewy and sticky, but also very light and
saw often like a little bit melty in your mouth,
like a chew or your marshmallow. It can be all
of these things at the same time due to some
of the amazing properties of sugar, which we'll get into eventually, y'all,
I don't have it for this episode. Candy making is complicated.
It's chemistry and physics at the same time as many things.
(02:18):
Oh yeah, oh gosh, and it is actually dangerous as
it is. I say it very excitedly, but I have
had I've had a number of boiled sugar related injuries. Anyway,
um uh, salt or taffy. Yes, it's made with a
combination of crystallized sugar, liquid sugar or some kind water, salt,
and some kind of fat. Um. No, no actual ocean
(02:42):
water goes into the making of these things. So but
salt and water. Yes. The ingredients that accomplish all of
this can vary. Molasses or corn syrup might be the
liquid sugar, palm oil or butter or coconut oil or
perhaps even white chocolate can be the fat, the grease
um other stuff like corn starch and glycer and might
be added to keep the texture of of the taffy
(03:02):
a smooth and creamy into help with shelf stability. The
natural flavor of taffy is just sweet and a little
bit like fatty or buttery, and maybe molascity and probably yes,
with a tiny twinge of salt in their depending on
what kind of ingredients went into it. But you also
see a lot of fruit flavors banana, watermelon, orange, lemon um,
a lot of sweet herb or spice flavors like peppermint, cinnamon,
(03:25):
root beer. Some of the most popular flavors are probably vanilla, chocolate,
and strawberry. The natural color is going to be like
a satiny cream to a very light tan, but a
food coloring is often added, especially two flavored taffy's. And
it's made in these uh long ropes and for serving,
cut into bite sized pieces and wrapped in wax paper
(03:46):
or maybe plastic. It's it's soft enough that if you
put a handful of pieces into a jar unwrapped, they
all just ooze together. Yeah. Um. It's sold either already
packed up in boxes or from bins which you can
uh to use your own mix and by by the
pound or by the piece. Yes, I have witnessed that
(04:07):
it's a summer seasonal candy. I say, sort of, it
can be, it can be, yes, yes, did you have
a favorite flavor? Oh gosh, I do not remember. I
have absolutely no idea. Maybe just kind of like classic vanilla,
maybe peanut butter, peanut butter. Well, from what I read,
(04:30):
it is a summer seasonal candy, or it is a
good summer seasonal candy because it doesn't melt like chocolate,
so it is great in warm weather. Yeah, it is
certainly convenient for that reason, UM, it can be sort
of a pain to make during the summer because the
humidity makes a huge difference in your final product. High
humidity makes it more difficult or perhaps even impossible to
get it to set up correctly. UM. I'd say it's
(04:52):
associated with summer because of the mid twenty century popularity
of taking summer vacations on East Coast beaches, where it
was primarily produced at the time. More on that in
our history section. UM I will say that it's a
not unpopular gift, perhaps especially around end of the year holidays,
where it is sometimes traditional for families to to have
(05:14):
uh taffy pulls, like a party kind of thing. Yeah. Uh.
If you're thinking about how on Earth this has made
a well, the basic process of taffy making is this,
You bring the main ingredients to a boil, cook the
mixture gently until enough water has boiled out that the sugar,
once it cools, will be at some stage of firm
(05:37):
but pliable. Uh. The temperature and again humidity in your
kitchen means your mileage will vary here. Um. Also, some
folks like a softer taffy and some like a firmer
one for for those of you with experience in candy making,
I've seen recipes call for anything from the firm ball
stage all the way up to the soft crack stage,
which is a huge range in temperature. So anyway, um, okay,
(05:59):
So yeah, you cook the stuff together, then let let
the sugar syrup cool enough to handle, and then you
work the mass um using little extra fat to to
prevent sticking to your hands and surfaces and cat and
whatever else are in the way. Um, and then yeah,
but by working it, I mean that you stretch it
and then fold it back in on itself and then
(06:19):
stretch it again and over and over, and this is
called pulling. The pulling is a way of air rating
the candy, the same way that you whisk eggs to
beat air into them. Taffy is just a lot denser
than eggs, and this requires heavier labor. And you can
either add flavors during the cooking process or during the
pulling process, or both if you feel like it. Uh,
(06:40):
coloring usually goes in during pulling. The only time that
you wouldn't want to do flavor addition during during cooking
is for something that will get um volatile, like like cinnamon.
I heard I heard tell of a kitchen having to
clear out for like thirty minutes to de gas the
cinnamon situation. Yes, yes, I recently threw some in a
minute of fire. Oh gosh, no questions please, But is
(07:05):
this a lesson I have learned recently? Was this Harry
Potter related? Maybe you know me too well and it
looks very guilty. Right. I had fun, but I learned
a lesson. But that's that's good. I'm glad If a
lesson was learned, it was manting the counts thank you.
And you can't make your own? Oh? Yes, yes, it
(07:28):
is hard work though it takes like probably about twenty
minutes of pulling before it will hold its shape well
and thus be ready for for packaging. UM. And this
this specifically is where humidity is not your friend, because
moisture from the air can can get into the candy
and prevent it from doing that firming up. If you're
going to make your own, it's traditionally done by either
having two people help each other, uh pull and fold
(07:49):
and pull um, or by installing a hook in the
wall about head height and like draping a log of
taffy over it and pulling it and then and then
looping that back over the hook and pulling again. I'm
doing this complicated hand gester around the microphone and it's
helping Annie, but probably not you guys. Yes, I can't
believe that like having a hook. Some people have a
(08:12):
hook and some people have a taffy hook. Why not?
Why not? You're right in UM in shops, though the
process is somewhat streamlined through the use of a few
UM relatively simple machines. UM. You will still start with
cooking the sugars, but you might move it and and
also help remove a little bit of the moisture by
using pressurized tubes to suck the taffy from the cooking
(08:35):
cauldrons into vats for the next step UM, which is
usually resting for a few minutes up to a few hours,
and then you get to your pulling. Pulling machines can
work a few ways, but the basic design is UM
is three arms that rotate around each other and okay,
uh for for for For even simpler version, if you
(08:55):
if you hold up, if you hold up your arms
out in front of you, bent at the elbows like
you're about to cross them over your chest, but then
you don't cross them over your chest. No no. Um.
Instead you start rotating them around each other, so that um,
so that you're making each hand like orbit the opposite forearm.
This is called the mashed potato. It's totally the match.
I was trying to figure out what it was. I
(09:16):
was like searching congo lines and all kinds of things. Anyway,
it's tots the mashed potato, you guys. Um So yeah,
so that's what the machine does, um, except there's three
arms instead of two, and they're wrapping the taffy around
each other in like a like a figure eight. Um.
So it's being folded and stretched over and over again,
sort of like a like a braid. If instead of uh,
(09:39):
you know, instead of moving moving down or up as
you braid, you just stayed in the same place. And
it's made a little a stretchy pile. All right. Uh. Finally,
after all of that, uh, the taffy is fed through
batch rollers which create these twisty ropes, and then go
through cutting and wrapping machines. And I will say a
(10:01):
lot of shops that sell taffy are like multi generational
family businesses and still use the machines. A prior proprietors
bought like as far back as the early nine hundreds. Um,
the standard for arm machine goes back along quite a
long time. We'll hit that in the history section. But yeah, um,
(10:22):
wrapping machines also might come from well over a century ago.
And uh that doesn't mean, however, that science has forgotten
about the taffy machine. In a researcher published a paper
called A Mathematical History of Taffy Pullers. A mathematical history, yes, yes, uh,
(10:42):
physics professor went seriously down a rabbit hole and investigated
some two hundred taffy pulling machine patents from the U
S alone. He mapped the patterns that the arms make
and came up with this prototype six rod puller, but
he says, is more mathematically perfect. It's like it's like
a four rod puller, but with two added static arms
(11:05):
which helped catch and stretch the taffy. I love that
so much, right, Oh, it's delightful. Um nutrition wise, Uh,
you know, it's candy. It's mostly sugar. A little bit
fat in there. Yep, yeah not maybe maybe not a
health food probably not probably not. UM. Numbers wise, as
(11:29):
we've been alluding to, there are all kinds of flavors
overt at least at least like candaloupe, alpino, gooseberry, chocolate
coated coconut fills, and oh yeah, like you can flavor
the taffy itself with pretty much anything since the advent
of flavoring additives. Um, maple, bacon, chicken and waffles. Uh
(11:53):
the A popular candy shop in Ocean City, New Jersey,
Shriver's Cells indy flavors by itself. Wow. Apparently a lobster
festival around Portland, Maine asked local makers Haven's Candies for
a lobster flavor once, but it didn't didn't even make
it to the taste test. I think that would have
(12:15):
been hard to pull off, certainly. I mean, lobster has
a little twinge of sweetness to it and a little
twinge of like salt brine. Well, Lauren, we could make
this happen. You're looking for a partner and time, I'm
I'm available. I'm not very good And if y'all are
(12:36):
flavor scientists working on a lobster candy, get in touch.
Let me know please, product already exists. Oh my goodness,
I need, I need to be aware of this immediately,
so does producer Andrew. Yes, oh gosh, he would. I
think he would retire. Maybe we shouldn't tell you. Yeah,
maybe not. Maybe that's too much, too perfect. Our plan
(13:01):
is foiled. Um. Yes. And then then once you once
you've flavored, once you've flavored your your taffy itself, you
can fill it with anything that's shelf stable and soft
room temperature. Another popular filling is peanut butter. I believe
it on board. National Taffy Day is May, and shops
(13:22):
that make it and sell it make and sell a lot.
For example, one shop called It's spelled d O l
l E apostrophe s it's an ocean city, Maryland. I
don't know how to say it, guys, I'm not from there.
It's either dollies or dolls or dolls, or it could
be in something completely random. It could be we don't know,
(13:44):
we do not, but whatever they are, Yes, they they
go through up to fifteen hundred pounds per day during
the summer rush. I've read about other shops, like the
aforementioned Shrivers going through up to like two thousand um.
But yeah, the this one in Maryland says that they
go through like a two hundred thousand pounds of corn
(14:05):
syrup plus twenty thou pounds of granulated sugar per year
in order to keep stock. It's a lot. That's a lot.
It's not a little bit. No, no, no, no, uh
and yeah, one more, one more number combined two of
the popular brands out of Atlantic City, both of which
are owned by the same family. Now um James and
(14:27):
Frolinger's sell six hundred thousand pounds of taffy per year.
It's a number. I'm having difficulty comprehending. I don't know
how much that is. No, looking at this little taffy
on the table, Yeah, this is like, oh, I don't know.
It's very light. It's quite light. I don't really know
what weights are, which isn't helping the situation. That's a lot.
(14:49):
That's that's quite a bit. Yes, yes, yes, well it's
a it's a fascinating history too that has like cameos
by myst serious people with code names. I don't know
where it comes from. Yeah, yeah, there's a there's a
former US president in there. Yes, yes, that's what brought
(15:10):
us to all these pounds and pounds of taffy. It did,
But first it's bringing us to a quick break for
a word from our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes,
thank you. Salt water taffy it's place of origin Atlantic City,
(15:32):
New Jersey, first produced some time towards the end of
the nineteenth century. And how it got to there was okay.
Um candies made from sugar syrups came up as sugar
cane and sugar refining spread about a thousand years ago. Um.
The first soft chewy sugar candies probably came out of
the Middle East around around that Timish. In the early
(15:53):
eighteen hundreds, types of taffy and we're taffee were popular
in parts of Britain, the United States, and Canada, which
were harder than today's taffy's um and usually flavored only
with butter and molasses. And then someone somewhere got the
idea too, maybe a lot of people simultaneously got the
idea to pull taffy to make it softer, and that
(16:13):
practice spread to the point that taffy pool parties were
a fashionable thing by the mid eighteen hundreds. Like you
get together with a bunch of your friends and you
pull some taffy. This was mostly a thing for kids.
Um but also for like flirtatious young adults. Oh my gosh, yeah,
because you get to like I mean, if you don't
have the hook in the wall, then you get to
yeah yeah, oh yeah. But Chops Shops sold it to
(16:37):
It wasn't just for flirting. I can't imagine being the
single adult. This is also something that happened to me recently,
but not to this degree. But being like the single
adult who doesn't have kids and a house full of
people who have kids, and they all disappear, and somehow
you're watching all of their kids and they want to
do this taffy pool thing. This is be disastrous. My
(17:00):
heart is beating fast at the thought of it. I
have some memories left over from this party. You you
went to a very bad place very quickly. Is this
just pageoning all these kids? Is this Tyler's fault? It
was Tyler, like you knew which one it was when
you showed up. I was like, thank god, And then
I got sucked into Yugio Yukio debate. Oh well, but
(17:23):
if you could participate in the debate then oh no,
I told the kids, I don't know the rules. Are
going to have to figure it out yourself. I feel
like by the end of that party, I was a
very grizzled parent and I don't care kids. Yugio to
go to the graveyard, and I don't know what that means,
throw up the table. Yeah, yeah, away anyway, back to Taffy.
(17:44):
I promise I will never leave you alone with a
house full of children. Thank you. It was another learning experience.
If I ever have a house full of children onto
myself like, that's a whole separate problem. But yes, yes,
I don't know where I would have gotten them. Well
that's the mystery. I didn't know where that happened either,
And I was calling down the hallway like, hello, your
(18:05):
kids are here. Silence. All of our friends were downstairs
going suckers. They absolutely were, And I can't blame them
for it, you know, you know I can't blame him. Um.
Back to saltword Taffy. Yes, So, Atlantic City, The afore
mentioned Atlantic City started coming up as a tourist spot
(18:28):
in the last couple of decades of the eighteen hundreds.
Like a promenade was built along the beach in the
eighteen seventies for for wealthy vacationers to stroll into shop.
When it comes to that name saltwater taffy. There are
several several stories out there, but the most popular by
far rendition is the candy shop owner David Bradley's. According
(18:49):
to him, his entire supply of taffy was soaked in
saltwater from the Atlantic Ocean thanks to a flood in
three and when he reopened, a young girl came in
looking for some taffy and joked sarcastically, from what I
read like you looked around and it was like, hmmmm,
all I have is salt water taffy. Um. And she
was like, okay, sure, and she bought some, took it
(19:13):
out and shared it with her friends, and then everybody
loved it. Um. And Bradley's mom, who had witnessed the
whole exchange, told her son that she adored the name
saltwater taffy, and there you go, reminds people of the
sea exactly exactly. During a trademark dispute, Bradley's sister backed
up this story. Nowadays, a lot of folks do claim
(19:36):
it just means made by the sea, since no actual
saltwater is involved, although as she said, salt and water
frequently are At the time taffy was cooked over open
coal fires in copper kettles, and once ready, it was
cooled on a marble slab and pulled with a hook.
And this taffy pool was a sight to see in
(19:57):
Atlantic City, often on Saturday nights. It was usually pulled
to about five ft or one point five meters and
when it was heavy enough to fall and then pull
and loop back over the hook, a season puller would
listen for the quote the swish, then smack our slap
of the taffy joining together. After the taffy was good
and narrated, it was rolled out and shaped by hand
and then cut with scissors into two inch length about
(20:19):
five cents. Lastly, it was wrapped in pre cut wax paper,
which was then twisted at the ends. The whole process
was often visible for people enjoying the boardwalk. It was
kind of again, it was like, oh, look at that,
and you might go in when you see it. Like
I had never had taffy, but I've seen this at
candy stores. I think in like Savannah hasm sure, yeah, yeah, absolutely,
(20:41):
um yeah. The the process, especially if you have used
food coloring in the taffy, it's it's very bright and
very dynamic looking. Yeah it looks cool. Um. At this time,
the typical size batch was ten pounds, which is about
four to ten and that works out by today's candy
size standards at any rate to about four hundred to
one thousand pieces. Two big players and Taffy Enoch James
(21:06):
and Joseph Frolinger both started making their version of the
candy in the eighteen eighties. James Taffy came with the
slogan cut to fit the mouth. Joseph Frolinger gets a
lot of credit for popularizing saltwater taffy, both the term
and the candy itself, selling it in boxes as a
souvenir from Atlantic City. He realized that the name was
(21:26):
great for a souvenir. He too, sided Bradley when it
came to that name, claiming that he heard Bradley's customers
calling it um ocean wave taffy or ocean foam taffy,
and of course saltwater taffy. The story goes that the
first weekend he sold the one pounder boxes. To his shock,
he ran out by Sunday afternoon and hit up a
(21:47):
local seafood restaurant for their oyster boxes. Oyster tie in. Yes,
I love an oyster tie in. And to go back
a bit, Frolinger had been trying out a bunch of
banks in Atlantic City to see what stuck, from cigars
to lemonade, and he that he advertised lemonade by men
(22:07):
juggling lemons outside. Yeah, I mean I'd be like, look
at that sho go check it out. Um. But then
someone invited him to take over a taffy shop. His
first flavors were molasses, chocolate and vanilla. But wait, wow,
because there is some injurgue intrigued taffy intrigue. Yes, there's
(22:28):
always intrigue, it seems, and we're always surprised by it.
According to a piece by Arthur H. Gage Or, the
third great grandson of Frolinger, Mr John R. Edmonston, who
apparently went by the professor, opened a card writing stand
at Victoria Skating Rink rented from well known Captain Young.
(22:53):
What's what's going on here? Edmonston enlicited the help of
John Cassidy, who added a taffy concerts and stand to
the latter writing space. The two did not see ida
eye on things, and the Professor fired Cassidy, but kept
the taffy Cassidy partnered with Bradley and one day went
on to have his own store. So one day Frollinger
(23:17):
overheard allowed argument and went to investigate. It's really great
this piece because it goes into debt like it was
twin Ty freach Away is very detailed. So this argument
was between the professor and Captain Young, fighting over the rent.
The professor was about to throw a two pound scale
(23:38):
at the Captain's head when Frolinger intervened. Once the fight
was dispersed, Young approached Frolinger, fuming at the thought of
having the professor as a tenant, and requested that Frohlinger
step in and take over the lease and the tabby stand.
Frolinger agreed. He did have competitors, though, a big one
(23:59):
being u S the aforementioned ENaC James. James figured out
how to make taffy less sticky and therefore easier to unwrap,
which is great for the bite sized pieces he sold.
He also mechanized the pool process. Uh yeah. The standard
for rod taffy pillars that you're most likely to see
in shops to to this day came about in the
(24:19):
late eighteen and or early nine hundreds right around this time.
And you can still find both of these stores in
Atlantic City. You know, james Is is advertised as the
original saltwater taffy and both are currently owned and operated
by by that that one same family, the Glass Ears
and Fraling Jerseys on the boardwalk Empire set. I guess yes,
(24:42):
because meanwhile Atlantic City was growing. Um, the famous boardwalk
went up in It's a it's a nearly five mile
stretch that's about eight kilometers or so. That grew into
the its spot of the Northeast, especially for the working class.
Like is New York City too expensive? But still have
some leisure time and spending money? What are those new things?
(25:04):
Uh so, yeah, don't vacation in New York vacation on
the boardwalk, or hey, can't book your act in New
York City. The nightclubs and casinos on the Boardwalk are
hungry for crowd pleasers. Um, it was like Vegas and
Disney at the same time. I'm a pre shopping mall.
American consumerism. Dream Monopoly is based on Atlantic City landmarks.
(25:25):
Um Fraulinger's is at Tennessee Avenue and James's Candy is
at New York Avenue. Really, I'll have to check that out.
Get over my hesitation over monopoly. Oh no, that the
point of monopoly is that consumerism and capitalism are terrible,
that they don't work, and that you shouldn't do them.
Oh that's great because it's very effective. Nobody wants to play. No,
(25:47):
it's the worst. I've cheated and lost. I can't figure
it out. That's yeah, that says something. I don't know what.
It's all bad. Um. Meanwhile, um and elsewhere aside, other
resorts around the United States, like Salt Air in Salt
Lake City, Utah, had started selling saltwater taffy. Who what
a tongue twister by about the eighteen nineties or so.
(26:11):
And uh, the original three arm taffy polar patent if
you're curious about that, it is the most mathematically simple
not perfect at all, not perfect, but mathematically simple. It
was registered in eighteen and it was called the Knitz
Taffy Polar. I just I don't know. I wanted to
say that I appreciate it. You know, I love a
good legal drama, and there actually is legal drama coming up. Yeah,
(26:35):
all about this, but anyway, Okay, the was peak saltwater taffy.
Atlantic City had an estimated four and fifty plus joints
slinging this stuff, and one of the purveyors saw an
opportunity to cash in even more on this. He applied
for a trademark on the name salt water taffy, which
(26:58):
he was awarded in our and he wasted no time
and informing all of his I guess we're hundred and
fifteen competitors that if they wanted to keep using that name,
they better pay up. Guess who it was. It was
the professor making trouble again. Apparently he had been in
(27:23):
the in the meanwhile, going door to door selling taffy.
He was just waiting for you shot, he was, yeah,
that's right. Uh. By the way, that the reason that
they were over two hundred taffy pulling patent in the
United States is that, yeah, it was. It was a
really popular thing. It was such a popular thing and
so many people are trying to cash in on it
that they were like, if I can change this just
(27:44):
very slightly, that I can make money. But if it
was all the professor, to be fair, it didn't check
how many could be a bunch of pseudonyms. I don't know. Well,
as you can imagine this whole patent trained park of
the name thing. It did not go overwhelm oh sure, no.
The Enoch James business went to a board of the U. S.
(28:07):
Patent Office to contest it. They also called what is
now the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences. The trademark
was struck down saltwater taffy is born of the ocean
and summer resorts and other ingredients that are the common
property of all men everywhere, it said. Yep, And this
wasn't the first time taffy had to run in with
(28:28):
the law. In a dispute over improvements in taffy pulling
machinery went to the Supreme Court. What yes, Hill Dress
versus Mastorus? Justice William Howard taft yep that taft uh
huh wrote, not all candy is pulled, but much of
it is. Until the beginning of this century, candy was
(28:50):
pulled only by hand. Since nineteen hundred, the art has
advanced from a production of three hundred pounds a day
to ten thousand a day with the same labor. He
also talked about value in these machines, being that they're
more like cleanly than than humans getting our dirty, dirty
claws all over the taffy while we're pulling it. That's true.
(29:10):
You never know where an episode will go. I gotta
say in at Philadelphia's Sesquee Centennial International Exposition, that rolls
all right off the tongue. Yes, we looked it up.
It means a hundred and fifty that year. But why
did they have centennial? I don't know. Mysteries. Yes, Frolinger's
(29:31):
saltwater taffy was awarded a Gold Medal for quality during
World War one and two. Frolingers sent US troops a
steady supply of taffy. I believe James arc did as well.
During World War Two he worked. Frolinger worked around the
sugar ashting by replacing it with molasses, the original sweetener
used for his first recipe in seven. The glass Or
(29:53):
family finally bought James's in the nineteen sixties. Are around there.
Frolinger introduced the piggy bank taffy. Piggy bank taffy, which
is I guess exactly what it sounds like. It was
one pound of saltwater taffy in a piggy bank, available
in various colors, with the pig at these wobbly eyes,
(30:14):
and the taffy came out of the mouth. Oh, that
sounds real creepy. It was. Oh, I was delighted. But
in nine seventy eight, Frank Sinatra placed the largest mail
order for taffy in history, five hundred boxes of James
taffy for his friends. After his first performance, Sinatra came
up in Atlantic City playing some of those nightclubs there
(30:36):
after World War two. UH in the nineteen nineties, the
glass Or family UH bought Frolingers. The different ingredients and
processes for both are kept separate, although they are made
in the same place. In three for Frolingers, one hundred
year of being around. Arthur gag Of the Third, who
wrote that paper I mentioned earlier, wanted to celebrate the
occasion with the world's longest taffy pull. Unfortunate, the weather
(31:01):
did not cooperate, and he plus humility, turned to the
taffy into Google. Oh no, yeah, can you imagine just
all this Google using around like I'm Ghostbusters too? I
imagine it wasn't quite like that. One can dream and
one can dream. I definitely I might have mentioned it before.
(31:22):
I definitely had an unsuccessful batch of marshmallows once where
I was like, oh, this isn't this isn't marshmallow, this
is just this is just Google. It's quite it's a letdown.
It is it is. It's you know, I'm sorry it
didn't work out. I hope that with them with climate control,
he can figure it out sometime in the future. Yes,
(31:46):
very important sounding. It is the world's longest taffy poole.
Maybe one of you listeners can figure that out. Yeah,
invite us do it, absolutely, don't you. We're counting on you.
We are, we are um and uh, we have just
a little bit more for you all. But first we've
(32:08):
got one more quick break for a which more sponsor
and we're back. Thank you, sponsored, thank you, and we're
back with it's a pool obviously. Clearly, I don't feel
(32:36):
like I even need to explain that when there's a
whole like we just did a whole physical thing too.
She did. Yeah, it was a hug war between you
and the wall. It was very, very involved. I try
to try to bring my all. Amy wrote, I grew
(32:57):
up in Bangkok and food court is the big deal
at malls. Since most people live in small apartments, and
not every house has air conditioning. Folks would spend their
time at the mall windows, shopping and eating. After school,
Me and my friends would go to the mall to
hang out and mainly grab a bite. They would have
many restaurants from Korean Barbecue, Hot Pot, Pizza Hut, KFC, McDonald's,
(33:21):
and just general food court. The food at the food
court would be traditional Thai food. There's at least twenty
different stalls selling a variety of food from noodle soups
to papaya salad. Food court is very popular among Thai
people because it's affordable and it's much safer than street food.
In order to get food at the food court, you
just have to add money to a cash card. There's
(33:42):
a booth that you can go to, then you approach
the stalls that interest you. This system makes it easier
as we tend to go to more than just one item.
You might get chicken and rice says you're entre, and
so did a drink, then some fried chicken and maybe
fresh fruit for dessert, and everything you need is right
there in the food hall. Some of the newer malls
would have stalls from famous restaurants around Bangkok. And a
(34:02):
much wider variety of dishes. It's truly next level and
it's worth checking out. Oh that sounds great. That sounds
so good. I mean a good food court like that
that has like, you know, your go twos, but then
like kinds of stalls, like like like local cooks and
(34:22):
chefs and people preparing food that is fresh and tasty. Yeah,
that's loves a fun, Yes, Aaron wrote. Let me pray
face the story with the fact that I have a
very fair complexion, so pale that I make most other
pale people look tanned by comparison. As a child, I
was what you might call a very selective eater. Not
(34:44):
a single vegetable ever crossed my lips, and only a
very few fruits. When V eight Splash, a fruit flavored
juice drink, hit the market in the early nineties, boasting
a full serving of fruits and vegetables in every glass,
my desperate mother was delighted to find that I actually
liked it. She happ he allowed me to drink as
much as I wanted. I went a little overboard, though,
and soon I was consuming an entire half gallon battle
(35:06):
every single day for months. One day I randomly noticed
that the soles of my feet looked yellow. I showed
my mom, who checked me over and concluded that my
palms also looked yellow. This kept getting worse and worse,
spreading even to my face, but we hadn't made the connection.
So my concerned mother took me to the doctor, worried
that I had jaundice. They ran all kinds of liver
function tests, but they all came out negative. The doctors
(35:28):
were stumped. We were stumped. I was just turning a lovely,
sickening yellow for no apparent reason. It wasn't until several
weeks later that my mom was casually looking at the
ingredient list on the juice bottle that the light bulb
turned on. The juice I had been guzzling NonStop was
comprised primarily of carrot juice. The beta carroteen overlood was
making my normally ghostly skin turned yellow. My mom instantly
(35:50):
cut me off. After a few weeks, the yellow began
to fade away and I was back to my standard
casper white self. Even though the eight still sells splash
under the rebrand of V eight Fusion, I haven't been
able to bring myself to drink it in over twenty years.
That's fair. Wow, I can't blame you. Yeah, no, there's
that that is indeed, I'll smidge overboard. It is if
(36:13):
you're turning yellow from all the Jewish you're drinking. Probably probably.
And I was a kid, I used to say, this
reminds me of this. I used to say I did
not want to get tan because I thought my skin
made me look like a sickly banana. And that was
my parents would always make fun of me because I
(36:34):
I don't know where sickly banana came from. Well, but
but you thought that was a good thing I did
not want. Oh you thought when you were tan, you
looked like a sickly banana. Oh yeah, it's a very
specific thought. And I don't know. I'm sure you didn't.
Who knows, who knows what what I was going on?
Although this wasn't at the time that you were eating
(36:56):
all those carrots, was it. No? But if this is
the same thing, what's happening to me? I don't know, Man,
mystery's history. I've got a lot of things to think about.
Many lessons were learned to the stay. I know. I
feel like I have I have really changed. You've been
(37:16):
on a journey. It was a hero's journey of beta
carotene and taffy and cinnamon and cinnamon fires. And well,
you live and you learn. At least we lived, as
Seinfeld says, and I appreciate this opportunity to continue learning.
And we love hearing from listeners who help us learn
(37:38):
these things. So we would love to hear from you.
Thanks to both of them for writing in. If you
would like to write to us, you can our email
as hello at saber pod dot com. We are also
on social media. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook,
and Twitter at savor Pod. We do hope to hear
from you. Savor is production of I Heart Radio and
Stuff Media. For more podcasts on my heart Radio, you
can visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple pod Casts,
(38:00):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thank you,
as always to our super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard.
Thanks to you for listening, and I hope that lots
more good things are coming your way.
Hello, and welcome to save our protection. If I heart
radio and stuff media. I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Bogelbaum,
and today we're talking about saltwater taffy, yes, which I
am very unfamiliar with. Yeah, you just had your first
piece to your personal knowledge, like minutes before we started
recording this here minutes minutes. It was banana split. Okay,
(00:29):
it was very banana. I thought it was going to
be chewier. It was very chewy. I thought it was
gonna be harder, I guess, and saltier, but it was.
It was salty. It wasn't not salty. Yes, I am
so bad at this game. It was salty, but not
too salty. And that's okay. Okay. So, so you're unfamiliarity
(00:52):
with this product baffles me in the way that I
now suspect that my lack of familiarity with like boiled
peanuts fold you, because this is something that I grew
up with. Like, um, one of my aunts and uncles
have a taffy pull hook up in their kitchen. Wha yeah, um,
But you are probably familiar with other taffy's, which might
be why you had this concept of it being a
(01:14):
harder product UM like laffy taffy or starburst um are
high chew. If you're familiar Japanese candies, those are all
stiffer versions of this type of candy. UM. And those
taffys are going to be a whole other episode, y'all.
They're they're also sometimes called in the international market um
choose or fruit choose or taffee confusingly, or even a
(01:34):
white or fruit caramels. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, but those
are not saltwater Taffy's no, no, no, But that does
bring us to our questions. It does saltwater taffy. What
is it? Well, saltwater taffy is a sweet, sugar based
(01:56):
candy that's chewy and sticky, but also very light and
saw often like a little bit melty in your mouth,
like a chew or your marshmallow. It can be all
of these things at the same time due to some
of the amazing properties of sugar, which we'll get into eventually, y'all,
I don't have it for this episode. Candy making is complicated.
It's chemistry and physics at the same time as many things.
(02:18):
Oh yeah, oh gosh, and it is actually dangerous as
it is. I say it very excitedly, but I have
had I've had a number of boiled sugar related injuries. Anyway,
um uh, salt or taffy. Yes, it's made with a
combination of crystallized sugar, liquid sugar or some kind water, salt,
and some kind of fat. Um. No, no actual ocean
(02:42):
water goes into the making of these things. So but
salt and water. Yes. The ingredients that accomplish all of
this can vary. Molasses or corn syrup might be the
liquid sugar, palm oil or butter or coconut oil or
perhaps even white chocolate can be the fat, the grease
um other stuff like corn starch and glycer and might
be added to keep the texture of of the taffy
(03:02):
a smooth and creamy into help with shelf stability. The
natural flavor of taffy is just sweet and a little
bit like fatty or buttery, and maybe molascity and probably yes,
with a tiny twinge of salt in their depending on
what kind of ingredients went into it. But you also
see a lot of fruit flavors banana, watermelon, orange, lemon um,
a lot of sweet herb or spice flavors like peppermint, cinnamon,
(03:25):
root beer. Some of the most popular flavors are probably vanilla, chocolate,
and strawberry. The natural color is going to be like
a satiny cream to a very light tan, but a
food coloring is often added, especially two flavored taffy's. And
it's made in these uh long ropes and for serving,
cut into bite sized pieces and wrapped in wax paper
(03:46):
or maybe plastic. It's it's soft enough that if you
put a handful of pieces into a jar unwrapped, they
all just ooze together. Yeah. Um. It's sold either already
packed up in boxes or from bins which you can
uh to use your own mix and by by the
pound or by the piece. Yes, I have witnessed that
(04:07):
it's a summer seasonal candy. I say, sort of, it
can be, it can be, yes, yes, did you have
a favorite flavor? Oh gosh, I do not remember. I
have absolutely no idea. Maybe just kind of like classic vanilla,
maybe peanut butter, peanut butter. Well, from what I read,
(04:30):
it is a summer seasonal candy, or it is a
good summer seasonal candy because it doesn't melt like chocolate,
so it is great in warm weather. Yeah, it is
certainly convenient for that reason, UM, it can be sort
of a pain to make during the summer because the
humidity makes a huge difference in your final product. High
humidity makes it more difficult or perhaps even impossible to
get it to set up correctly. UM. I'd say it's
(04:52):
associated with summer because of the mid twenty century popularity
of taking summer vacations on East Coast beaches, where it
was primarily produced at the time. More on that in
our history section. UM I will say that it's a
not unpopular gift, perhaps especially around end of the year holidays,
where it is sometimes traditional for families to to have
(05:14):
uh taffy pulls, like a party kind of thing. Yeah. Uh.
If you're thinking about how on Earth this has made
a well, the basic process of taffy making is this,
You bring the main ingredients to a boil, cook the
mixture gently until enough water has boiled out that the sugar,
once it cools, will be at some stage of firm
(05:37):
but pliable. Uh. The temperature and again humidity in your
kitchen means your mileage will vary here. Um. Also, some
folks like a softer taffy and some like a firmer
one for for those of you with experience in candy making,
I've seen recipes call for anything from the firm ball
stage all the way up to the soft crack stage,
which is a huge range in temperature. So anyway, um, okay,
(05:59):
So yeah, you cook the stuff together, then let let
the sugar syrup cool enough to handle, and then you
work the mass um using little extra fat to to
prevent sticking to your hands and surfaces and cat and
whatever else are in the way. Um, and then yeah,
but by working it, I mean that you stretch it
and then fold it back in on itself and then
(06:19):
stretch it again and over and over, and this is
called pulling. The pulling is a way of air rating
the candy, the same way that you whisk eggs to
beat air into them. Taffy is just a lot denser
than eggs, and this requires heavier labor. And you can
either add flavors during the cooking process or during the
pulling process, or both if you feel like it. Uh,
(06:40):
coloring usually goes in during pulling. The only time that
you wouldn't want to do flavor addition during during cooking
is for something that will get um volatile, like like cinnamon.
I heard I heard tell of a kitchen having to
clear out for like thirty minutes to de gas the
cinnamon situation. Yes, yes, I recently threw some in a
minute of fire. Oh gosh, no questions please, But is
(07:05):
this a lesson I have learned recently? Was this Harry
Potter related? Maybe you know me too well and it
looks very guilty. Right. I had fun, but I learned
a lesson. But that's that's good. I'm glad If a
lesson was learned, it was manting the counts thank you.
And you can't make your own? Oh? Yes, yes, it
(07:28):
is hard work though it takes like probably about twenty
minutes of pulling before it will hold its shape well
and thus be ready for for packaging. UM. And this
this specifically is where humidity is not your friend, because
moisture from the air can can get into the candy
and prevent it from doing that firming up. If you're
going to make your own, it's traditionally done by either
having two people help each other, uh pull and fold
(07:49):
and pull um, or by installing a hook in the
wall about head height and like draping a log of
taffy over it and pulling it and then and then
looping that back over the hook and pulling again. I'm
doing this complicated hand gester around the microphone and it's
helping Annie, but probably not you guys. Yes, I can't
believe that like having a hook. Some people have a
(08:12):
hook and some people have a taffy hook. Why not?
Why not? You're right in UM in shops, though the
process is somewhat streamlined through the use of a few
UM relatively simple machines. UM. You will still start with
cooking the sugars, but you might move it and and
also help remove a little bit of the moisture by
using pressurized tubes to suck the taffy from the cooking
(08:35):
cauldrons into vats for the next step UM, which is
usually resting for a few minutes up to a few hours,
and then you get to your pulling. Pulling machines can
work a few ways, but the basic design is UM
is three arms that rotate around each other and okay,
uh for for for For even simpler version, if you
(08:55):
if you hold up, if you hold up your arms
out in front of you, bent at the elbows like
you're about to cross them over your chest, but then
you don't cross them over your chest. No no. Um.
Instead you start rotating them around each other, so that um,
so that you're making each hand like orbit the opposite forearm.
This is called the mashed potato. It's totally the match.
I was trying to figure out what it was. I
(09:16):
was like searching congo lines and all kinds of things. Anyway,
it's tots the mashed potato, you guys. Um So yeah,
so that's what the machine does, um, except there's three
arms instead of two, and they're wrapping the taffy around
each other in like a like a figure eight. Um.
So it's being folded and stretched over and over again,
sort of like a like a braid. If instead of uh,
(09:39):
you know, instead of moving moving down or up as
you braid, you just stayed in the same place. And
it's made a little a stretchy pile. All right. Uh. Finally,
after all of that, uh, the taffy is fed through
batch rollers which create these twisty ropes, and then go
through cutting and wrapping machines. And I will say a
(10:01):
lot of shops that sell taffy are like multi generational
family businesses and still use the machines. A prior proprietors
bought like as far back as the early nine hundreds. Um,
the standard for arm machine goes back along quite a
long time. We'll hit that in the history section. But yeah, um,
(10:22):
wrapping machines also might come from well over a century ago.
And uh that doesn't mean, however, that science has forgotten
about the taffy machine. In a researcher published a paper
called A Mathematical History of Taffy Pullers. A mathematical history, yes, yes, uh,
(10:42):
physics professor went seriously down a rabbit hole and investigated
some two hundred taffy pulling machine patents from the U
S alone. He mapped the patterns that the arms make
and came up with this prototype six rod puller, but
he says, is more mathematically perfect. It's like it's like
a four rod puller, but with two added static arms
(11:05):
which helped catch and stretch the taffy. I love that
so much, right, Oh, it's delightful. Um nutrition wise, Uh,
you know, it's candy. It's mostly sugar. A little bit
fat in there. Yep, yeah not maybe maybe not a
health food probably not probably not. UM. Numbers wise, as
(11:29):
we've been alluding to, there are all kinds of flavors
overt at least at least like candaloupe, alpino, gooseberry, chocolate
coated coconut fills, and oh yeah, like you can flavor
the taffy itself with pretty much anything since the advent
of flavoring additives. Um, maple, bacon, chicken and waffles. Uh
(11:53):
the A popular candy shop in Ocean City, New Jersey,
Shriver's Cells indy flavors by itself. Wow. Apparently a lobster
festival around Portland, Maine asked local makers Haven's Candies for
a lobster flavor once, but it didn't didn't even make
it to the taste test. I think that would have
(12:15):
been hard to pull off, certainly. I mean, lobster has
a little twinge of sweetness to it and a little
twinge of like salt brine. Well, Lauren, we could make
this happen. You're looking for a partner and time, I'm
I'm available. I'm not very good And if y'all are
(12:36):
flavor scientists working on a lobster candy, get in touch.
Let me know please, product already exists. Oh my goodness,
I need, I need to be aware of this immediately,
so does producer Andrew. Yes, oh gosh, he would. I
think he would retire. Maybe we shouldn't tell you. Yeah,
maybe not. Maybe that's too much, too perfect. Our plan
(13:01):
is foiled. Um. Yes. And then then once you once
you've flavored, once you've flavored your your taffy itself, you
can fill it with anything that's shelf stable and soft
room temperature. Another popular filling is peanut butter. I believe
it on board. National Taffy Day is May, and shops
(13:22):
that make it and sell it make and sell a lot.
For example, one shop called It's spelled d O l
l E apostrophe s it's an ocean city, Maryland. I
don't know how to say it, guys, I'm not from there.
It's either dollies or dolls or dolls, or it could
be in something completely random. It could be we don't know,
(13:44):
we do not, but whatever they are, Yes, they they
go through up to fifteen hundred pounds per day during
the summer rush. I've read about other shops, like the
aforementioned Shrivers going through up to like two thousand um.
But yeah, the this one in Maryland says that they
go through like a two hundred thousand pounds of corn
(14:05):
syrup plus twenty thou pounds of granulated sugar per year
in order to keep stock. It's a lot. That's a lot.
It's not a little bit. No, no, no, no, uh
and yeah, one more, one more number combined two of
the popular brands out of Atlantic City, both of which
are owned by the same family. Now um James and
(14:27):
Frolinger's sell six hundred thousand pounds of taffy per year.
It's a number. I'm having difficulty comprehending. I don't know
how much that is. No, looking at this little taffy
on the table, Yeah, this is like, oh, I don't know.
It's very light. It's quite light. I don't really know
what weights are, which isn't helping the situation. That's a lot.
(14:49):
That's that's quite a bit. Yes, yes, yes, well it's
a it's a fascinating history too that has like cameos
by myst serious people with code names. I don't know
where it comes from. Yeah, yeah, there's a there's a
former US president in there. Yes, yes, that's what brought
(15:10):
us to all these pounds and pounds of taffy. It did,
But first it's bringing us to a quick break for
a word from our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes,
thank you. Salt water taffy it's place of origin Atlantic City,
(15:32):
New Jersey, first produced some time towards the end of
the nineteenth century. And how it got to there was okay.
Um candies made from sugar syrups came up as sugar
cane and sugar refining spread about a thousand years ago. Um.
The first soft chewy sugar candies probably came out of
the Middle East around around that Timish. In the early
(15:53):
eighteen hundreds, types of taffy and we're taffee were popular
in parts of Britain, the United States, and Canada, which
were harder than today's taffy's um and usually flavored only
with butter and molasses. And then someone somewhere got the
idea too, maybe a lot of people simultaneously got the
idea to pull taffy to make it softer, and that
(16:13):
practice spread to the point that taffy pool parties were
a fashionable thing by the mid eighteen hundreds. Like you
get together with a bunch of your friends and you
pull some taffy. This was mostly a thing for kids.
Um but also for like flirtatious young adults. Oh my gosh, yeah,
because you get to like I mean, if you don't
have the hook in the wall, then you get to
yeah yeah, oh yeah. But Chops Shops sold it to
(16:37):
It wasn't just for flirting. I can't imagine being the
single adult. This is also something that happened to me recently,
but not to this degree. But being like the single
adult who doesn't have kids and a house full of
people who have kids, and they all disappear, and somehow
you're watching all of their kids and they want to
do this taffy pool thing. This is be disastrous. My
(17:00):
heart is beating fast at the thought of it. I
have some memories left over from this party. You you
went to a very bad place very quickly. Is this
just pageoning all these kids? Is this Tyler's fault? It
was Tyler, like you knew which one it was when
you showed up. I was like, thank god, And then
I got sucked into Yugio Yukio debate. Oh well, but
(17:23):
if you could participate in the debate then oh no,
I told the kids, I don't know the rules. Are
going to have to figure it out yourself. I feel
like by the end of that party, I was a
very grizzled parent and I don't care kids. Yugio to
go to the graveyard, and I don't know what that means,
throw up the table. Yeah, yeah, away anyway, back to Taffy.
(17:44):
I promise I will never leave you alone with a
house full of children. Thank you. It was another learning experience.
If I ever have a house full of children onto
myself like, that's a whole separate problem. But yes, yes,
I don't know where I would have gotten them. Well
that's the mystery. I didn't know where that happened either,
And I was calling down the hallway like, hello, your
(18:05):
kids are here. Silence. All of our friends were downstairs
going suckers. They absolutely were, And I can't blame them
for it, you know, you know I can't blame him. Um.
Back to saltword Taffy. Yes, So, Atlantic City, The afore
mentioned Atlantic City started coming up as a tourist spot
(18:28):
in the last couple of decades of the eighteen hundreds.
Like a promenade was built along the beach in the
eighteen seventies for for wealthy vacationers to stroll into shop.
When it comes to that name saltwater taffy. There are
several several stories out there, but the most popular by
far rendition is the candy shop owner David Bradley's. According
(18:49):
to him, his entire supply of taffy was soaked in
saltwater from the Atlantic Ocean thanks to a flood in
three and when he reopened, a young girl came in
looking for some taffy and joked sarcastically, from what I
read like you looked around and it was like, hmmmm,
all I have is salt water taffy. Um. And she
was like, okay, sure, and she bought some, took it
(19:13):
out and shared it with her friends, and then everybody
loved it. Um. And Bradley's mom, who had witnessed the
whole exchange, told her son that she adored the name
saltwater taffy, and there you go, reminds people of the
sea exactly exactly. During a trademark dispute, Bradley's sister backed
up this story. Nowadays, a lot of folks do claim
(19:36):
it just means made by the sea, since no actual
saltwater is involved, although as she said, salt and water
frequently are At the time taffy was cooked over open
coal fires in copper kettles, and once ready, it was
cooled on a marble slab and pulled with a hook.
And this taffy pool was a sight to see in
(19:57):
Atlantic City, often on Saturday nights. It was usually pulled
to about five ft or one point five meters and
when it was heavy enough to fall and then pull
and loop back over the hook, a season puller would
listen for the quote the swish, then smack our slap
of the taffy joining together. After the taffy was good
and narrated, it was rolled out and shaped by hand
and then cut with scissors into two inch length about
(20:19):
five cents. Lastly, it was wrapped in pre cut wax paper,
which was then twisted at the ends. The whole process
was often visible for people enjoying the boardwalk. It was
kind of again, it was like, oh, look at that,
and you might go in when you see it. Like
I had never had taffy, but I've seen this at
candy stores. I think in like Savannah hasm sure, yeah, yeah, absolutely,
(20:41):
um yeah. The the process, especially if you have used
food coloring in the taffy, it's it's very bright and
very dynamic looking. Yeah it looks cool. Um. At this time,
the typical size batch was ten pounds, which is about
four to ten and that works out by today's candy
size standards at any rate to about four hundred to
one thousand pieces. Two big players and Taffy Enoch James
(21:06):
and Joseph Frolinger both started making their version of the
candy in the eighteen eighties. James Taffy came with the
slogan cut to fit the mouth. Joseph Frolinger gets a
lot of credit for popularizing saltwater taffy, both the term
and the candy itself, selling it in boxes as a
souvenir from Atlantic City. He realized that the name was
(21:26):
great for a souvenir. He too, sided Bradley when it
came to that name, claiming that he heard Bradley's customers
calling it um ocean wave taffy or ocean foam taffy,
and of course saltwater taffy. The story goes that the
first weekend he sold the one pounder boxes. To his shock,
he ran out by Sunday afternoon and hit up a
(21:47):
local seafood restaurant for their oyster boxes. Oyster tie in. Yes,
I love an oyster tie in. And to go back
a bit, Frolinger had been trying out a bunch of
banks in Atlantic City to see what stuck, from cigars
to lemonade, and he that he advertised lemonade by men
(22:07):
juggling lemons outside. Yeah, I mean I'd be like, look
at that sho go check it out. Um. But then
someone invited him to take over a taffy shop. His
first flavors were molasses, chocolate and vanilla. But wait, wow,
because there is some injurgue intrigued taffy intrigue. Yes, there's
(22:28):
always intrigue, it seems, and we're always surprised by it.
According to a piece by Arthur H. Gage Or, the
third great grandson of Frolinger, Mr John R. Edmonston, who
apparently went by the professor, opened a card writing stand
at Victoria Skating Rink rented from well known Captain Young.
(22:53):
What's what's going on here? Edmonston enlicited the help of
John Cassidy, who added a taffy concerts and stand to
the latter writing space. The two did not see ida
eye on things, and the Professor fired Cassidy, but kept
the taffy Cassidy partnered with Bradley and one day went
on to have his own store. So one day Frollinger
(23:17):
overheard allowed argument and went to investigate. It's really great
this piece because it goes into debt like it was
twin Ty freach Away is very detailed. So this argument
was between the professor and Captain Young, fighting over the rent.
The professor was about to throw a two pound scale
(23:38):
at the Captain's head when Frolinger intervened. Once the fight
was dispersed, Young approached Frolinger, fuming at the thought of
having the professor as a tenant, and requested that Frohlinger
step in and take over the lease and the tabby stand.
Frolinger agreed. He did have competitors, though, a big one
(23:59):
being u S the aforementioned ENaC James. James figured out
how to make taffy less sticky and therefore easier to unwrap,
which is great for the bite sized pieces he sold.
He also mechanized the pool process. Uh yeah. The standard
for rod taffy pillars that you're most likely to see
in shops to to this day came about in the
(24:19):
late eighteen and or early nine hundreds right around this time.
And you can still find both of these stores in
Atlantic City. You know, james Is is advertised as the
original saltwater taffy and both are currently owned and operated
by by that that one same family, the Glass Ears
and Fraling Jerseys on the boardwalk Empire set. I guess yes,
(24:42):
because meanwhile Atlantic City was growing. Um, the famous boardwalk
went up in It's a it's a nearly five mile
stretch that's about eight kilometers or so. That grew into
the its spot of the Northeast, especially for the working class.
Like is New York City too expensive? But still have
some leisure time and spending money? What are those new things?
(25:04):
Uh so, yeah, don't vacation in New York vacation on
the boardwalk, or hey, can't book your act in New
York City. The nightclubs and casinos on the Boardwalk are
hungry for crowd pleasers. Um, it was like Vegas and
Disney at the same time. I'm a pre shopping mall.
American consumerism. Dream Monopoly is based on Atlantic City landmarks.
(25:25):
Um Fraulinger's is at Tennessee Avenue and James's Candy is
at New York Avenue. Really, I'll have to check that out.
Get over my hesitation over monopoly. Oh no, that the
point of monopoly is that consumerism and capitalism are terrible,
that they don't work, and that you shouldn't do them.
Oh that's great because it's very effective. Nobody wants to play. No,
(25:47):
it's the worst. I've cheated and lost. I can't figure
it out. That's yeah, that says something. I don't know what.
It's all bad. Um. Meanwhile, um and elsewhere aside, other
resorts around the United States, like Salt Air in Salt
Lake City, Utah, had started selling saltwater taffy. Who what
a tongue twister by about the eighteen nineties or so.
(26:11):
And uh, the original three arm taffy polar patent if
you're curious about that, it is the most mathematically simple
not perfect at all, not perfect, but mathematically simple. It
was registered in eighteen and it was called the Knitz
Taffy Polar. I just I don't know. I wanted to
say that I appreciate it. You know, I love a
good legal drama, and there actually is legal drama coming up. Yeah,
(26:35):
all about this, but anyway, Okay, the was peak saltwater taffy.
Atlantic City had an estimated four and fifty plus joints
slinging this stuff, and one of the purveyors saw an
opportunity to cash in even more on this. He applied
for a trademark on the name salt water taffy, which
(26:58):
he was awarded in our and he wasted no time
and informing all of his I guess we're hundred and
fifteen competitors that if they wanted to keep using that name,
they better pay up. Guess who it was. It was
the professor making trouble again. Apparently he had been in
(27:23):
the in the meanwhile, going door to door selling taffy.
He was just waiting for you shot, he was, yeah,
that's right. Uh. By the way, that the reason that
they were over two hundred taffy pulling patent in the
United States is that, yeah, it was. It was a
really popular thing. It was such a popular thing and
so many people are trying to cash in on it
that they were like, if I can change this just
(27:44):
very slightly, that I can make money. But if it
was all the professor, to be fair, it didn't check
how many could be a bunch of pseudonyms. I don't know. Well,
as you can imagine this whole patent trained park of
the name thing. It did not go overwhelm oh sure, no.
The Enoch James business went to a board of the U. S.
(28:07):
Patent Office to contest it. They also called what is
now the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences. The trademark
was struck down saltwater taffy is born of the ocean
and summer resorts and other ingredients that are the common
property of all men everywhere, it said. Yep, And this
wasn't the first time taffy had to run in with
(28:28):
the law. In a dispute over improvements in taffy pulling
machinery went to the Supreme Court. What yes, Hill Dress
versus Mastorus? Justice William Howard taft yep that taft uh
huh wrote, not all candy is pulled, but much of
it is. Until the beginning of this century, candy was
(28:50):
pulled only by hand. Since nineteen hundred, the art has
advanced from a production of three hundred pounds a day
to ten thousand a day with the same labor. He
also talked about value in these machines, being that they're
more like cleanly than than humans getting our dirty, dirty
claws all over the taffy while we're pulling it. That's true.
(29:10):
You never know where an episode will go. I gotta
say in at Philadelphia's Sesquee Centennial International Exposition, that rolls
all right off the tongue. Yes, we looked it up.
It means a hundred and fifty that year. But why
did they have centennial? I don't know. Mysteries. Yes, Frolinger's
(29:31):
saltwater taffy was awarded a Gold Medal for quality during
World War one and two. Frolingers sent US troops a
steady supply of taffy. I believe James arc did as well.
During World War Two he worked. Frolinger worked around the
sugar ashting by replacing it with molasses, the original sweetener
used for his first recipe in seven. The glass Or
(29:53):
family finally bought James's in the nineteen sixties. Are around there.
Frolinger introduced the piggy bank taffy. Piggy bank taffy, which
is I guess exactly what it sounds like. It was
one pound of saltwater taffy in a piggy bank, available
in various colors, with the pig at these wobbly eyes,
(30:14):
and the taffy came out of the mouth. Oh, that
sounds real creepy. It was. Oh, I was delighted. But
in nine seventy eight, Frank Sinatra placed the largest mail
order for taffy in history, five hundred boxes of James
taffy for his friends. After his first performance, Sinatra came
up in Atlantic City playing some of those nightclubs there
(30:36):
after World War two. UH in the nineteen nineties, the
glass Or family UH bought Frolingers. The different ingredients and
processes for both are kept separate, although they are made
in the same place. In three for Frolingers, one hundred
year of being around. Arthur gag Of the Third, who
wrote that paper I mentioned earlier, wanted to celebrate the
occasion with the world's longest taffy pull. Unfortunate, the weather
(31:01):
did not cooperate, and he plus humility, turned to the
taffy into Google. Oh no, yeah, can you imagine just
all this Google using around like I'm Ghostbusters too? I
imagine it wasn't quite like that. One can dream and
one can dream. I definitely I might have mentioned it before.
(31:22):
I definitely had an unsuccessful batch of marshmallows once where
I was like, oh, this isn't this isn't marshmallow, this
is just this is just Google. It's quite it's a letdown.
It is it is. It's you know, I'm sorry it
didn't work out. I hope that with them with climate control,
he can figure it out sometime in the future. Yes,
(31:46):
very important sounding. It is the world's longest taffy poole.
Maybe one of you listeners can figure that out. Yeah,
invite us do it, absolutely, don't you. We're counting on you.
We are, we are um and uh, we have just
a little bit more for you all. But first we've
(32:08):
got one more quick break for a which more sponsor
and we're back. Thank you, sponsored, thank you, and we're
back with it's a pool obviously. Clearly, I don't feel
(32:36):
like I even need to explain that when there's a
whole like we just did a whole physical thing too.
She did. Yeah, it was a hug war between you
and the wall. It was very, very involved. I try
to try to bring my all. Amy wrote, I grew
(32:57):
up in Bangkok and food court is the big deal
at malls. Since most people live in small apartments, and
not every house has air conditioning. Folks would spend their
time at the mall windows, shopping and eating. After school,
Me and my friends would go to the mall to
hang out and mainly grab a bite. They would have
many restaurants from Korean Barbecue, Hot Pot, Pizza Hut, KFC, McDonald's,
(33:21):
and just general food court. The food at the food
court would be traditional Thai food. There's at least twenty
different stalls selling a variety of food from noodle soups
to papaya salad. Food court is very popular among Thai
people because it's affordable and it's much safer than street food.
In order to get food at the food court, you
just have to add money to a cash card. There's
(33:42):
a booth that you can go to, then you approach
the stalls that interest you. This system makes it easier
as we tend to go to more than just one item.
You might get chicken and rice says you're entre, and
so did a drink, then some fried chicken and maybe
fresh fruit for dessert, and everything you need is right
there in the food hall. Some of the newer malls
would have stalls from famous restaurants around Bangkok. And a
(34:02):
much wider variety of dishes. It's truly next level and
it's worth checking out. Oh that sounds great. That sounds
so good. I mean a good food court like that
that has like, you know, your go twos, but then
like kinds of stalls, like like like local cooks and
(34:22):
chefs and people preparing food that is fresh and tasty. Yeah,
that's loves a fun, Yes, Aaron wrote. Let me pray
face the story with the fact that I have a
very fair complexion, so pale that I make most other
pale people look tanned by comparison. As a child, I
was what you might call a very selective eater. Not
(34:44):
a single vegetable ever crossed my lips, and only a
very few fruits. When V eight Splash, a fruit flavored
juice drink, hit the market in the early nineties, boasting
a full serving of fruits and vegetables in every glass,
my desperate mother was delighted to find that I actually
liked it. She happ he allowed me to drink as
much as I wanted. I went a little overboard, though,
and soon I was consuming an entire half gallon battle
(35:06):
every single day for months. One day I randomly noticed
that the soles of my feet looked yellow. I showed
my mom, who checked me over and concluded that my
palms also looked yellow. This kept getting worse and worse,
spreading even to my face, but we hadn't made the connection.
So my concerned mother took me to the doctor, worried
that I had jaundice. They ran all kinds of liver
function tests, but they all came out negative. The doctors
(35:28):
were stumped. We were stumped. I was just turning a lovely,
sickening yellow for no apparent reason. It wasn't until several
weeks later that my mom was casually looking at the
ingredient list on the juice bottle that the light bulb
turned on. The juice I had been guzzling NonStop was
comprised primarily of carrot juice. The beta carroteen overlood was
making my normally ghostly skin turned yellow. My mom instantly
(35:50):
cut me off. After a few weeks, the yellow began
to fade away and I was back to my standard
casper white self. Even though the eight still sells splash
under the rebrand of V eight Fusion, I haven't been
able to bring myself to drink it in over twenty years.
That's fair. Wow, I can't blame you. Yeah, no, there's
that that is indeed, I'll smidge overboard. It is if
(36:13):
you're turning yellow from all the Jewish you're drinking. Probably probably.
And I was a kid, I used to say, this
reminds me of this. I used to say I did
not want to get tan because I thought my skin
made me look like a sickly banana. And that was
my parents would always make fun of me because I
(36:34):
I don't know where sickly banana came from. Well, but
but you thought that was a good thing I did
not want. Oh you thought when you were tan, you
looked like a sickly banana. Oh yeah, it's a very
specific thought. And I don't know. I'm sure you didn't.
Who knows, who knows what what I was going on?
Although this wasn't at the time that you were eating
(36:56):
all those carrots, was it. No? But if this is
the same thing, what's happening to me? I don't know, Man,
mystery's history. I've got a lot of things to think about.
Many lessons were learned to the stay. I know. I
feel like I have I have really changed. You've been
(37:16):
on a journey. It was a hero's journey of beta
carotene and taffy and cinnamon and cinnamon fires. And well,
you live and you learn. At least we lived, as
Seinfeld says, and I appreciate this opportunity to continue learning.
And we love hearing from listeners who help us learn
(37:38):
these things. So we would love to hear from you.
Thanks to both of them for writing in. If you
would like to write to us, you can our email
as hello at saber pod dot com. We are also
on social media. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook,
and Twitter at savor Pod. We do hope to hear
from you. Savor is production of I Heart Radio and
Stuff Media. For more podcasts on my heart Radio, you
can visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple pod Casts,
(38:00):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thank you,
as always to our super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard.
Thanks to you for listening, and I hope that lots
more good things are coming your way.
Savor News
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Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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