Millions Eat This Christmas Treat, But Have No Idea What It Looks Like Before Processing
By Dreamer
The wonder of Christmas is all around us. Flying reindeer, overachieving elves, fat men gliding seamlessly through chimneys. While most of the holiday season is about putting aside our questioning nature and letting the magic of mystery fill our hearts, there are some things we can explore more easily. For instance, have you ever wondered how candy canes get their stripes?
During November and December, Public Displays of Confection at Lofty Pursuits revives victorian techniques of hand making candy canes. You can see this live in person at Lofty Pursuits, or watch their process on the video below.
This incredible video has become something of a holiday cult classic, receiving nearly three million views since it was posted in November 2012. It inspired us to do some digging and learn more about the history of candy canes. According to Wikipedia:
“According to folklore, in 1670, in Cologne, Germany, the choirmaster at Cologne Cathedral, wishing to remedy the noise caused by children in his church during the Living Crèche tradition of Christmas Eve, asked a local candy maker for some sweet sticks for them. In order to justify the practice of giving candy to children during worship services, he asked the candy maker to add a crook to the top of each stick, which would help children remember the shepherds who visited the infant Jesus. In addition, he used the white colour of the converted sticks to teach children about the Christian belief in the sinless life of Jesus. From Germany, candy canes spread to other parts of Europe, where they were handed out during plays reenacting the Nativity. As such, according to this legend, the candy cane became associated with Christmastide
“A recipe for straight peppermint candy sticks, white with coloured stripes, was published in 1844. The candy cane has been mentioned in literature since 1866. It was first mentioned in association with Christmas in 1874, and only as recently as 1882 was hung on Christmas trees.
“Chicago confectioners the Bunte Brothers filed one of the earliest patents for candy cane making machines in the early 1920s. Meanwhile, in 1919 in Albany, Georgia, Bob McCormack began making candy canes for local children. By the middle of the century his company (originally the Famous Candy Company, then the Mills-McCormack Candy Company, and later Bobs Candies) had become one of the world’s leading candy cane producers. Candy cane manufacturing initially required a fair bit of labor that limited production quantities. The canes had to be bent manually as they came off the assembly line to create their ‘J’ shape and breakage often ran over 20 percent. McCormack’s brother-in-law, Gregory Harding Keller, was a seminary student in Rome who spent his summers working in the candy factory back home. In 1957, Keller, as an ordained Roman Catholic priest of the Diocese of Little Rock, patented his invention, the Keller Machine, which automated the process of twisting soft candy into spiral striping and cutting it into precise lengths as candy canes.”
Have you ever made candy canes by hand? Share your stories with us here in the comments section below.
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