Western Confectioner

Bapopik at AOL.COM Bapopik at AOL.COM
Fri Sep 8 06:33:25 UTC 2000


    I've been reading through two publications that are just fantastic for
American food & drink.
    TAVERN NEWS was published in Chicago and had a regular column called "The
Barman's Corner," by Patrick Murphy.  I expect to find a "Bloody Mary" in the
1940s, but it'll take me some time to read.
    The WESTERN CONFECTIONER was all about candy & ice cream, soda fountains
& luncheonettes.  It began about 1914; I read the first NYPL reel for
1921-1922, and there are at least ten more.
    I'm looking for a good explanation of western luncheonette number slang,
such as "86."  I'm also looking for "Denver sandwich" from the 1920s.  I'm
also looking for "fortune cookie" in the 1920s-1930s.  I'm also looking for
"Caesar salad" in the 1940s.

June 1921, pg. 66.  No "Denver Sandwich" or "Western Sandwich" in a story
that has recipes for Rainbow Sandwiches, Combination Sandwiches, Olive
Sandwiches, Date Sandwiches, Egg Cream Sandwiches, Tomato Salad Sandwiches,
Puff Sandwiches, Lobster Sandwiches, and Army Sandwiches.

June 1921, pg. 61, col. 2.  The recipe for "Egg De Cream" contains an egg,
cream syrup, vanilla ice cream, and sweet milk.  It's not the "egg cream" as
we know it in New York City.

June 1921, pg. 63, col. 2:
_CHOCOLATE SPRINKLES FOR SUNDAES_
     A new product is being put on the market by the Stollwerck Chocolate
Company in the form of "Chocolate Sprinkles."  They are made of chocolate
compressed in highly finished particles and have a bright reddish brown color
and are used to decorate chocolates by sprinkling on chocolates after
dipping; to decorate bon bons, cakes, pastry; also for sprinkling on
chocolate sundaes at the fountain.  There are about eighty thousand particles
to a pound.
(Probably invented by a guy named "Jimmy," who made "hundreds and thousands"
of dollars from this--ed.)

August 1921, pg. 45.  The story is "Chinese Candy for Chinese Trade," but
there is no fortune cookie here.

September 1921, pg. 45, col. 1:
Orange Jazzbo...............................25 cents
Orange ice (...)
Grape juice (...)
(Col. 2--ed.)
Carbonated water (municipal reservoir brand, artificially jazzed with
carbonic acid gas)
(Could there have been a "jazz" drink mentioned in the first issues of
WESTERN CONFECTIONER?--ed.)

December 1921, pg. 106, col. 2:
     _"Rocky Roads"_
The poets sang but yesterday,
About the rough and rocky road,
The long and weary way;
If they came back and had today,
Some of our fine "Rocky Roads,"
I'm sure they'd sing this lay--

O, "Rocky Road," so good to eat!
O, "Rocky Road," delicious, sweet!
You're a confection clever!
Those little humps of white and brown,
Are just the sweetest thing in town,
You are the "bestest" ever!
--Martha MacDonald.

May 1922, pg. 40, col. 2:
_"SEND A CANDYGRAM"--NEW WAY OF SELLING MORE CANDY_
     Through the initiative of "Confectionery Merchandising," a publication
of Chicago, a new association has been formed known as the Candygram Dispatch
and Delivery Association to promote the sale of candy throughout the United
States.

June 1922, pg. 78.  Opera Nut Loaves and Opera Chocolates recipes are here,
but no Opera Creams.

July 1922, pg. 40.  A letter claims that the new fad of "Eskimo Pie" is
really something that had been made as far back as 1888, in Elgin, Ill.,
under the name "Ice Cream Bomb."  It is also claimed that the "new" fad of
"ice cream on a stick" was first made in 1905, and the "new" Raisin Ice Cream
was first made about 1912.

July 1922, pg. 44:  Out here in California, some call them "slush
joints"--those little combination soda fountain, ice cream parlors, hot dog
stands, and chocolate kitchens so dear to the hearts and stomachs of the
younger set, and the older, too, if it would only admit the truth!  There was
a "slush joint" out on the Foothill boulevard about a year ago...



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