FRENCH CHEWING TAFFY

First break the egg into the pint of cream and beat it thoroughly, and in no case must the egg be put into the candy except in this manner. Gelatine generally comes in one ounce boxes, so you must use just the half of one of these. Put it in a small dish or pan, and pour just enough warm water over it to dissolve it; then set it on the stove where it will not cook, but keep warm until needed. Now put sugar, glucose, cream with egg beaten in it, butter, and piece of paraffine wax about the size of a small walnut, into the kettle, set on fire and stir constantly until it is done. When it commences boiling, put in the thermometer and cook to 254, then take out thermometer, and pour in gradually the dissolved gelatine, and continue stirring until it boils up well again. It must be cooked for about three or four minutes after it boils up with the gelatine in it, then pour on well greased slab, which has previously been sprinkled over thoroughly with black walnuts, or you may use any other nuts you have, or in fact no nuts at all, if you prefer, but you will find the black walnuts greatly improve the flavor of the candy.

As soon as cool enough, fold in toward the center same as other taffies, and when you can handle it nicely, put on the hook and pull until you can pull it no more. It will be quite dark in color while on the slab, but will pull to a nice, creamy white color. This taffy will require considerably more vanilla than other taffies; so flavor it very highly, by pouring the vanilla over it while pulling. You will probably find this candy sticky at times and if the batch is so, and should stick to your hands while pulling it, loosen them with a quick jerk, and you will find the candy will easily pull off, whereas if you should attempt to loosen your hands slowly, you would not have much success. If the batch should stick somewhat to the slab, take your scraper and pry it up by hitting it very quickly. In other words, simply scoop it up with the scraper, but instead of pushing the scraper underneath it slowly, jab it under very rapidly, and you will find you can readily get the candy up in a ball. You will find this candy very hard to pull if you do not use a hook. As soon as pulled sufficiently, take off the hook by cutting it off close to the hook with a pair of shears, then you may either lay it on a platter, put it in a crock previously lined with wax paper, or lay it on your kneading board and pull it out, a little at a time, into a strip about one inch wide, then cut the strip crosswise into small kisses about the size of your thumb, and when it is all cut up in this manner, wrap each piece in tissue paper. The paper will not stick to it in the least.

This candy is by far the finest taffy made, if you follow these directions carefully, as it never gets very hard, and you will be able to chew it a long time. Cutting it up into kisses, while it may be a little more trouble, is by far the nicest way to fix it.