caramels

Subject: caramels
From: Mían
Date: 29 Sep 99 - 03:47 PM

The best caramels in the universe are Milk Maids.

And this is a plug for MudCat Radio.

Subject: RE: caramels
From: Allan C.
Date: 29 Sep 99 - 03:50 PM

Well, ya got me on this one. What's the connection?

Subject: RE: caramels
From: Mían
Date: 29 Sep 99 - 07:51 PM

Episode IV - Sept. 22 included a reminiscence about grandfather giving caramels - Max was trying to recall the name of the caramels. Perhaps they were Milk Maids. Also I liked A Song About a Train.

Mían

Subject: RE: caramels
From: Allan C.
Date: 30 Sep 99 - 09:51 AM

Ah-h-h. Yes. A wonderful memory. I have never tasted anything but Kraft and maybe Brock's

Subject: RE: caramels
From: Bert
Date: 30 Sep 99 - 09:59 AM

Wonderful posting Mian! Only Allan had the guts to ask you what the hell you were talking about. EVERYONE else can consider themselves 'had' good and proper.

Bert. metooandiwasthere

Subject: RE: caramels
From: GeorgeH
Date: 30 Sep 99 - 10:05 AM

Bert, if I posted a query EVERY time I read a message where I haven't a clue what the heck someone is talking about . . . there'd be no space here for anyone else!

G.

Subject: RE: caramels
From: Mían
Date: 30 Sep 99 - 11:59 AM

boys, boys. back to the caramels. Now Broch's must be the same thing as Brach's - they are the ones that make the MilkMaid caramels. Though I agree the Kraft caramels are pretty top drawer, too. And they also come in chocolate which pads the score a little, I must admit.

Subject: RE: caramels
From: campfire
Date: 30 Sep 99 - 01:34 PM

Mian - Actually, Broch's and Brach's are different companies. I didn't see the original reference, but there is a commercial here in the States with a grandfather giving his grandson the same candies his grandfather gave him - but those aren't exactly caramels, the commercial is for Werther's Butter candies - kind of like a Butterscotch hard candy

campfire

Subject: RE: caramels
From: Smog
Date: 30 Sep 99 - 01:37 PM

We've that ad in the UK too . Thornton's treacle toffee is superb but for satisfying cheapness it's got to be those Penny Dainties

Subject: RE: caramels
From: Penny S.
Date: 30 Sep 99 - 01:54 PM

What gets me about Werther's is that it is not true - those candies were not available here in the past. And can you imagine that this little lad was given German candies during the war?

Then Bassett's have started the rewriting history scheme as well. Maynards (a subsidary) produced a soft fruit gum a few years ago, called JustFruits, no colour, no artifical flavour. Now this is pushed as being the brand eaten in the flicks on Saturday morning in the far past. (And has colours added, so it isn't even the same product as in its real past.)

Which all reminds me of butter tablet and coconut ice. The latter is very difficult to get any more.

Subject: RE: caramels
From: Smog
Date: 30 Sep 99 - 01:59 PM

Penny - try your local friendly M&S - they sell coconut ice in pink packet/boxes!

Subject: RE: caramels
From: Mían
Date: 30 Sep 99 - 02:29 PM

Huh, so Broch's & Brach's are different companies. Does Broch's also make caramels?

Are Penny Dainties caramels?

And what about discourse upon preferred consistency of chew?

Subject: RE: caramels
From: Bert
Date: 30 Sep 99 - 03:05 PM

Penny S, Just for bringing back those memories you have to give us a rousing chorus of that song, you know the one....

We come along on Saturday Morning,
gretting every body with a smile....

OK, continue.

and coconut ice is pretty easy to make; boil your sugar to soft ball, stir in the dessicated coconut and pour into a pan. You can add pink coloring to half if you like.

Subject: RE: caramels
From: Bert
Date: 30 Sep 99 - 03:06 PM

Smog, You new here? welcome aboard, with a name like Smog you should fit in really well.

Bert.

Subject: RE: caramels
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 30 Sep 99 - 05:09 PM

How about Katherine Beich's Golden Crunchies?

Subject: RE: caramels
From: Penny S.
Date: 01 Oct 99 - 07:28 PM

What my local M & S is selling is little cubes of coconut which are sort of soft, moist and chewy, nice, but not ice. I know they did, but I haven't seen any there for ages, and what other shops sell has too much glycerine, so doesn't have the cold crunchiness. However, I do have a South African shop which sells homemade coconut ice nearby. What puzzles me is why it is not easily available anywhere else.

Bert, I just don't have the time or energy at the moment. I keep buying the coconut, and then using it for cakes.

The other things I really really like are Indian sweets, but every time I find a shop which sell the good barfi etc, they go out of business!

Penny

Subject: RE: caramels
From: McKnees
Date: 01 Oct 99 - 08:10 PM

Inflation has cought up with the penny danties and they now cost 10 pence. But at least you could hit them off the corner of the wall and get lots of little bits of toffee, but I stopped eating toffee 'cause I have to go the dentist after I do to replace all the fillings the toffee took out. Personal favorite toffee is Russian Caramels covered in dark chocolate.

McKnees

Subject: RE: caramels
From: Little Neophyte
Date: 01 Oct 99 - 11:06 PM

You can make your own amazing carmel sauce with a can of sweet condensed evaporated milk. Place it in a pot, cover with water, bring to a boil, let simmer for 3 hours. MAKE SURE IT IS COVERED WITH WATER OR IT WILL EXPLODE ALL OVER YOUR KITCHEN! It is quite delicious

Subject: RE: caramels
From: Mían
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 11:56 AM

Okay, is toffee considered the same thing as caramel in Britain?

Where I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, toffee was a very hard slab of buttery caramel flavored candy - sometimes with nuts, sometimes covered with chocolate.

Caramels were considered a softer item, with varying degrees of chewiness.

You'd pull out yer fillings with caramels, but you'd chip your teeth on toffee. Still and all, the rewards outweighed the risks. (grin, with gaps)

Then there is brittle, which is different again from toffee and caramels.

Subject: RE: caramels
From: Little Neophyte
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 04:47 PM

Carmels are made with sugar, corn syrup, fat and sweetened condensed evaporated milk.

Toffee is made by pouring a sugar syrup over stiffly beaten egg whites, honey, molasses are added then it is pulled and twisted into various shapes.

Brittles are made of syrups cooked to a high temperature and then spread over nuts into a thin layer and allowed to cool.

Next episode we will examine Sponge toffee.

Subject: RE: caramels
From: Penny S.
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 01:22 PM

UK toffee etc. Slab toffee, as sold by Thornton's, is the hard, break it with a hammer, stuff. Then there are the wrapped toffees, some of which are hard, some softer, overlapping with caramels which come in boxes of assorted chocolates and are chewy, but not with the chocolate bar caramel which could not be eaten without the chocolate, being more of a sauce texture. It is not referred to in the plural.

Penny

Subject: RE: caramels
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 Oct 99 - 01:33 PM

For any UK-born who might be living elsewhere and lonesome for some of their food favourites, I saw an ad on BBC-America last night for goodwoods.com or, if you prefer GoodWoods. It touted itself as a market and showed quick images of all kinds of what looked like yummy goods.

kat

Subject: RE: caramels
From: roopoo
Date: 06 Oct 99 - 02:14 AM

Just the sort of people who might be able to help! As all the Brits will know, the bonfire toffee and parkin season is almost upon us. Last night in the pub the diabetic landlord asked if I could make some of either, sugar free, bearing in mind that you need treacle normally as well as the granular stuff (which is easy to replace). Whatever happened to Spangles, especially those in the black and white stripey packet? At least cinder toffee is easily available! For those that don't know, it's like big chunks of Crunchie bar cut off a slab. Now that REALLY works into the ol' molars! Selby and I both live quite close to the home of Rowntree's (now named after some foreign company called Nestle) and Terry's, who if my memory serves me aright, make or made Palm Toffee which had a sandwiched layer of banana or strawberry flavour in the middle! Cheers. mouldy

Subject: RE: caramels
From: alison
Date: 06 Oct 99 - 04:24 AM

Haven't even heard of Spangles for years..... we only just got Opal fruits a few years back in Oz... my mum had to send me some from home when I got a craving for them during my first pregnancy..... Lost many fillings in Toffo's... but the nicest were the ones my Gran used to buy, you got them in quarters (quarter pound bags) and they had a swirl of creamy coloured toffee through them.. can't remember the name... but YUMMMM..

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: caramels
From: roopoo
Date: 06 Oct 99 - 05:19 AM

They don't even call them Opal Fruits any more - is nothing sacred? Remember Marathon bars? Snickers now! I don't think they do Polo Fruits any more either. I remember scouring the supermarkets for real Mars Bars when we lived in S.Africa. And when the Sarson's Vinegar or Branston Pickle turned up, the jungle telegraph really got going! Better go before the cravings start and I have to go raid the village shop for lemon bonbons! mouldy

Subject: RE: caramels
From: Patrish(inactive)
Date: 06 Oct 99 - 06:25 AM

I love toffee, but I always end up putting far too much in my mouth and am rendered dumb for a while. I like invalid toffee which is brittle and so sweet it makes your teeth laugh.

Subject: RE: caramels
From: alison
Date: 06 Oct 99 - 09:39 AM

ooh lemon bonbons.... yumm... Polo's over here are "lifesavers"...

slaine

alison

Subject: RE: caramels
From: Penny S.
Date: 06 Oct 99 - 01:56 PM

When I have taught geology at a Children's University, (Saturday school for the stuff they won't let us teach anymore), I have raided the sweetie shops and used toffee etc for teaching rock textures. Cinder toffee comes out as lava, toffee as obsidian, and fudge is something fine-grained like dolerite. Then we eat the specimens. Can't do that with real rock: that would really get the teeth.

Penny

PS. I make my own granite with coffee crystals. Anyone any idea how to do sedimentary rocks?

Subject: RE: caramels
From: Allan C.
Date: 06 Oct 99 - 02:28 PM

Sedimentary rocks? You could break up pieces of Nestle's Crunch or perhaps find some bits of peanut brittle. No - wait - those would be conglomerates, wouldn't they. M-m-m-m what about some datenut bars or some of that layered so-called Christmas candy? Of course, you could just get away from the candy a bit and buy a brick of Neapolitan ice cream.

Subject: RE: caramels
From: campfire
Date: 06 Oct 99 - 02:34 PM

Or how about layered Jello? Then you could wrestle in it afterward!

campfire

Subject: RE: caramels
From: Fionan
Date: 07 Oct 99 - 08:16 AM

Some of my ancestors worked at Rowntrees...we used to get lots of 'Misshapes' for nothing. Now you have to buy them!!.

Crikey - Palm Toffee, I haven't heard of that in years!. I love Cinder toffee but find it referred to more these days as 'crunchie' (that's the power of big business for you...) As far as I remember you made it by stirring Bicarbonate of Soda into your toffee while it was boiling...

I think you could get fruit Polos until recently...but then they started with all the different varieties and it seemed to stop.

Subject: RE: caramels
From: Penny S
Date: 07 Oct 99 - 11:31 AM

Conglomerate is sedimentary - I think I might go for one of those fridge cake mixtures.

The problem is that it should be formed in the same way as the original, with carbon based chemistry replacing the silica.

The BBC web site on geology suggested marzipan layers all scrunched up for metamorphic rocks, and I'm all set for that.

What's Christmas candy? Is it like rock candy crystals?

Penny

Subject: RE: caramels
From: Mían
Date: 07 Oct 99 - 11:53 AM

I am still wondering what kind of caramels Max's grandfather gave him.

Subject: RE: caramels
From: Peter T.
Date: 07 Oct 99 - 04:28 PM

The British candy I remember best are wine gums. They make them in North America, but they aren't the same. Many a cavity has come from them, I am sure. Sigh. yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: caramels
From: Penny S.
Date: 08 Oct 99 - 05:53 PM

I discovered a silver point root filling I didn't know I had through wine gums!

Penny