Français
| Register    
Search

Advanced research

St. Catherine's Day Taffy - La Tire Ste-CatherineTheWorldWideGourmet.com

Flavors of Quebec

Total time: 15 to 30 min

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes

Difficulty: Average

Add to favorites Print
Nutritional values

per 100 g

Energy:358.5 kcal

Proteins:0.1 g

Fats:6.4 g

Carbohydrate:78.7 g

Fibers:0 g

Sugar:62.4 g

Cholesterol:16.8 mg

Sodium:96 mg

Calcium:75.2 mg

SIMILAR RECIPES

  • Banana, Pineapple and Mango in Jelly

  • Sweet and Sour Strawberries with Sherry Vinegar

  • Warm Apple Confit with Pistachio Cream and Vanilla Ice Cream

  • Mirabelle Tarts with Olive Oil Ice Cream

  • Pineapple Ravioles with Wild Strawberries, Vanilla Syrup, Sorbet and Crispy Pineapple

VIDEOS OF RECIPES

  • scrambled eggs

  • egg omelet asparagus

  • egg sunny side up

  • Avocat - salade

  • mussels mariniere

  • mashed potato

  • salmon cooked on one side

  • Biscottis 1

  • Biscottis 2

  • chocolate chip cookies

  • Crème anglaise

  • coconut tempura shrimp

  • fig butter

  • Guacamole

  • pastry cream

  • potato and cheese pancake

  • red cabbage jam

  • chocolate sauce

  • salmon tartare with mustard

  • salmon carpaccio

  • scallop carpaccio

  • scallop ceviche

  • strawberries with butterscotch

  • french style apple pie

  • Tarte tatin

  • tempura shrimp

  • tempura vegetables sesame

  • tempura vegetables

  • beets salad

  • buttercream

  • Crepe - celestine

  • breakfast pancake

  • lemon butter

  • chocolate whipped cream mousse

  • plain meringue

  • farmer's soup

  • potato and leek soup

  • swiss meringue

  • truffles 1

  • truffles 2

  • classic dressing

  • egg yolk dressing

  • orange dressing

  • apple beggar's purse

  • bake pie shell

  • chocolate pie crust

  • banana cake

  • carrot cake

  • chocolate cake

  • chocolate genoise

  • Mayonnaise 3 variations

  • Mayonnaise

  • sponge roll

  • white sponge cake

  • duck confit leg

  • duck pan cooked breast

  • endive salad apples dressing

  • Foie gras - terrine

  • chicken stock

  • bercy sauce

  • Sauce bordelaise

  • quick spinach sauce

  • madeira shallot sauce

  • sauce port and mushroom

  • vermouth sauce

  • apple dressing

  • cheese parmesan tuiles

  • potato breakfast pancake

  • artichokes dressing

  • mussels curry

  • mussels honey lemon dressing

  • Muffin part 1

  • Muffin part 2

  • spaghetti squash

  • Wiener schnitzel

  • Strawberries with pepper

  • Duchess Potato

  • grand marnier sabayon

  • Omelet HMC

  • French Style Green Beans

  • Pilaf Rice

  • Shortbread Sugar Cookies

  • Bouquet garni

  • Chantilly cream

  • Fraises - coulis

  • Coating ganache

  • Cream cheese icing

  • Pan Pizza Dough

  • Pizza Dough Mixer

  • Pizza Dough Thin

  • Maitre Butter part 2

  • Maitre Butter part 1

  • Rack of lamb part 1

  • Rack of lamb part 2

  • Rack of lamb part 3

  • Rockefeller Oysters

  • Salmon tartare

  • Onion Soup

  • Stuffed eggs part 1

  • Stuffed eggs part 2

  • Trout amandine

  • Brushetta

  • Carrot soup 2

  • Carrot Soup 1

  • Apple pie

  • Cream of asparagus

  • Cream of mushrooms

  • Grilled steak

INGREDIENTS

Quantity

Weight/Volume

Unit

Ingredient

*Ingredients

125

ml

molasses

125

ml

corn syrup

250

ml

brown sugar

250

ml

white sugar

65

ml

butter

15

ml

white vinegar

1.25

ml

cream of tartar

0.600000023841858

ml

baking soda

METHOD

  1. Place the molasses, corn syrup, brown sugar, white sugar, vinegar, cream of tartar and half the butter in a pot.
  2. Bring to a boil over low heat until the mixture registers 140° C (260° F). If you don't have a candy thermometer, don't panic. You'll just have to test it several times.
  3. Stir for 5 to 10 minutes. The mixture has to reach the "ball" stage, meaning it's ready when you drop a little of it into a small bowl of cold water and it forms a ball.
  4. Mix in the baking soda.
  5. Pour into buttered dishes and let cool slightly until you can pick the taffy up without burning your hands.
  6. Butter your hands well and begin pulling: pull, fold in half, and repeat the process until the taffy is pale golden, and almost white. If it sticks to your hands, put a little more butter on them.
  7. Pull one last time and twist up tightly in small lengths. Cut into pieces with scissors.
  8. Place on a buttered plate or wrap in waxed paper.

CHEF'S NOTES

November 25 - St. Catherine's Day
Are you an unmarried woman over 25? Then according to an old Quebec tradition, you'd be a "Catherinette!" But don't worry... put on your apron and start pulling some taffy!

Tradition

The further we look back in time, the younger the age at which women got married. If they reached 25 and were still single they were considered "old maids" and it became increasingly difficult to marry them off. Trying to find a husband was an age-old concern. One day Conrart, the founder of the Académie française, was asked to what age this phenomenon was limited, and he responded with a poem:

After age twenty, a girl prays to God:
"Grant me, O Lord, a comfortable marriage,
A husband gentle, wealthy, generous and kind!"
Then at twenty-five: "Lord, someone I can stand
Or at least a man of whom I'm not ashamed!"
Finally as the passing years make her more desperate,
As she finds herself getting older and nearing thirty:
"Whichever man you want, Lord, and I'll make do."

But where does this custom come from?

Tradition says that long ago there was a woman named Catherine who was executed around the year 307 for refusing to marry the Roman Emperor Maxentius. In the 12th century, St. Catherine was named the patron of unmarried women. So on her feast day, November 25, it was customary to expose her statue in all the churches of Paris. The oldest of the marriageable women would place a starched cap on her head, while all the unmarried female workers would wear paper bonnets in their hair. This gave rise to the French saying, common in France and French Canada, "to do St. Catherine's hair," meaning "to remain an old maid." The same custom was found in Brittany and Normandy where the statue was dressed up in the local style.

The tradition was brought to New France with the first settlers, but it is to Marguerite Bourgeois, a teaching sister who was an important figure in the young colony, that we owe "St. Catherine's taffy." To attract the attention of her little aboriginal pupils, she decided to make some taffy. She had opened her first school in Ville-Marie (Montreal) on November 25, and she commemorated the anniversary each year by making taffy so that St. Catherine's day also became known in Quebec as "taffy day." It became customary for marriageable girls to make taffy and give some to all the eligible young men in the area to show off their cooking skill. In English Canada and the US, the sweets became known as "kisses," since whoever kissed the girl would win her heart.

There are numerous recipes for taffy. Some are made with water, others with less butter. There is also brown taffy, a more rustic version, made solely with molasses and brown sugar and no refined sugar. My favourite contains corn syrup, an old recipe from Grandmother Albertine that I'll share with you in confidence. Grandpa, who didn't like the taste of the taffy, though he loved to eat, had his own recipe containing cocoa that he made on the sly. His chocolate taffy was sublime, but he would never reveal his secret.

Ideally, taffy should be made by two people. That way you can pull it to a greater length and twist it up as one person holds it. It can, however, be made by one person, but it takes a bit more time. If the taffy sticks to your buttered hands, sprinkle them with a little flour.

Taffy is usually made with salted butter which gives it a unique flavour and counterbalances the sweetness.



RECIPES
PRODUCTS
ENTERTAINING
CHEFS
HINTS & TIPS
GLOSSARIES

© Copyright 9213-5144 Québec 1996 – 2012

Contact Us Terms & Conditions
Tool Box