Chocolate and Cocoa Recipes and Home Made Candy Recipes

Chocolate and Cocoa Recipes By Miss Parloa

and

Home Made Candy Recipes By Mrs. Janet McKenzie Hill


Compliments of Walter Baker & Co., Ltd.

ESTABLISHED DORCHESTER
1780              MASS


1909



[Illustration: BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF WALTER BAKER & CO.'S MILLS. DORCHESTER
AND MILTON, MASS. FLOOR SPACE, 350,000 SQUARE FEET.]




Cocoa and Chocolate

The term "Cocoa," a corruption of "Cacao," is almost universally used in
English-speaking countries to designate the seeds of the small tropical
tree known to botanists as THEOBROMA CACAO, from which a great variety
of preparations under the name of cocoa and chocolate for eating and
drinking are made. The name "Chocolatl" is nearly the same in most
European languages, and is taken from the Mexican name of the drink,
"Chocolate" or "Cacahuatl." The Spaniards found chocolate in common use
among the Mexicans at the time of the invasion under Cortez in 1519, and
it was introduced into Spain immediately after. The Mexicans not only
used chocolate as a staple article of food, but they used the seeds of
the cacao tree as a medium of exchange.

No better evidence could be offered of the great advance which has been
made in recent years in the knowledge of dietetics than the remarkable
increase in the consumption of cocoa and chocolate in this country. The
amount retained for home consumption in 1860 was only 1,181,054
pounds--about 3-5 of an ounce for each inhabitant. The amount retained
for home consumption for the year ending Dec. 31, 1908, was 93,956,721
pounds--over 16 ounces for each inhabitant.

Although there was a marked increase in the consumption of tea and
coffee during the same period, the ratio of increase fell far below that
of cocoa. It is evident that the coming American is going to be less of
a tea and coffee drinker, and more of a cocoa and chocolate drinker.
This is the natural result of a better knowledge of the laws of health,
and of the food value of a beverage which nourishes the body while it
also stimulates the brain.

Baron von Liebig, one of the best-known writers on dietetics, says:

"It is a perfect food, as wholesome as delicious, a beneficient restorer
of exhausted power; but its quality must be good and it must be
carefully prepared. It is highly nourishing and easily digested, and is
fitted to repair wasted strength, preserve health, and prolong life. It
agrees with dry temperaments and convalescents; with mothers who nurse
their children; with those whose occupations oblige them to undergo
severe mental strains; with public speakers, and with all those who give
to work a portion of the time needed for sleep. It soothes both stomach
and brain, and for this reason, as well as for others, it is the best
friend of those engaged in literary pursuits."

M. Brillat-Savarin, in his entertaining and valuable work, _Physiologie
du Goût_, says: "Chocolate came over the mountains [from Spain to
France] with Anne of Austria, daughter of Philip III and queen of Louis
XIII. The Spanish monks also spread the knowledge of it by the presents
they made to their brothers in France. It is well known that Linnæus
called the fruit of the cocoa tree _theobroma_, 'food for the gods.' The
cause of this emphatic qualification has been sought, and attributed by
some to the fact that he was extravagantly fond of chocolate; by others
to his desire to please his confessor; and by others to his gallantry, a
queen having first introduced it into France.

"The Spanish ladies of the New World, it is said, carried their love for
chocolate to such a degree that, not content with partaking of it
several times a day, they had it sometimes carried after them to church.
This favoring of the senses often drew upon them the censures of the
bishop; but the Reverend Father Escobar, whose metaphysics were as
subtle as his morality was accommodating, declared, formally, that a
fast was not broken by chocolate prepared with water; thus wire-drawing,
in favor of his penitents, the ancient adage, '_Liquidum non frangit
jejunium._'

"Time and experience," he says further, "have shown that chocolate,
carefully prepared, is an article of food as wholesome as it is
agreeable; that it is nourishing, easy of digestion, and does not
possess those qualities injurious to beauty with which coffee has been
reproached; that it is excellently adapted to persons who are obliged to
a great concentration of intellect; in the toils of the pulpit or the
bar, and especially to travellers; that it suits the most feeble
stomach; that excellent effects have been produced by it in chronic
complaints, and that it is a last resource in affections of the pylorus.

"Some persons complain of being unable to digest chocolate; others, on
the contrary, pretend that it has not sufficient nourishment, and that
the effect disappears too soon. It is probable that the former have only
themselves to blame, and that the choc