Posted
on December 7, 2014
When
I think of cotton candy, I think of summer evenings at an amusement
park or carnival, or days at the circus in the sprint or at the
county fair in early fall. I don't think dead-of-winter!
However,
people who make cotton candy want to remind you that “Fairy Floss,”
as it used to be called, can be enjoyed any time of the year!
I
would've thought that this treat would've been an invention of the
industrial revolution, but in actual fact, rich people in Europe of
the 1700s could enjoy the airy treat. (Only the rich, since spinning
sugar took a lot of time and effort!)
It
took until the early 1900s for a machine to spin sugar was invented.
Get this: it was invented by an American dentist working with a
candy-maker! And another American dentist, apparently separately,
invented another similar machine to spin sugar. I think these
dentists knew what they were doing: make a sticky sweet treat that
would cause tooth decay... Okay, I'm just kidding (I guess), but it's
pretty funny that two different dentists would be responsible for the
inventing of this particular sort of machine!
The
first dentist, William Morrison, introduced Fairy Floss at the 1904
World's Fair, and he was able to sell 68,655 boxes of the stuff! His
25 cent charge per box would be equivalent to $6.00 now – so it
wasn't exactly a bargain!
The
second dentist, Joseph Lascaux, used the name “cotton candy” on
his patent form, and for some reason the sweet name “Fairy Floss”
faded away (except in Australia, where “Fairy Floss” is still
commonly used).
By
the way, cotton candy is naturally white, although people often add
coloring and flavoring to the sugar before spinning it: |
| Pashmak is a Persian version of spun sugar with sesame. |
Maple-flavored cotton candy from Canada.
Also
on this date:
Plan
ahead:
Check
out my Pinterest pages on:
And
here are my Pinterest boards for:
No comments:
Post a Comment