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Dromedary Cocoanut Drops
1/2 cup water 2 cups brown sugar 2 eggs, whites only 1½ cups Dromedary Cocoanut 1 pinch baking soda Boil water and sugar until a soft ball may be formed when tested in cold water. Pour over stiffly beaten whites of eggs, beating all the time, then add cocoanut and soda. Drop by teaspoonfuls on a buttered platter and sprinkle with cocoanut.
A divinity-style candy: hot syrup beaten into egg whites, then loaded with coconut. It is straightforward once you fix the obvious typesetting error and hit the syrup temperature exactly.
- Coconut quantityThe printed page gives 1 u00bd cups of cocoanut, which is what the text above now reads. Have a little more on hand for sprinkling the drops.
- Soft ball means 235-240FUse a candy thermometer rather than the cold-water test; 238F is the reliable target. Below that the drops will not set, above it they turn hard and crumbly.
- Pour the syrup in a thin streamWith the mixer running, add the syrup slowly down the side of the bowl. Dumping it in cooks the whites into threads instead of building a smooth meringue.
- Beat until it holds its shapeKeep beating after the syrup is in, usually five to eight minutes in a stand mixer, until the mass loses its gloss and a dropped spoonful stays mounded. This is the hinge of the recipe.
- Dromedary cocoanutThe brand sold packaged shredded coconut, probably less sweetened than today's sweetened flake, though the formulation is not recorded here. Unsweetened desiccated or frozen grated coconut is likely to give a closer result; sweetened flake may make the candy cloying.
- The pinch of sodaIt would neutralise some of the acidity of the brown sugar, and may help keep the mixture tender. Keep it to a pinch; more can leave a soapy taste.
- Platter or parchmentA buttered platter works, but parchment or a silicone mat releases more cleanly and lets you move the drops before they fully set.
- HumidityMeringue candies refuse to firm up on a damp day. Make these when the air is dry, and store them airtight with a sheet of waxed paper between layers.
- YieldAbout 30 to 36 teaspoon-sized drops, firm enough to handle in an hour or two.
Dromedary was the grocery brand of the Hills Brothers Company of New York, known for dates and for packaged shredded coconut, and branded pantry goods of the period were often promoted through small recipe booklets given away or sold for a few cents. The candy itself belongs to the divinity family, the American confection built by beating a boiled sugar syrup into egg whites. Coconut reached northern American kitchens largely as a shipped and shredded commodity rather than a whole nut, and booklets of this kind served to show cooks what to do with a packaged product. The brown sugar here, rather than white, gives the drops a caramel note.