Almond Taffy
Called in England Everton taffy, after a town of that name. 1 1/2 pounds of brown sugar. 8 ounces of best fresh butter. 1 teacupful of vinegar and water--about half and half. 8 to 12 ounces of almonds. Scald and peel the almonds, split them and spread them evenly on two large dishes slightly buttered. Boil the other ingredients together about 15 or 20 minutes. Shake them together at first but do not stir. When a drop of the candy sets quite hard and brittle in cold water take it from the fire and pour it evenly all over the almonds, only just deep enough to cover them. This kind cannot be stirred nor pulled, as the butter separates from the sugar which then turns grainy.
A butter toffee poured over blanched almonds, cooked to the hard crack stage. The one instruction that matters is the one the recipe ends on: once the butter and sugar are boiling, leave them alone.
- Do not stirStirring a boiling butter-and-sugar mixture breaks it, and the batch separates into greasy sugar, exactly as the recipe warns. A gentle shake of the pan at the start, as the recipe directs, is all that is allowed.
- The teacupfulAn unstandardised measure, variously reckoned at roughly 4 to 6 fluid ounces, i.e. somewhere around half to two-thirds of a cup, half vinegar and half water. The exact figure is not critical, since most of the liquid boils away; the acid inverts some of the sugar and discourages graininess.
- Test by temperature, not clock"Sets quite hard and brittle in cold water" is the hard crack stage, 300-310F. Fifteen to twenty minutes is a fair estimate for a heavy pan but varies with your burner and pan width, so trust the thermometer or the water test.
- AlmondsScalding and peeling means blanching: 60 seconds in boiling water, then slip the skins off. Blanched whole almonds from a bag save the step. Splitting them lengthwise gives flat halves that lie evenly and cut cleanly.
- "Two large dishes"Use two rimmed baking sheets or shallow metal pans, buttered, and spread the almonds in a single close layer. Metal pulls heat out faster than china, so the candy sets sooner.
- Brown sugarPeriod brown sugar was less refined and less uniform than today's. Light brown sugar comes closest; dark brown will read as molasses and can taste scorched at 305F.
- Scoring and yieldAbout 2 1/2 pounds of finished candy. Mark it into squares with an oiled knife while still warm and pliable, then break along the lines once cold. Store airtight; humidity turns it sticky within a day.
Everton toffee is generally traced to Everton, which is a district of Liverpool rather than a town in its own right. The name attached itself to a butter-and-brown-sugar boiled toffee sold by Liverpool shopkeepers, and "Everton taffy" came to be used on both sides of the Atlantic for the hard, buttery, non-pulled sort. That distinction is the point of the last sentence here: a confectioner needed telling that a batch this rich in butter will break rather than stretch.