Another name for <insert hard liquor name here> butter. Like rum butter or brandy butter.
I think hard candy comes from Christmases way past. Ribbon candy, yes (and those ribbons better be delicate or it’s just not right) but jelly filled hard raspberries, creme mints and honey straws are all memories of Christmas at both sets of grandparents for me.
But I’m at the tail end of the baby boom. These types of candies were almost out of fashion 50 years ago. But they were cheap treats to be offered to any guest who dropped by to wish you a happy holiday. They were also put in children’s stockings and were quite a treat for families who had little or nothing. Sugar was expensive and wasteful. We forget today, how many families were truly dirt poor, without SNAP, or other programs to help them out. “You have three kids and your husband died in the Great War (WWI)? That’s your problem.” There was no gov’t support. So, these families did without sugar because potatoes were cheaper and filled stomachs better. A hard candy was a treat indeed.
I’ve never had eggnog either because like Kefir, which I also have no inclination to try, it sounds like something I would not be able to tolerate the consistency of. It sounds both too thin and too thick.
I also voted no for fruitcake and (a weak) yes for hard candy.
Fruitcake is the only one I am morally opposed to. The hard candy I went no but that is due more to the extensive dental work I have than not liking it.
Since we’re not ambitious cooks, we didn’t want to make hard sauce for our mincemeat pie. So we once served it warm with eggnog ice cream, and will now never eat it any other way.
My childhood experiences with fruitcake were unfavorable, so no thanks. But I search every year for a source of marzipan stollen, which has candied fruit. I guess it was the store-bought stuff I couldn’t stand.
I had a very nasty bout of allergies to new meds this fall, and the only relief for the out-of-control coughing was pectin throat drops, so I’ve been put off hard candy for a while.
I’m kind of wondering the same thing. I used to get Life Savers books as a kid, which was kind of neat… is this because of some other “hard candy” tradition that I don’t know about? Is it related to candy canes? Butterscotch Brach’s things?
In my 48 years, I’ve never particularly associated “hard candy” of any generic or specific type with Christmas, so I’m actually anxious for some type of answer!
Egg nog: yum. I wish it came in half pints because I only allow myself one cup per season–too high in calories.
Fruit cake: put yes, but it depends. No candied citron or candied orange, lemon, or lime peels. If it contains only pecans, raisins, currants, candied cherries and candied pineapple in a moist dark base, and if it’s been brushed with rum or brandy daily while it ripened, I’m in.
Ribbon candy: Yes for nostalgia reasons. I loved it as a child but haven’t had any since.
That’s about right, but that recipe seems to indicate that it is runny or spreadable. In our house, hard sauce was indeed hard (heck, we put it in the fridge until just before serving, to solidify it), and it was a family tradition to make a small snowman out of it, complete with candied fruit buttons and so on. We also never used rum or brandy in hard sauce–there was enough of that in the Christmas pudding and the fruitcake that Grandma brought.
Come dessert at our Christmas table, the poor snowman was demolished. A spoonful of hard sauce would be put on a hot mince tart, where it would melt. Mmm, good!
Yes to all three.
What you call “hard candy” was always known in my house as “ribbon candy”. My dad enjoyed it, I never did.
Did anyone else look forward to getting a Lifesavers book each year?
How about Danish butter cookies? Yum.
I didn’t learn to appreciate fruitcake until living in Bangkok and having access to the real deal from Britain and Australia. Fantastic. British, Aussie and Kiwi friends just looked at me blankly when I tried explaining what a joke it was in the US.
I like eggnog, but not fruitcake or hard candy.
I do like a Dolly Parton hard candy Christmas.
Aha - what we would call Brandy (or Rum) Butter.