Oh, yes, I, too, read A Christmas Carol. It was reprinted in Coronet magazine and I found I had forgotten most of it. Vance Dobson, December 27, 1942I've written about divinity before and was going to omit it from this series, but divinity was as important to my mother as -- well, as all the other traditional goodies. She loved to make it as much as she loved to eat it.
NINA'S DIVINITY RECIPE (double batch)
4 medium egg whites
4 cups sugar
1 cup corn syrup
3/4 cup water
2 tsp vanilla
Blend in saucepan sugar, corn syrup, water. Cover and cook over medium heat until mixture comes to a boil, then cook to 255 on candy thermometer. In the meantime, beat egg whites until stiff. Pour hot syrup in fine stream into egg whites while continuing to beat. Add vanilla. When mixture becomes too heavy for beaters, stir with a wooden spoon until it loses its gloss and begins to set. Working quickly, drop divinity onto waxed paper by teaspoonfuls.
Mother was a practiced divinity-maker, but someplace along the line -- about 1960 -- she lost the knack. The divinity failed to set in lovely little mounds, spreading into flat circles. It was Nina who said, "Mother! Look at your eggs. They're huge! That's what's wrong with your divinity." And it was true. The folks had changed "egg ladies" and the eggs were suddenly much larger. And that just illustrates why old recipes sometimes don't work for us. Ingredients can change over time.
A little foil edging sets off this old Christmas card. KW
The science of cooking is just that...science. Changing the size of eggs or any ingredient for your recipe will usually change the outcome. Good for Nina and her kitchen knowledge.
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ReplyDeleteI think divinty is in the same nasty category as fruit cake but our son loved eating it at grandma's house on Christmas Eve. He called it "affinity" when he was little.
ReplyDeleteWHAT???? Deb, we simply disagree on this one. Divinity is HEAVEN! I didn't know that it was possible not to love it. Well, more for me then. ;)
ReplyDeleteWell, whether or not you like to eat divinity, I believe the making of it is an art. Everything has to be right -- including the weather. But, pretty much it's just flavored sugar. Personally, I like seafoam (brown sugar) divinity.
ReplyDeleteMy mother also loved to make 7-minute frosting. Remember 7-minute frosting? For her it went away when electric outlets were banned from stoves.
I've heard of divinity, but I wasn't sure what it was, so I decided to do some research about it. I'm having a quiet recovery day today and thought I'd give your recipe a shot. I'm glad I looked it up...a lot of sites say that it won't work on a damp or humid day. That knocks me out. It's raining and it is supposed to give us more inches of rain than any other storm has in the past 10 years.
ReplyDeleteOh well. I REALLY should just rest and recover from illness and my intense semester rather than thinking I can whip something up in the kitchen!
(PS: I've missed you! I know, I know, I'm the one that has been AWOL!)
Dr. J! How good to hear from you! I know you've been busy. I've been patiently waiting.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you didn't try the divinity if you weren't feeling well. My recipe was not thorough when it came to method, and I should post an addendum. When the electric beaters get bogged down, you have to take the hot bowl on your lap and stir until the mixture loses its luster and begins to set. You test by dropping one or two teaspoons of mixture on waxed paper. If they flatten out, you have to stir some more.
When Hallie was just a little girl, she stirred the divinity for her frail grandmother. She was one very nice little girl!
I wonder if those new mixers that will knead bread dough would beat divinity?
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