Taffy, A Sticky Situation

by Chewy

I like my sweets chewy. Aha, you say. That explains the moniker, Chewy, that’s slapped on these musings. Wrong. That’s another story. But back to my preferences. Caramel, fruit gels, taffy, gum drops, spearmint leaves, jelly beans, I’ll take them over chocolate every time. There’s something about the need to masticate these gems for a longer period of time that extends the enjoyment in my mind and mouth. They can also yank a filling if you’re not careful, but putting a little danger factor into it simply improves the experience. Kind of like flambé. So, when I saw that May 23rd was National Taffy Day, I couldn’t let it pass without recognition and celebration.


Taffy is a relatively new creation in the world of sweets. Only dating back to the early 1800s, it’s really a youngster. Originally called treacle, it was sugar or molasses thickened by boiling and made into hard cakes. Later, we see the process evolving to what we are familiar with today. Cooked in copper kettles over open coals and cooled on marble slabs, it was then pulled on a large hook on the wall. Draping 10-25 pounds (this was not for sissies) over the hook, it was then pulled away up to a length of 5-6 feet. It was then looped back on itself over the hook trapping air between the lengths. Repeating the process resulted in aerating the taffy and keeping it soft. Stretching the lengths also allows the taffy to take on that satiny shine. Rolling the stretched and prepared candy on a hard surface resulted in a taffy “snake” that could be cut into bite size pieces with scissors.

Probably the most well known taffy is Atlantic City’s salt water taffy. A sucker for legends, I can’t pass up sharing this one with you. This popular and unconfirmed story involves a great storm in 1883. David Bradley’s candy store was flooded by the Atlantic Ocean and his entire stock of taffy was soaked in the salty water. Offering the “salt water taffy” as a joke it became a big hit and so a new sweet was born. Not literally made from sea water, as implied, it does contain water and salt (there’s our sweet-salty experience again). Popularized by Joseph Fralinger in Atlantic City, it was later refined by Enoch James, who mechanized the pulling process. Both opened confectioneries in the late 1800s and both shops still  operate on the Atlantic City boardwalk.


Taffy pulling was a household enterprise and social event on Saturday nights. While not a weekly adventure in my home (contrary to popular belief, I’m not quite that old), we did put on an occasional pot of taffy ingredients, greased up, and pulled till our arms ached. No matter how much cleaning that was done post pull, everything in the kitchen still seemed sticky for a week afterwards. I have to say, that homemade, home pulled taffy was the best.

I think we should bring back the tradition of the taffy pull. Consisting of relatively inexpensive ingredients, it literally provides hours of family activity on a limited budget. And you know the old saying, the family that pulls taffy together, sticks together.

Taffy Pull Taffy Recipe