Holiday foods Olson Family Cookbook admin 5 years agoNovember 18, 2021

The Olson Family Cookbook, Sauris North Dakota; October 28th 1930, Making Candy.

The Olson’s from Sauris, North Dakota, are the family that wrote this cookbook. It obviously has several people who added recipes, commentaries, snippets of weather, saucy comments and overall a wonderful sense of humor from several of them. From a description of the harvest and the people who helped, to a Ode to the Stove; (they replaced the old stove and she wrote a wonderful story and poem in celebration of the long service to the family that it gave) This recipe book shares the love and family history through several generations, through all of the pages of the book. I have had so much fun reading the stories and wishing I spoke Norwegian, some of the recipes are in that language as well as some of the commentaries in the recipes.

Have fun reading these glimpses of a families life at the turn of the Century (1900’s) and maybe making some of these great recipes.

I have added the recipes described in each of the commentaries, at least the ones that made it into the book. Enjoy!

These are the other recipes from this cookbook that I have already posted take a look.

https://kitchenrecipetreasures.com/?s=sauris+north+dakota

Sauris North Dakota 1920’s – 30’s

October 28^th 1930

Making Candy

If you’ve ever made candy, you’ve undoubtedly experienced many sorts of failures before you became efficient. Of course! There are many kinds of failures when making candy, although I know several people who can turn out batch after batch of perfect candy.

The worst kind of misfortune one can have while performing this ticklish job – is burning it. Nobody can eat it, the kettle is difficult to clean, so difficult in fact, that I have personally known people who have the vessel soaking for days, yeah, weeks without favorable results, (the poor dears do not realize that the burnt ingredients must wear out gradually by being constantly used), there (?) an insufferable odor in the house, and the loss in terms of money is great, depending upon the amount of material used. Dogs are known to eat burned candy and do not become ill, so it is advisable to feed it to the dog.

There is the sticky candy, which we say, did not get stiff because we didn’t beat it vigorously enough, or put in too much syrup or milk. This is sooner or later consumed by somebody. It tastes fine, lasts longer because it is not greatly considered, but must be eaten with spoons, and therefore causes extra work for the dishwasher.

Again, we have the sugary candy, it is hard, sometimes too hard, it seems unusually sweet, and often roughens your gums because it is so grimy and coarse.

Yes, there are many more kinds of failures, but time is too short, and paper too valuable to waste in naming them all. A great man once said: “If you don’t succeed at first, try, try again.” So here is a bit of a consolation to failures: Not everyone makes good the first time. Keep on trying, and in the end you will be triumphant. Someone else said: “Der er ingen mester fod.” Surely that needs no explanation.

(Possible translation is; There is no master foot?)

A well-known lady stated that as soon as you find a recipe which you can make well, remember it, and use it and don’t mess around with something you can’t do.

This latter statement contradicts the famous saying first mentioned. You are your own boss, choose and be successful.