Total time: 15 to 30 minutes

Difficulty: Average

The further we look back in time, the younger the age at which women got married. If they reached 25 and were still single they were considered "old maids" and it became increasingly difficult to marry them off. Trying to find a husband was an age-old concern. One day Conrart, the founder of the Académie française, was asked to what age this phenomenon was limited, and he responded with a poem:

After age twenty, a girl prays to God:
"Grant me, O Lord, a comfortable marriage,
A husband gentle, wealthy, generous and kind!"
Then at twenty-five: "Lord, someone I can stand
Or at least a man of whom I'm not ashamed!"
Finally as the passing years make her more desperate,
As she finds herself getting older and nearing thirty:
"Whichever man you want, Lord, and I'll make do."

Tradition says that long ago there was a woman named Catherine who was executed around the year 307 for refusing to marry the Roman Emperor Maxentius. In the 12th century, St. Catherine was named the patron of unmarried women. So on her feast day, November 25, it was customary to expose her statue in all the churches of Paris. The oldest of the marriageable women would place a starched cap on her head, while all the unmarried female workers would wear paper bonnets in their hair. This gave rise to the French saying, common in France and French Canada, "to do St. Catherine's hair," meaning "to remain an old maid." The same custom was found in Brittany and Normandy where the statue was dressed up in the local style.

The tradition was brought to New France with the first settlers, but it is to Marguerite Bourgeois, a teaching sister who was an important figure in the young colony, that we owe "St. Catherine's taffy." To attract the attention of her little aboriginal pupils, she decided to make some taffy. She had opened her first school in Ville-Marie (Montreal) on November 25, and she commemorated the anniversary each year by making taffy so that St. Catherine's day also became known in Quebec as "taffy day." It became customary for marriageable girls to make taffy and give some to all the eligible young men in the area to show off their cooking skill. In English Canada and the US, the sweets became known as "kisses," since whoever kissed the girl would win her heart.

There are numerous recipes for taffy. Some are made with water, others with less butter. There is also brown taffy, a more rustic version, made solely with molasses and brown sugar and no refined sugar. My favourite contains corn syrup, an old recipe from Grandmother Albertine that I'll share with you in confidence. Grandpa, who didn't like the taste of the taffy, though he loved to eat, had his own recipe containing cocoa that he made on the sly. His chocolate taffy was sublime, but he would never reveal his secret.

Ideally, taffy should be made by two people. That way you can pull it to a greater length and twist it up as one person holds it. It can, however, be made by one person, but it takes a bit more time. If the taffy sticks to your buttered hands, sprinkle them with a little flour.

Taffy is usually made with salted butter which gives it a unique flavour and counterbalances the sweetness.