n°2 october 2019
Halloween is not just about pumpkins. Apples are also a major Halloween hit, thanks to their dark and sinister legacy. From Genesis to the Brothers Grimm, from Zeus banquet on Mount Olympus to the garden of the Hesperides, apples have always been an ambiguous delight. A temptation that we know to be dangerous but we still always fall for, even more so at Halloween. Once upon a time, a grocer had invented a Christmas recipe of red cinnamon candy. Unfortunately, business was slow because his shop was a little more than a small room, with only one small window overlooking a secondary road in Newark. One day, while walking by the stall of a gardener, he was struck by the beauty of a basket of shiny red apples and he decided to use them as a promotion for his new candies. He went back to his shop with an armful of apples, prepared the liquid caramel, stuck a stick in each apple and dipped them in the liquid. In no time the shiny and enticing red caramel apples were on display on the windowsill, winking and luring clients. Within a few days, the Candy Apple Mania started. Then on the next year, red candy apples were sold on all street corners to the delight of the less and less depressed Mr. Kolb who, despite
not being rich (the first apples were actually sold for only 5 cents), enters by right in the list of benefactors of humanity, for the invention of a real delight, for the palate and for the eyes. The caramelized apple, originally born as a Christmas candy quickly became one of the symbols of Halloween. It is aided by the favor of the calendar (at the end of October, apples are at their best), by the lust and sinful allusions of the red color and flavor - sweet at the first, pungent later, which makes its ambiguity stand out. The origin of candied apples in the West is a historical fact. Mr. Kolb did exist and so did is candied apples. However, most likely, he was not the first. As a matter of fact, in China (as well as in all Chinese communities outside China) it is customary during the period preceding the Chinese New Year, to prepare and sell “bing tanghulu”. It is hard caramelcoated fruit skewers similar to small apples (actually they are berries of the hawthorn family, that looks like our small annurca apples). The recipe dates back to the Middle Ages, during the Song dynasty, when China began sending
22 MAG about FOOD