Saltwater taffy

Cockney_si | 16:23 Mon 21st Apr 2008 | Food & Drink

5 Answers

I've heard this mentioned before in a friends episode and just googled it and looks like expensive salty toffee from the states....

Is it just that?

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effervescenc

"Right off the top - salt water taffy is not made from salt water. You do need some salt and some water to make a batch of taffy, however. But the name "salt water taffy" doesn't come from the ingredients either. No one knows where the name "salt water taffy" came from. The most popular story of origin involves a shopkeeper on the Atlantic City Boardwalk named David Bradley. A tidal surge from a summer storm in 1883 swamped Bradley's store and buried his inventory in sea water. As he was cleaning up the following day a girl walked into his store and asked for a bag of taffy. Bradley was supposed to have sarcastically invited his young customer to help herself to his "salt water taffy." Bradley's mother thought his grumpy remark to be catchy and encouraged him to begin selling his candy as "salt water taffy."

Historians record the first mention of "salt water taffy" in Atlantic City business directories in 1889 so the Bradley story may be apocryphal. The term was never trademarked, however, and whatever its origins it became the accepted way to market taffy.

Just as no one knows who first called the sweet candy "salt water taffy," there is no record of who boiled the first vat of sugar, corn syrup, water, cornstarch, butter and salt to make the first taffy. Taffy is thought to have been a popular confection at country fairs in the Midwest by the 1880s and it was certainly being sold in America's first seaside resort by that time - Atlantic City."