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Last Desserts

 
Subject: Sweet Tooth
From: Ray
Date: 7/17/2019, 3:46 PM
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com

On 7/16/2019 3:23 PM, Ray wrote:

Uncle P:

While it's been a while since I could come up with anything to request, I will say 
I look in about every day.  A bit depressing that so many late requests are for 
completely obscure recipes from pinpoint places, but "hope springs eternal" 
and you give it your best.

SO: of the many request you have been given, what recipe have you been most 
able to give a recipe, or close one, for?  Restrict this to "dessert" or "sweets" 
recipes?  And maybe this relates to the below:

And if you were--let's say--"terminal," but still up for a last dessert, what would 
you ask to have on your plate?

Ray 

Hello Ray,

Good to hear from you. Your request was a difficult one. I could not think of such a dessert recipe offhand.  However, I finally decided that it would have to be the Hershey's fudge recipe from the back of the Hershey's Cocoa can. During the first year or so of doing this site, I got multiple requests for this recipe. I could not find a recipe posted on the Internet with solid provenance that said it was the one from the Hershey's Cocoa can. Among those with no verifiable provenance, that someone just claimed the source as the Hershey's Cocoa can, I could not find consistency.  The recipes were different, and different requesters of the recipe also described it differently.  Some insisted the can recipe called for cream of tartar; others said it did not. I was not satisfied with the recipes that I was finding for it. Finally, I wrote to the Hershey Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and the good folks there sent me actual photocopies of all of the Hershey's Cocoa labels that have been on the cans. I found that there has never been a fudge recipe on the can itself that called for cream of tartar. There may have been such a recipe in a Hershey's magazine ad or in a Hershey's recipe booklet, but never one on the can. There is a page with links to the recipes that actually have been on the can here: Hershey Fudge

As for my "Last Request" dessert, this highlights one reason that your first question was difficult for me. I am not a dessert person as some folks are. I almost never order dessert in a restaurant. My wife makes desserts occasionally, but I usually just taste them in order to give her my opinion rather than having dessert as the end of a meal. As a result, few of the dessert searches that I have done have stuck in my mind. I do like some dessert dishes - ice cream, egg custard, creme brulee, and sweet potato pie come to mind. My Mom once made a Key Lime Pie that called for a regular pie crust instead of a graham cracker crust, and it was delicious. She lost the recipe and could never find it again or recall where she got it. There are other such recipes, but none of them has been right. I suppose that if it were my "Last Dessert", I would choose Southern peach cobbler, warm from the oven, perhaps with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I have a weakness for warm peach cobbler. Recipes: Peach Cobbler Recipes

Phaed