Criccieth – Toffee Evenings.

Description

Making toffee, particularly over Christmas and the New Year, was a special treat all over Wales and of course, in Eifionyd. It was an enjoyable event and get together and still carried out, to a lesser degree today. In 1897 an article in the publication “Y Llan” describes thus “, "Some fifty years ago, a lot of girls gathered together in the outskirts of a village in Eifionydd to make "Plum Pudding" and toffee. After mixing the pudding, Begw Huws, in her apron, was in charge and it was a great trouble to boil, the others preparing the toffee . She and the others kept at the stove all night long; but alas, the young men had got wind of the booty, and they went to the top of the chimney, throwing soot down into the pot and that was the fate of Begw Huws’s pudding. Too bad, wasn't it?” The sessions were secret but an anecdote from Criccieth tells that some young men heard that a toffee evening was happening at a certain cottage; They dropped a live chicken down the chimney causing chaos!
Another article mentions: "Usually it would start at around eleven o'clock with pouring the molasses and butter into the pot. Not infrequently there would be uncertainty on the question; how much to give of this and that, but usually someone would be quite definite on the subject. Each took his or hers turn stirring the mixture and were not happy if they heard the spoon touching the bottom of the pot. Everyone would be ready with their story about someone or the other. Having finished boiling the pot and the company had all rolled up their sleeves and washed clean, the hot mixture was poured onto a blue slate smeared with butter to set then everyone began the work of ‘pulling the toffee’. The more work on this would give the best result if we were to believe the opinion of the experienced ones. The young men would also get together for toffee evenings and the late Henry Jones (Hari Bach) and Owen E.Owen Pen-y-bryn farm, in Criccieth wrote about them in their autobiographies. Owen remembered, 'I have a vivid memory of the recipe being fairly simple, a pound of sugar, a pound of butter and a pound of treacle. The main thing we wanted was to eat it, and we didn't have the time to wait for it to cool. So what we would do would be to pour it slowly into buckets of cold water, and then watch it curl and harden into thin strands ready to eat.

Sources:
Y Llan - 1 Ionawr 1897
Cylchgronau Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru
Henry Jones – Straeon Hari Bach
Owen E. Owen – Doctor Pen-y-Bryn