Taffy

Taffy starts as a cooked syrup of sugar, corn syrup and butter, with flavors and colors added. The hot mixture is cooled on a marble slab or pan until it can be handled, then stretched and folded again and again. This pulling traps tiny air bubbles, lightening the color and giving the candy its soft, chewy texture. It is then rolled into ropes, cut into bite-size pieces and wrapped in wax paper.

Taffy has been part of American life since the late 1800s. Professional candy makers once hung 10 to 25 pounds of it over hooks to pull by hand, work now done by machines. Saltwater taffy became a boardwalk favorite in Atlantic City, and its name is said to date to an 1883 storm that soaked a shop's stock with seawater.