RECIPE: Pecan Pralines

(From late 1800’s New Orleans Godchaux Sugar Cookbook)

3 cups white sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
1½ cups water
Pinch of salt
3 cups of pecan boken pecan pieces e (pecan halves if you prefer)
2 Tablespoons butter or margarine
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:
Place sugars, water & salt in large heavy pot (cast iron or stainless steel)
Bring to boil over medium heat, when sugars are dissolved, add pecans and turn heat down lower until mixture is gently simmering.

Simmer until “mixture grains when a silver spoon is rubbed against the side of the pot.” This will take a while… 40-45 mins at least. (I usally fold a load of clothers, practice piano, check my email, etc.….)

Remove from heat, add margarine and vanilla. Stir mixture until it begins to adhere to the pecans. (I can hear when the mixture begins to grain while I am stirring it.) Then, quickly drop by spoonfuls onto waxed paper. Let pralines cool completely before trying to remove from waxed paper.

There are no failures with these pralines… if you cook them too long and they harden before getting them all out of the pot, add a little water and reheat. If mixture never grains or adheres to the nuts… put it back on the fire and cook some more. Once you get the hang of ït” you will know what to do.

NEVER EVER try to substitute molasses for the brown sugar. It WILL NOT work!

These pralines have no milk, buttermilk, etc. in them. They taste just like the pralines, my parents use to buy for me in the New Orleans French Quarter back in the 1940’s.

Georgia F. Huckabay

Note from Georgia:

The praline recipe came out of a Godchaux Sugar paperback cookbook... like the ones they use to give out in the grocery stores or somewhere. It came out of a box of old books and papers from a very elderly woman... she died back when I was in grade 5 or 6, and my mother and the Eastern Star ladies were the only ones left to clean her house and dispose of her items after her funeral. She had no family... I came upon the cookbook and kept it..