Peanut Brittle

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An essay I made to prove the connection between Greek Mythology, the regions of the World, and Peanut Brittle.


Peanut brittle is a sweet made with melted sugar or corn syrup with water, with peanuts, a leavening agent, and spices, spread out and hardened and cooled before broken into pieces. It is a staple of the American South, and was eaten by confederate soldiers in the Civil War. Peanut brittle is a worldwide candy, and confectioners in the Middle East mix pistachios into their batches, while in Asia, they add sesame seeds along with the peanuts. Peanut brittle is the perfect medium for the various regions of the world to express their cultural tastes, because its simple yet delicious recipe leaves much room to put a regional spin on it.

There are two widely known Folk tales for the invention of peanut brittle:

  • Around 1890, a Southern woman created peanut brittle by mistake. Apparently she was making taffy when she added baking soda instead of cream of tartar. However, not wanting to waste the ingredients, she continued cooking it, resulting in a brittle hard candy. She enjoyed the candy and later found that adding peanuts made it even better.
  • The next tale starts with a lumberjack named Tony Beaver who saved his village. Tony lived in the mountains in the 19th century and stockpiled jumbo sized peanuts- and because Tony was a giant they were the perfect size for him. Then it rained for multiple days and the river began to rise and was going to flood and it was going to destroy the village. So Tony came up with an idea to save the village; he dumped the jumbo sized peanuts and molasses into the river which formed a thick brown mass and when it hardened it stopped the water from rising. The place where the villagers got water was now blocked because of his creation. So Tony broke off a piece of the hardened mass and realized it tasted good, and peanut brittle was born.

In Ancient Greek mythology, Persephone is the goddess of spring, and vegetation(specifically greens). Now you might think that peanuts are not greens, because "they're nuts right?". Wrong. Peanuts are not technically nuts, they are legumes, and are closer related to peas and beans, so peanuts do technically fall under Persephone's domain. One epithet of hers is Kore Soteira, "the savior maiden", symbolizing safety and salvation, deliverance, and preservation from harm. This perfectly ties into the themes of both the peanut brittle origin stories (preservation of food, safety from the flood). As is well known, Persephone is the Goddess of Spring and Nature and a goddess of the underworld, and the seasons are associated with her descent into the underworld (Winter) and her return (causing spring). This is strikingly similar to the life cycle of peanuts themselves. Peanuts grow into a green oval-leafed plant about 18 inches tall. These plants grow yellow flowers about 40 days after planting. After pollination, small stems or "pegs" grow down and away from the plant out of the main stems. These pegs extend to the soil and penetrate it. The peanut embryos are in the tips of the pegs and actually grow horizontally BELOW THE SURFACE of the soil. This cycle of being above ground > being below ground is extremely reminiscent of the living above ground > living in the underworld cycle that Persephone goes through. On the subject of Persephone: In the "Homeric Hymn to Demeter" after Hades abducts Persephone to be his wife, Demeter, her mother, grew extremely depressed and searched for her "all over the earth" which implies all the world's regions. In conclusion, the Ancient Greek Mythos and Peanut brittle are very closely connected, the World Regions and Peanut brittle are closely connected, and Greek Mythology and the World's regions are closely connected.

Sources:


Credited to Crazy_Crayfish_ 

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