The Other Origin of Pecan Pralines
In Texas a tradition of open air vending of pecan candies—sometimes characterized as “dulces Mexicanos de nueces”—was a broadly recognized foodway of San Antonio. When these sweets were first concocted has never been determined. The earliest description of these sweet sellers date from the post-Civil War era. By 1880 they had become such a signature of San Antonio market culture that novels such as Maurice Egan’s The Man from Texas (1880), used the pecan seller as a local color cliche: “Just beyond the adobe house is an arching group of bananas, under which a dark-skinned Mexican, in sombrero and gay blanket, is selling the pecan candy which is so common an article of merchandise.” Because the pecan is native to Texas, Louisiana, and parts of the Mississippi Valley, the Mexican nativity of this candy presumably dates from that era prior to the independence of Texas, when the territory was part of the northern territory of Mexico.
There are pumpkin seed confections that might serve as models for the crafting of a pecan candy. The simple Mexican candy, Palanquetas de pepita, a combination of sugar and pumpkin seeds, is perhaps the most probable antecedent. Nevertheless, it employs refined sugar, not a common commodity in the Texas territory in the first five decads of the 19th century. While sugar cones appeared in groceries and tiendas in the antebellum period, molasses was much more common, particularly among the Hispanic population, that group that baked and sold street candy. Pulled molasses candies, such as Charleston’s ground nut cake, sold briskly until WW1 in the South. Yet there is little doubt that from the 1860s onward the pecan candies sold on the streets of Texas Cities by Hispanic vendors the pecan equivalent of Palanquetas de pepita, a kind of brittle made of pecans and sugar. As a June30, 1886 vistor reported in sketch of “The Lone Star State” in the Texas Siftings newspaper,
If brittle was the texture of the first pecan candies in San Antonio, it was quickly supplemented with more elaborate manifestations, employing cream, vanilla flavoring, spice, and lemon juice.
The Dulces de nueces were home cooked in the 19th century. Indeed the pecans were foraged from the stands of Native pecan growing around the city. They were shelled (not the easiest of tasks, since these were not paper-shelled), extracted, washed, parched, and incorporated into a slurry molten can syrup. If the home confectioner sought to distinguished her product from those of competitors in the city, the additional ingredients were added. These fancier creations caught the attention of G. A. Duerler, San Antonio’s candy manufacturer. Duerler Candies, founded in 1867, began as a retail concern, distributing stick and hard candies manufactured in the East throughout the Southwest. In the 1870s he realized he would profit more as a manufacturer and wholesaler, leaving the retail trade to others. Erecting a candy factory in San Antonio, he manufactured the classic eastern sugar-based candies, but noticed that local taste tended much toward the Dulce de nueces. He noted the abundance of pecan trees in the vicinity and reckoned that the chief obstacle to making them himself was shelling the pecans. So in the 1880s he devoted himself to the invention of shelling mechanisms that could process mass quantities of pecan nut meats. By the end of the 19th century he had become the greatest exporter of shelled pecans in the United States, and maker of pecan candies. {“Candy Company Founder Says Loyal Employees Helped Build Business,” San Antonio Evening News (November 24, 1924), 9 ]. He sold slabs of brittle and patties of pralene.
If my memory is correct, San Antonio was also the place that became famous for street vendors, women for the most part, selling tacos or maybe enchiladas or both, and that this became a feature in San Antonio's presence at the Chicago World's Fair. but what gave San Antonio such a strong culinary presence? Isn't there a book in this? Or has it already been written?