America’s sweet tooth did not appear with the advent of refined sugar. Antebellum Charleston was known for its sweet treats. “Monkey meat” was one of Charleston’s forgotten old school candies which probably emerged on our city streets in the 1830s. The sweet-tasting, figgy-textured monkey meat was usually made as small patties from molasses and brown cane sugar blended together, albeit in different proportions.
Tiny, sweet, ground-up Carolina African Runner peanuts, the tiniest bit of vinegar or citrus juice, and coconut were then incorporated into the mixture. After Emancipation, the selling of sweets on the streets of Charleston became an opportunity to earn a small but respectable living.
For more on the lost recipes from the Civil War era read my historical fiction novel “Will O’ the Wisp: Madness, War, and Recompense.”
