RECENTLY . . .
By Valarie Schwartz
Bill Friday started a Christmas tradition in 1986 after retiring from 30 years as president of the UNC system. A decade or so later, local publications started writing about his December avocation – making peanut brittle.
Thus begins an annual story about an annual gift that Bill Friday provides our community.
As has long been the Friday tradition, holiday gift-making is a family affair – everyone present has a job.
All ingredients and materials are on hand before he begins, laid out on appropriate sides of the range. The three-basin sink stands ready with one basin filled with warm soapy water and the tap dripping water at the correct temperature; the marble slab has been well-buttered, and two 12-inch cast iron skillets – key instruments – are on the stove.
This brittle is really about the peanuts. They must be fresh, raw – not blanched or roasted – and shelled with husks still on. The Fridays prefer those from the A&B Milling Company of Enfield, N.C., which come in a cloth bag. They use two-and-a-half cups in each batch.
“Unlike most, theirs is more peanuts than brittle,†wrote Jean Anderson of Chapel Hill in her 2007 A Love Affair with Southern Cooking, in which she included the recipe, courtesy of Ida Friday’s South Carolina family.
LaVerne Candelori, who works with the family, has been part of the production line since 1997. Others required to finish the job know their responsibilities: Daughter Mary Leadbetter, in town from Singapore, monitors the brittle and when it’s ready, wipes off the butter, cracks it into pieces and places it in plastic bags; daughter Fran Mullen wraps and decorates the packages; wife, Ida, reads The Carrboro Citizen when not needed as taster.
When Bill was president, Ida and their three daughters (their youngest, Betsy, who adored the holiday season, died in 2002) made two other family recipes every year: fruitcake and pulled mints (taffy). The girls grew up in the president’s mansion, where the holidays were filled with baking and candy-making – when they weren’t helping decorate the house, as Mary and Fran were this day when not needed in the kitchen.
“I always assumed that giving a homemade gift at Christmas time was a Southern tradition,†Mary said.
Now it’s Bill’s time to run the homemade gift-giving, which includes providing batches to local nonprofits with requests for an auction item.
LaVerne starts each batch by cooking the sugar, corn syrup and water until the sugar dissolves, then adding the peanuts just before moving the skillet over to Bill, who completes the cooking process while LaVerne prepares to start the next batch.
Two hours from start to finish, Bill placed the skillet from the final batch into the suds and began wiping down the stove top. “If it hardens on the stove it’s a real mess,†Friday says as he erases every dribble.
Only those who have attempted to make peanut brittle know the art form required to accomplish it successfully every time. Bill waits for the colors of each stage and prompts neophytes to “use your eyes. Can you see how the peanuts have softened? Watch that color,†he says as the peanuts change from white to golden under his constant stirring. Then, as he adds the baking soda at the end and it bubbles up blonde and frothy, he knows it’s ready to be poured onto the marble.
He also knows his limit: five batches a day, which he plans to repeat 20 more times this year.
Two of the batches made on the day after Thanksgiving will be available at the Orange County Rape Crisis Center Annual Auction on Sunday beginning at 5 p.m. at the Chapel Hill Sheraton, hosted by Patti Thorp with Chancellor Holden Thorp on the keyboards with the jazz and blues band Equinox. See OCRCC.org for tickets.
Contact Valarie Schwartz at 923-3746 or valariekays@mac.com
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Friday Holiday Tradition: That’s my daughter you mentioned in this great article, LaVerne Candelori. She is part of the Friday family and has been for years now. She also helps Dr. Friday with the fruitcake baking. I am proud of her.