Leo Hirschfield | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Austria |
| Died | January 13, 1922 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Confectioner, businessman |
| Known for | Tootsie Roll, Bromangelon |
| Website | www |
Leo Hirschfield was an Austrian-American candymaker known as the inventor of the Tootsie Roll, the first individually wrapped penny candy, [1] and Bromangelon, the first commercially successful gelatin dessert mix, which preceded Jell-O by two years. [2] [3]
Hirschfield was an Austrian Jewish immigrant to the United States of America, [4] the son of an Austrian candy maker. [5]
In 1895, Hirschfield created Bromangelon, the first commercially successful gelatin dessert mix. [3] [2]
Details of his early career are disputed. The more common version has him starting a candy shop in Brooklyn that later merged with Stern & Saalberg. Another version has him starting at the factory and rising to a senior development position. [6] According to the Tootsie Industries' official company history, he started his own career in the candy business at a small shop or factory in New York City in 1896. [5] However, this version of events, which is repeated in sources such as the Cleveland Jewish News, [4] is disputed by Rutgers University Professor Emerita Samira Kawash, who addressed the conflicting origins of the candy on her blog Candy Professor. [6] [7] Citing a 1913 Pittsburgh Press interview, [7] [8] Kawash states that Hirschfield worked for Stern & Staalberg before moving to Manhattan in the early 1890s. He invented the candy in 1907, [7] and named it after his then-5-year-old daughter Clara, whose nickname was "Tootsie." [7] [5] [9] That same year, he applied for a patent Tootsie Rolls, citing its unique texture, and was awarded one in 1908. In 1909 Stern & Staalberg began marketing the candy. Based on the available evidence, Kawash concluded that the notion that the candy had been created in 1896 in Hirschfeld's Brooklyn store was a myth. In addition, Kawash points out that Tootsie was also the name of the child spokesperson for Bromangelon, leading Kawash to surmise that while the Tootsie Roll may have been "christened" in Clara's honor, she had been the namesake for something that had preceded it. [7]
Before the adoption of modern refrigeration technology, candy sellers would spend hot summers selling candy that did not easily melt, such as taffy and marshmallows. This precluded chocolate, which melts easily. Since Tootsie had a nominally chocolate taste, it was a first for summer candies. Its patent describes that the moderately hard texture of Tootsie — in contrast to the light, porous texture of other pulled candies — was achieved by baking it at a low temperature for about two hours, giving it "a peculiar mellow consistency" that maintained its shape and did not melt. [10] It was the first penny candy to be individually wrapped, [1] [11] and its low price led to its remarkable growth, making it a Depression-era favorite. During World War II, when the need for shipping food that did not spoil quickly to battlefront soldiers prompted considerable development in the field of processed food, Tootsie Rolls, which stayed fresh for a long period of time, became part of soldiers' ration packs, further solidifying Americans' love for the candy. [10] [11]
Hirschfield left the company in 1922, shortly before his death. [4]
By early 1922, Hirschfield was wealthy, and his businesses were doing well. However, he was despondent over his long illness and his wife's mental breakdown, which left her committed in a sanitarium. On January 13, 1922, while staying at the Hotel Monterey in New York City, he took a revolver and intentionally killed himself via a gunshot to the head. He left a note stating that he was "sorry, but could not help it." He was declared dead at Knickerbocker Hospital. He was survived by his daughter, who was married to an Arthur Ludwig. [12] [13]
Gelatin or gelatine is a translucent, colorless, flavorless food ingredient, commonly derived from collagen taken from animal body parts. It is brittle when dry and rubbery when moist. It may also be referred to as hydrolyzed collagen, collagen hydrolysate, gelatine hydrolysate, hydrolyzed gelatine, and collagen peptides after it has undergone hydrolysis. It is commonly used as a gelling agent in food, beverages, medications, drug or vitamin capsules, photographic films, papers, and cosmetics.
Gelatin desserts are desserts made with a sweetened and flavoured processed collagen product (gelatin), which makes the dessert "set" from a liquid to a soft elastic solid gel. This kind of dessert was first recorded as "jelly" by Hannah Glasse in her 18th-century book The Art of Cookery, appearing in a layer of trifle. Jelly recipes are included in the 19th-century cookbooks of English food writers Eliza Acton and Mrs Beeton.
Jell-O is an American brand offering a variety of powdered gelatin dessert, pudding, and no-bake cream pie mixes. The original gelatin dessert is the signature of the brand. "Jell-O" is a registered trademark of Kraft Heinz, and is based in Chicago, Illinois.
Candy, alternatively called sweets or lollies, is a confection that features sugar as a principal ingredient. The category, also called sugar confectionery, encompasses any sweet confection, including chocolate, chewing gum, and sugar candy. Vegetables, fruit, or nuts which have been glazed and coated with sugar are said to be candied.
Marshmallow is a confectionery made from sugar, water and gelatin whipped to a solid-but-soft consistency. It is used as a filling in baking or molded into shapes and coated with corn starch. This sugar confection is inspired by a medicinal confection made from Althaea officinalis, the marsh-mallow plant.
Candy corn is a small, pyramid-shaped candy, typically divided into three sections of different colors, with a waxy texture and a flavor based on honey, sugar, butter, and vanilla. It is a staple candy of the fall season and Halloween in North America.
Gummy bears are small, fruit gum candies, similar to a jelly baby in some English-speaking countries. The candy is roughly 2 cm (0.8 in) long and shaped in the form of a bear. The gummy bear is one of many gummies, popular gelatin-based candies sold in a variety of shapes and colors by various brands such as Haribo.
Cotton candy, also known as candy floss (candyfloss) and fairy floss, is a spun sugar confection that resembles cotton. It is made by heating and liquefying sugar, and spinning it centrifugally through minute holes, causing it to rapidly cool and re-solidify into fine strands. It usually contains small amounts of flavoring or food coloring.
Tootsie Roll Industries is an American manufacturer of confectionery based in Chicago, Illinois. Its best-known products include the namesake Tootsie Rolls and Tootsie Pops. Tootsie Roll Industries currently markets its brands internationally in Canada, Mexico, and over 75 other countries.
Fruit Roll-Ups is a brand of snack that debuted in grocery stores across America in 1983. It is a flat, corn syrup-based, fruit-flavored snack rolled into a tube, spread on a backing sheet of cellophane to prevent the product from sticking to itself.
Andes Chocolate Mints are small rectangular candies. The crème de menthe variety consists of one mint-green layer sandwiched in between two cocoa based chocolate flavored layers. The candies are usually wrapped in green foil and imprinted with the company's logo, the word Andes written amidst a drawing of snow-capped peaks. First launched in 1950, they are produced by Tootsie Roll Industries and made in Delavan, Wisconsin.
A fruit snack is a type of gummy snack made with fruit flavoring and natural gelatin. They were first made by confectioner Louis Shalhoub in the 1970s as a lightweight high energy snack food for backpackers. Although they are often marketed as a healthier alternative to regular gummy candies, the veracity of these claims is disputed, as fruit snacks typically contain fruit flavoring instead of actual fruit.
Charleston Chew is a candy bar consisting of marshmallow flavored nougat covered in chocolate flavor coating. It was created in 1922 by the Fox-Cross Candy Company, founded by stage actor Donley Cross and his friend Charlie Fox. The candy was named after the Charleston, a popular dance at that time.
A Tootsie Pop is a hard candy lollipop filled with a chocolate-flavored chewy Tootsie Roll candy. They were invented in 1931 by an employee of The Sweets Company of America. Tootsie Rolls had themselves been invented in 1896 by Leo Hirschfield. The company changed its name to Tootsie Roll Industries in 1969. The candy made its debut in 1931 and since then various flavors have been introduced. The idea came to be when a man who worked at The Sweets Company of America licked his daughter's lollipop at the same time he was chewing his Tootsie Roll. He loved the idea and pitched it to everyone at the next snack ideas meeting.
Sugar Babies are bite-sized, pan-coated, chewy milk caramel sweets which are relatively soft to chew. Tootsie describes them as “slow-cooked, candy-coated milk caramels” marketed as movie-theater candy.
Tootsie Roll is a chocolate taffy candy that has been manufactured in the United States since 1907. The candy has qualities similar to both caramels and taffy without being exactly either confection. The manufacturer, Tootsie Roll Industries, is based in Chicago, Illinois. It was the first penny candy to be individually wrapped in America.
The Idaho Candy Company is a candy manufacturer in Boise, Idaho, United States. They are best known for the Idaho Spud bar, which has a cult following in the Northwestern United States. The company has been making the popular bar of marshmallow filling covered in chocolate and coconut since 1918. Though many historic candy makers have since gone out of business, in past decades, the Idaho Candy Company competed with other local producers like the Idaho Russet made by the Dainty Maid company and another "Spud Bar" from Utah made by Ostler Candy.
Candy making or candymaking is the preparation and cookery of candies and sugar confections. Candy making includes the preparation of many various candies, such as hard candies, jelly beans, gumdrops, taffy, liquorice, cotton candy, chocolates and chocolate truffles, dragées, fudge, caramel candy, and toffee.
Melvin J. Gordon was an American business executive and businessman. He served as the chairman and CEO of Tootsie Roll Industries for fifty-three years, from 1962 until January 2015. Gordon, who was 95 years old, was the oldest CEO of a company trading on a major American stock exchange at the time of his death in 2015. He oversaw the day-to-day production of the company's trademark brands, including Tootsie Rolls, Tootsie Pops, Junior Mints, and Charleston Chews. As of 2015, the company manufactures approximately sixty-four million Tootsie Rolls per day.
Bromangelon was a gelatin dessert popular in the late 19th century and early 20th century. It was invented around 1895 by Leo Hirschfeld, who would later invent the Tootsie Roll. Bromangelon is regarded as the first commercially successful gelatin dessert powder, having been mass-marketed several years before Jell-O, which would eventually drive Bromangelon off the market.
