The dictionary defines an ode as a lyric poem of a serious, exalted or meditative nature with an elevated style. A famous one is John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn” that begins, “Thou still unravish’d bride of quietness! Thou foster-child of silence and slow time . . . “
Surely chocolate must have been the ambrosia of the Greek gods just as champagne was their nectar. I try to write to a good standard of English. However, any poem that I attempt to write is pure doggerel. The best I can do is to ape my betters: “O thou still unopened box of chocolates . . .” The Aztecs believed that chocolate represented the god of wisdom and was an aphrodisiac. Columbus and Cortez encountered it. Once they learned to add sugar to it, hot chocolate became the rage in Europe.
One of the most delectable desserts I’ve ever eaten was at a tiny restaurant in a village in the Champagne region of France. It was a chocolate pie with a layer of chocolate filling on the bottom, then a layer of orange marmalade then another layer of chocolate. When we were in Paris grandboys Tony and Chris became addicted to pain au chocolat, a bread roll with a slab of chocolate in its center that’s served at breakfast. They pouted when there wasn’t any left at the bakery.
Oh yum of yums! Chocolate truffles, cake, cookies, pie, cocoa, brownies, éclairs, ice cream, pudding, Hershey bars, Fannie Mae chocolates, fudge, Oreos, M & M’s, liqueurs and even Mexican chicken mole cooked with chocolate . . . and surely one of the most delectable is Reese’s’ Peanut Butter Cups! While he was here for Christmas, Grandson Tony made a batch of peanut butter cookies with a little Reese’s Peanut Butter cup in the center.
I could paraphrase Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet: “How do I love thee, chocolate chip cookie? Let me count the ways . . . “ Chocolate chip cookies, a.k.a. Toll House cookies, are undoubtedly the favorite cookies of Americans. Vicki and I made a variety of cookies for Christmas. Did they eat them? They did not. Instead they complained when the chocolate chips ran out.
I use only Nestlé’s semisweet morsels for my cookies. Also, I add a little water to the dough so that the cookies are thinner and crispier. There’s a synopsis of their history on the package, but I went to the Internet to find out more.
Ruth Wakefield and her husband bought an old house in Massachusetts. As a marketing gimmick, they said that the house was 200 years old, even though it was only a hundred years old. They named it The Toll House Inn although there never was a toll house there.
Ruth cooked all the food and became famous for her desserts. One day she cut up chunks of a semi-sweet Nestle chocolate bar and put them in her butter cookie recipe. In 1939 Nestle added her recipe to the chocolate bar’s package in exchange for a lifetime supply of chocolate. At first they even included a little tool with which to chop the chocolate. In 1941 they invented the chip or morsel form.
Thank goodness some good things remain unchanged. The package of morsels that we bought for this past Christmas cookies still says Nestle’s Toll House Semi-sweet Morsels with the announcement, “Celebrating 75 Years.” There’s even a drawing of the Toll House Inn on the package.
I intend to try to find a copy of the cookbook that Ruth wrote — Toll House Tried and True Recipes — that went through 30 printings. She died in 1977, and the inn burned down on New Year’s Eve of 1988. However, even though few probably know who she was and the story of her scrumptious cookies, she concocted something that has delighted millions. That’s not a shabby legacy, is it? wclarke@comcast.net