|
|
Home Page | Message Boards | News | Archive | Ask Cecil | Books | Buy Stuff | Cecil Who? ]
Dear Cecil:
What does Alice B. Toklas have to do with Alice B. Toklas brownies,
anyway? --Judy Prisoc, Chicago
Dear Judy:
About as much as she had to do with The Autobiography of Alice B.
Toklas--which is to say, not much. The 1933 "autobiography" was
actually written by Gertrude Stein, Toklas's lifelong companion and
one of the legendary figures of the Parisian literary scene in the
first half of the twentieth century. Similarly, the recipe for
marijuana-laced brownies (actually it was a brownielike hashish
fudge) that appeared in the 1954 Alice B. Toklas Cook Book wasn't
Toklas's own but rather that of a wiseacre painter friend named
Brion Gysin.
It all started when Alice signed a contract with Harper's to write
a cookbook in 1952. She was a pretty fair cook, but what Harper
really hoped to get (and what by and large it got) was not so much
recipes but tales of her life with Gertrude Stein, who had died in
1946.
With the deadline only a few months away, Toklas, then in her
mid-70s, found herself half a book shy. So she began soliciting
recipes from her artsy friends. Gysin came up with "Haschich Fudge,
which anyone could whip up on a rainy day." By way of introduction
he gushed, "This is the food of Paradise.... it might provide an
entertaining refreshment for a Ladies' Bridge Club or a chapter
meeting of the DAR.... Euphoria and brilliant storms of laughter;
ecstatic reveries and extensions of one's personality on several
simultaneous planes are to be complacently expected. Almost
anything Saint Theresa did, you can do better." The active
ingredient in the fudge was what Gysin called "canibus sativa,"
more familiarly known as marijuana.
Alice, unfamiliar with "canibus" (at least as spelled by Gysin) and
lacking the time to test the recipes, stuck her friend's
contribution into her manuscript and sent it off to the publisher.
The editors at Harper's spotted the suspicious ingredient and held
the recipe out, but the publisher of the British edition didn't.
The press promptly went nuts. Tittered Time: "The late Poetess
Gertrude (Tender Buttons) Stein and her constant companion and
autobiographee, Alice B. Toklas, used to have gay old times
together in the kitchen. Some of the unique delicacies that were
whipped up will soon be cataloged ... in a wildly epicurean tome
... which is already causing excited talk on both sides of the
Atlantic. Perhaps the most gone concoction (and also possibly a
clue to some of Gertrude's less earthly lines) was her hashish
fudge."
Alice, a believer to the end in her friend's genius, was incensed
that anyone should think it was artificially fueled. Still, as her
friend Thorton Wilder told her, the recipe was the publicity stunt
of the year and the expurgated American version of the cookbook
received wide and generally respectful notice. Just so you can see
what all the fuss was about, here's the recipe:
"Take 1 teaspoon black peppercorns, 1 whole nutmeg, 4 average
sticks of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon coriander. These should all be
pulverized in a mortar. About a handful each of stone dates, dried
figs, shelled almonds and peanuts: chop these and mix them
together. A bunch of canibus sativa can be pulverized. This along
with the spices should be dusted over the mixed fruit and nuts,
kneaded together. About a cup of sugar dissolved in a big pat of
butter. Rolled into a cake and cut into pieces or made into balls
about the size of a walnut, it should be eaten with care. Two
pieces are quite sufficient. Obtaining the canibus may present
certain difficulties.... It should be picked and dried as soon as
it has gone to seed and while the plant is still green."
Cecil must sternly advise that you shouldn't try this at home. If
you do anyway, at least you won't have to worry about the munchies.
--CECIL ADAMS
The Straight Dope / Questions or
comments for Cecil Adams to: cecil@chicagoreader.com
Comments regarding this website to: webmaster@straightdope.com
Copyright © 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 Chicago Reader, Inc. All rights reserved.
No material contained in this site may be republished or reposted without express written
permission.
The Straight Dope is a registered trademark of Chicago
Reader, Inc.