Delighted by campers for decades, the s’more is about the simplest construction of simple sweets you could ever think to combine. So, it would seem to be a poor use of time and letters to go into its heritage, or how it got its name.
Truthfully, when I read that the name s’more was first annotated in the early 1920′s Girl Scout camping cook book, where it was listed as a ”Some More,” I had two thoughts, 1) before it had been turned into a contraction this sweet little sandwich treat had a really lame name, and 2) I really don’t have a natural curiosity for such things. I mean, I never seem to wonder things like, Who do you suppose made the first peanut butter and jelly sandwich? or I wonder how people figured out how to breed a Basset Hound. And I never, in over 30 years of eating them, wondered why they are called s’mores.
S’more Ingredients
Still, I certainly have mastered the hell out of making them! I know that’s nothing to really brag on. Unless you were completely shut in as a kid, or grew up in either New York City or San Francisco, you can likely slap together a s’more with the best of them. The ingredients are universally the same, though, it’s chocolate bars, marshmallows, graham crackers and a camp fire. Of course, there are qualifying variations that can be toyed with. Milk or dark chocolate; cinnamon or plain grahams; I suppose you could even experiment with a chocolate marshmallow. There’s one thing you should never vary, however, and that’s the method of heating the mallow. It’s gotta be flames! No roasting marshmallows over a the stove, either! Unless you’re snowed in, or you’re trying to counter your kids’ rainy day blues, kitchen burner mallow roasting is just not awesome.
Little Red Campfire
You can make a simple back yard camp fire, or you can throw a quick Dura-Log into the fire-place. But in the hot Summer months of Florida, one of these little things really comes in handy! It’s The Little Red Campfire, and it runs on propane, so it doesn’t give off a bunch of heat, but it still gives off all the ambience you need for roasting marshmallows. Love this thing!
Just be sure to get that mallow nice and hot, because it has to melt the chocolate that’s already on the graham. Stick that bad boy right there on top of the chocolate, and then close that puppy up tightly with the other graham so that the skewer, fork or stick slides right out. When they’re done right, a s’more isn’t even messy. More than two, though, and boy that belly really can start to talk back at ya, so be careful.
See you Saturday for National Raspberry Bombe Day!
