Humbug Cutter
Display: Sweet Inventions
Culinary Technique: forming
Date: c. 1890
Manufacturer: Thomas Mills and Brother Company
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Dimensions: 11.5" h x 12" w x 12.5" d
Watch collection donor Mel Mickevic demonstrate this object with
Dean Christopher
Koetke, School of Culinary Arts, Kendall College,
and Victoria Matranga, exhibition curator.
Hot candy rope was fed into this machine, which cut uniform pieces of a twisted trapezoidal shape known to the trade as humbugs, peach blossoms, or American cuts. Note the two pairs of sharp vertical and horizontal wheels that intersect to form and cut the candy. This rare machine is among the few that remain in existence today.