Allergen & Batch Notes

The Shared Kettle Truth

Our kitchen is small, our kettles are shared, and our sweets tell the truth about it. Every confection in the showcase is made in a kitchen where the following are always present:

• Tree nuts, chiefly pecans — cracked by hand at the same bench where every batch is pulled.
• Milk and butter — the backbone of brittle, pralines, toffee, and the soft pull of pillow mints.
• Soy lecithin — used in the toffee and caramel batches for a smooth pour.
• Coconut oil — in the smoked-salt caramels.
• Wheat flour — dusted on the marble slabs where brittle cools.

If someone on your gift list keeps strict avoidances for reasons of allergy or conviction, please read the next sections and then write to us before you order. We will read the batch ledger together, out loud, the way we would for family.

Small-Batch Variation

Copper-kettle candy keeps its own calendar. Sorghum runs darker or lighter with the mill, maple deepens with the season, and October humidity decides whether the honeycomb rises like a cathedral or settles like a cottage. Colors shift batch to batch, textures soften and tighten, and every tin carries a hand-numbered slip so you know exactly which pull it came from. That variation is the signature of the handmade, and we would not sand it off for anything.

Keeping Your Sweets

• Keep every tin sealed tight once it is opened — brittle listens for damp air the way a farmer listens for rain.
• Store tins on a cool shelf, well away from the stove and the sunny windowsill.
• Honeycomb is at its best within two weeks; taffy and brittle hold their character for three.
• Pillow mints improve for a day in the tin, then hold their soft bite for a fortnight.
• If taffy firms in a cold house, a few minutes near (never on) a warm stove softens it back.

Ask Before You Gift

When a question of ingredient or cross-contact matters to someone you love, write to pecanhollow.confections@gmail.com before the tin is tied. We answer every such letter personally and plainly, and we would rather walk you through the ledger than let a guess stand in for the truth.

Our sweets are made for celebration and memory. Every honest question deserves a straight answer and a full reading of the batch ledger.

When These Notes Were Last Read

We re-read this page against the kitchen bench each season, and we post the date of the last reading below.

Last reviewed — June 2, 2026