“Fluff duff” is “fancy food” in cowboy language. There is a date dish called “fluff duff” that dates to the early 1900s.
15 January 1908, Grand Rapids (MI) Tribune, pg. 3, col. 6:
Date Fluff-Duff.
Stew a cupful of stoned dates in water until tender, then put through a colander. Mix with a cupful of sugar that has been sifted with a teaspoonful of cream of tartar. Beat the whites of five eggs thoroughly with a pinch of salt, and when perfectly stiff add the yolks of two and whip again. Now mix lightly, a little at a time, with the dates and sugar, and place in a buttered baking dish. Sprinkle over the top one=half cupful finely chopped nuts and bake for 15 minutes. Serve with cream, plain or whipped.
Google Books
Cowboy Lingo
by Ramon Adams
New York: Houghton Mifflin Company
2000
original copyright 1936
Pg. 145:
Fancy food, such as the cowboy heard of being served to people of the cities, he called “throat-ticklin’ grub” or “fancy fluff-duffs.”
Google Books
Western Folklore
1949?
Pg. 139:
fluff duff for any fancy dish…
Talk Like a Cowboy:
A Dictionary of Real Western Lingo for Young Cowboys and Cowgirls
by Elizabeth Feagles
San Antonio, Texas: The Naylor Company
1955
Pg. 41:
FLUFF-DUFFS: Fancy food not found on a chuck wagon. Fluff-duffs include all manner of “lady-cooking” as well as unavailable luxuries. It might mean the 3-layer cake (Pg. 42—ed.) some girl friend bakes for you or the homemade agarita (wild currant) jelly that the ranch owner’s wife put up. Also called THROAT-TICKLING GRUB.
Google Books
Eats: A Folk History of Texas Foods
by Ernestine Sewell and Joyce Gibson Roach
Fort Worth, TX: TCU Press
1992
Pg. 102:
Fluff-duffs fancy food
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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