Gum Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the gum
Wash the gum-tragacanth in water to remove dust.
Place it in a clean pot and cover with water, stirring frequently.
Let it dissolve for 24 hours.
Squeeze the mixture through a coarse cloth.
Work in the sugar and store
In a mortar, gradually add the sifted sugar and work until smooth and white.
Store in a glazed pot, covered with a damp cloth, and inverted to exclude air.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Gum-tragacanth
- Swells and dissolves in water to form a stiff, elastic paste that gives the gum paste its structure.
- Treble-refined sugar
- Adds sweetness and bulk, stiffening the paste so it can be shaped and dries firm.
The step that matters
Working in the sugar. Sugar must be added gradually and worked in fully. Adding too much at once can leave lumps or a paste that is too stiff to knead smoothly, while adding too little leaves it soft and sticky.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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