Horehound Candy
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the horehound
Place the horehound in a jug and pour boiling water over it. Cover until cool.
Drain the water from the horehound and add it to the sugar.
Make the candy
Break the lump sugar into small pieces and place it in a preserving pan.
Boil the mixture over a brisk charcoal fire until it bubbles through a skimmer.
Rub the back of a wooden spoon against the inside of the pan as the sugar thickens.
Mix everything together and pour it onto a marble slab greased with sweet oil before it sets.
Finish and store
Once cool, break the candy into pieces and store in a drawer or canister.
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
- Horehound
- Provides the bitter herbal flavour that defines the candy.
- Lump sugar
- Forms the candy base and sets firm as the syrup cools.
- Sweet oil
- Greases the slab so the candy releases cleanly when set.
The step that matters
Boiling the sugar mixture. Sugar syrup must reach a high enough temperature to set into a hard candy when cooled. Boiling until bubbles hold on a skimmer indicates the syrup is concentrated enough, and pouring too early leaves a sticky candy that will not hold its shape.
“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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