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Dessert

Blow Candy

A hard candy made by pulling sugar syrup and blowing air into it to create a hollow tube.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Blow Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the candy base

  1. In a copper pan, combine sugar, glucose, cream of tartar, and water.

  2. Cook the mixture to 330°F (165°C).

  3. Add a little color and pour the mixture onto a marble surface.

  4. When cool enough to handle, flavor with rose or tea berry.

Pull and shape

  1. Pull the candy out slightly, double it up, and continue pulling.

  2. Shape the candy into a strip about 3 feet long and 3 inches wide.

Blow and stretch

  1. Place a tin pipe (3 feet long, ½ inch in diameter) on the candy and press down to cover it.

  2. Roll the candy around the pipe, moving it to prevent sticking.

  3. Pull the pipe out while blowing air into the candy to keep it inflated.

  4. Stretch the candy into a 12-foot long stick and cut it into four 3-foot lengths.

  5. Repeat the process with the tin pipe, covering it and blowing air into the ends.

  6. Stretch the candy into strips 1 inch thick and let them cool.

Cut and finish

  1. Mark the strips into 3-inch pieces and break them off.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Sugar + rosetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,584 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Cream + rosetop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,086 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Forms the bulk of the candy and sets into a brittle, glassy structure as it cools.
Glucose
Inhibits crystallization, keeping the candy smooth and pliable rather than grainy.
Water
Dissolves the sugar so it can be cooked evenly before it reaches the target temperature.
Cream of tartar
Acidity helps prevent sugar from crystallizing, keeping the candy clear and smooth.

The step that matters

Cooking to 330°F (165°C). Temperature controls the candy's final texture. Undercooking leaves it soft and sticky, while overcooking makes it hard and brittle, hard to pull and blow.

“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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