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To Boil Sugar Candy-height

A simple boiled sugar candy made by dissolving sugar in water and boiling until it reaches a candy stage.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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To Boil Sugar Candy-height

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Place sugar and water in a clean saucepan.

  2. Heat over a clear fire, skimming off any foam that rises.

  3. Boil until the mixture is clear.

  4. Test by taking a small amount with a spoon; it should draw a thread when cooled.

  5. Continue boiling until syrup begins to candy around the edges of the pan.

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Forms the sweet candy base, which hardens as the syrup is boiled and concentrated.
Water
Dissolves the sugar so it can be heated evenly into a clear syrup.

The step that matters

Continue boiling until syrup begins to candy around the edges of the pan. Sugar concentration rises as water evaporates, so the cook must judge the stage by the syrup's appearance and thread test rather than time. Stopping too early leaves a soft candy; going too far makes it brittle or burnt.

“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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