Lemon Candy
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Take three pounds of coarse brown sugar, add three teacups of water, and set it over a slow fire for half an hour.
Add a little gum Arabic dissolved in hot water to clear it.
Take off the scum as long as it rises.
Test and finish
When clear, test by dipping a pipe-stem in, and then in cold water, or by taking a spoonful in a saucer; if done, it will snap like glass.
Flavor with lemon, and cut in sticks.
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. See the original page.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Coarse brown sugar
- Provides the bulk of the sweetness and the body that sets into a brittle candy when cooled.
- Gum arabic (in the method)
- Helps keep the syrup clear and limits sugar crystallization for a smoother candy.
The step that matters
Testing for doneness. Sugar syrup hardens as its temperature rises and water evaporates. Pulling it off too early leaves a sticky candy, while cooking too long makes it bitter or brittle. The cold-water or saucer test shows when it has reached the hard-crack stage where it snaps like glass.
“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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