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Sugar Boiler's Assistant

Old confectionery guide page explaining sugar boiling stages and recipes for barley sugar, acid drops and pineapple drops.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Wells, Robert · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓

Sugar Boiler's Assistant

Ingredients

Directions

Boil and test the sugar

  1. Dissolve a little sugar in a glass of clear water to test its purity.

  2. Cover the preserving pan bottom two or three inches deep with sugar and boil it briskly over a clear fire.

  3. Dip a finger into the sugar and touch it to the thumb; if a small string of sugar adheres to each, it is boiled to the pearled degree.

  4. Put the skimmer in the boiling sugar for a few minutes, then shake out the sugar and blow it; if sugar flies from the skimmer in small bladders, it is boiled to the blown degree.

  5. Continue boiling from the blown degree, take out the skimmer, jerk it over the pan, then over your head; if sugar flies out like feathers, it is boiled to the feathered degree.

  6. Boil the sugar from the feathered degree a little longer, dip a stick or piece of pipe into water, then into the sugar, and again into the water; if it cracks with the touch, it is boiled to the crackled degree.

  7. Boil the sugar further, dip a stick or finger into water, then into the sugar, and again into the water; if it snaps like glass, it is at the caramelled degree and must be taken off the fire immediately.

Make the barley sugar

  1. Put some sugar in a pan with water and boil it on the fire.

  2. When it is at the feather, add a little lemon juice and continue boiling to the caramel.

  3. When done, add a few drops of essence of lemon.

  4. Pour it on a marble slab previously oiled and cut into strips.

  5. When nearly cold, take the strips in your fingers and twist them, and when quite cold put them into tin boxes and keep them closed down.

Make the acid drops

  1. Boil 3 lbs. of loaf sugar, 1 pint of water, and a teaspoonful of cream of tartar to the caramel.

  2. Add a few drops of essence of lemon and pour it on an oiled marble slab or stone.

  3. Sprinkle on it a tablespoonful of powdered tartaric acid and work it in.

  4. Oil a tin sheet and put the sugar on it in a warm place, then cut off a small piece and roll it into a round pipe.

  5. Cut the pipe into small pieces the size of drops with a pair of scissors and roll them round under the hand.

  6. Mix with fine powdered sugar, sift the drops from it and put them in boxes, to be used as required.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

112Calories
1 gProtein
6 gFat
17 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Wells, Robert. 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. See the original page.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Cream + lemontop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,640 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Provides sweetness and, when boiled far enough, sets into a hard, glassy structure.
Cream of tartar
Adds acidity that helps keep the boiled sugar smooth rather than grainy.
Powdered tartaric acid
Adds sharp acidity and helps keep the sugar from turning grainy.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and bright flavour to the boiled sugar.

The step that matters

Taking the sugar off the fire at the caramel stage. Sugar darkens and turns bitter within seconds once it reaches the caramel stage, so it must be removed from the heat immediately to avoid burning.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.