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Dessert

Hoarhound Candy

A sweet confection made from dried hoarhound, water, and brown sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Hoarhound Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the infusion

  1. Boil the dried hoarhound in the water for about 30 minutes.

  2. Strain the mixture and add the brown sugar.

Boil and set

  1. Boil over high heat until the mixture is sufficiently hard.

  2. Pour into flat, well-greased tins.

  3. Mark into sticks or small squares with a knife as soon as it cools enough to hold its shape.

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

Dried hoarhound
Provides the herbal, slightly bitter flavour that defines the candy.
Brown sugar
Supplies sweetness and, as its water boils off, sets into a hard, brittle candy.

The step that matters

Boil until sufficiently hard. Candy hardness depends on how much water the sugar syrup has lost. Stopping too early leaves a sticky, soft candy that will not hold its shape. Boiling too long over high heat can scorch the sugar, giving a bitter, burnt taste.

“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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