Horehound Candy
Ingredients
Directions
Make the decoction
Boil the horehound in water for about 30 minutes to make a strong decoction.
Strain the mixture and add the brown sugar.
Cook and set
Boil over high heat until it reaches the desired hardness.
Pour the mixture into well-greased flat tin trays.
Mark into sticks or squares with a knife as it cools and retains its shape.
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 horehound
- Provides the bitter, herbal flavour that defines the candy.
- Brown sugar
- Forms the bulk of the candy and, as it cooks to hardness, sets into a firm glass.
- Water
- Extracts the flavour from the horehound during the initial boil.
The step that matters
Boil over high heat until it reaches the desired hardness. Sugar sets according to how far it is cooked: too little cooking leaves a soft, sticky candy, while overcooking can make it brittle or scorch. Watching for the target hardness controls the final texture.
“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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