Sugar Candy
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 230°F (110°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the pan
Prepare a copper or metal pan with wider sides at the top than the bottom and perforate it with small holes about 3 inches apart.
Seal the holes from the outside with a thin coat of beeswax and resin to prevent syrup from leaking.
Make and set the candy
Boil 7 lbs of brown sugar with 2 quarts of water until it reaches 230°F (110°C).
Pour the syrup into the prepared pan and place it in a drying room for 3 to 4 days.
Check if the crystals are heavy enough; if so, pour off the excess syrup.
Finish
Rinse the candy in lukewarm water and let it dry in the drying room.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Brown sugar
- Forms the crystals and provides the sweetness that makes up the candy.
- Water
- Dissolves the sugar so it can be boiled into a syrup that crystallises as it cools.
The step that matters
Boil the syrup to 230°F (110°C). The syrup must reach this concentration before it is poured. Too little boiling leaves the sugar too dilute to crystallise properly, while overboiling makes the candy hard and brittle.
“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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