Sugar, to Boil
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Dissolve the sugar in the water.
Bring to a boil and remove the scum.
Boil for a few minutes.
Test the syrup
Dip the tip of your forefinger into the syrup and touch it to your thumb.
If the syrup forms a fine thread that breaks at a short distance, it is boiled to the small thread (215°F).
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
- Loaf sugar
- Dissolves into the water to form the syrup, providing sweetness and body.
- Water
- Dissolves the sugar so it can be concentrated by boiling into syrup.
The step that matters
Boiling to the small thread stage. As water boils off, the sugar concentration rises, so the syrup's stage changes quickly near the end. Testing by thread, and checking the stated 215°F, shows when the syrup has reached the right concentration.
“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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