Home-made Horehound Candy
Ingredients
Directions
Make the extract
Boil the horehound in water for 30 minutes to extract its flavor.
Strain the mixture through muslin until clear.
Cook the candy
Add brown sugar to the extract and boil over high heat.
Test the syrup by dropping a little into cold water; it should harden.
Set and mark
Pour the mixture into a buttered tin and let it cool partially.
Mark into squares before it fully cools.
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
- Supplies the sweetness and, once boiled, the hard glassy structure of the candy.
The step that matters
Testing the syrup in cold water. Sugar syrup hardens as its temperature rises and water evaporates. A small drop in cold water shows whether it has reached the hard-candy stage, so the candy sets firm rather than sticky.
“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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