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Sugar Candy
Six cupfuls sugar, one of vinegar, one of water, one spoonful of butter, and one teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a little hot water; boil all together without stirring. When it becomes hard, not brittle (test by dropping a little into cold water), flavor with lemon, wintergreen or peppermint, and turn out on buttered plates to cool. It is nice pulled, or left on the plate and cut in squares.
A vinegar taffy of the old taffy-pull type: sugar, acid and a little soda boiled to the hard-ball stage, then pulled or cut. The whole recipe hinges on the cold-water test, so read that first.
- The hinge: "hard, not brittle"In modern terms this points to the hard-ball stage, roughly 250-265F, though the recipe itself gives no temperature and relies wholly on the cold-water test. A drop in cold water should form a ball you can pick up and press but not crush flat, and it should not shatter. Cooked on into the crack stages the candy turns brittle rather than chewy.
- Do not stir, and wash the sidesStirring after the sugar dissolves invites crystallization and a grainy batch. Brush the pan walls down with a wet pastry brush once it boils, and leave it alone until it reaches temperature.
- Why vinegar and soda are thereThe acid inverts some of the sucrose, which keeps the finished candy chewy rather than sandy. The soda neutralizes part of that acid and throws a foam that lightens the texture. Note that this recipe dissolves the soda in a little hot water and boils it together with everything else from the start; the mixture will foam, so use a deep pot.
- "One spoonful of butter"Most likely a tablespoon, about 14-15 g, though the book does not specify. The quantity is not critical; the butter mostly keeps the foam down and makes the mass easier to handle.
- Flavoring oilsPeriod cooks used oil of wintergreen, lemon or peppermint, which are far stronger than modern alcohol-based extracts. If using a flavoring oil, a scant quarter teaspoon is plenty for this quantity; oil of wintergreen in particular should be food-grade and used sparingly. Add after the candy has stopped bubbling or the flavor cooks off.
- PullingLet the poured candy firm at the edges, fold them in with a buttered scraper, and start pulling when it is warm but comfortable to hold, around body temperature. Pull until it lightens to satin and stiffens, then rope it out and cut with buttered shears; it sets hard within minutes.
- WeatherSugar work fails on a humid day. The candy pulls sticky and goes tacky in storage. Wrap finished pieces individually in waxed paper and keep them airtight.
- YieldSix cups of sugar makes roughly two and a half pounds of candy, enough for a large plateful of squares or several dozen pulled pieces.
Vinegar candy belongs to the American taffy pull, a fixture of nineteenth-century parlor and church socials in which the cooling sugar was worked between two pairs of buttered hands until it turned pale and satiny. Sugar-and-vinegar versions were the plainer country cousin of molasses taffy: cheap, made from things already in the pantry, and reliably chewy because the acid does the work that a modern recipe would give to corn syrup. The wintergreen flavoring is a strong period marker. Its place in a household book's candy chapter reflects a moment when confectionery was still largely made at home.