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Fudges and Caramels: Boil
COCOANUT CARAMELS Take two cupfuls of granulated sugar, one-half cupful of white corn syrup, one-half cupful of cream, or if milk is used add one tablespoonful of butter. Boil to the hard ball stage. Remove from fire and stir in one cupful of grated cocoanut and one teaspoonful of vanilla. Pour into buttered pans, and when cold cut into squares.
CHOCOLATE CARAMELS Take one cupful of light brown sugar, one cupful of golden corn syrup, and one cupful of milk. Boil to about 235 degrees or to the soft ball stage, then add one-fourth pound of chocolate. Continue to boil to the hard ball stage or about 250 degrees. Flavor with vanilla, and pour into a buttered pan about an inch thick. Mark off into squares while still warm.
SULTANA CARAMELS Put into a saucepan two cupfuls of light brown sugar, one cupful of golden corn syrup, one-half cupful of milk and one-fourth cupful of butter. Bring to the boiling point, then add a cupful of Sultana raisins and one-half cupful of English walnut meats. Boil until it makes a firm ball when dropped into cold water or to about 250 degrees. Remove from the fire, add one teaspoonful of vanilla; pour into square greased pans to an inch or half-inch thick. Mark off into squares, and press a Sultana raisin in the top of each while still warm. When cold cut into squares.
NUT CHOCOLATE CARAMELS Place in a saucepan one cupful of brown sugar, one cupful of golden corn syrup, one-half cupful of milk and two tablespoonfuls of butter. Boil to the hard ball stage. Remove from the fire, add one teaspoonful of vanilla and one cupful of nut meats. Turn into square buttered pan, cool and cut into small squares, then dip into melted chocolate.
VANILLA CARAMELS Take two cupfuls of sugar, one-half cupful of milk, and one-half cupful of golden corn syrup. Bring to a boil and then add two tablespoonfuls of butter. When nearly done add one square of chocolate. Boil to the hard ball stage, then flavor with a spoonful of vanilla. Pour into a square pan about an inch thick. Mark off in squares while still warm, and cut into cubes when cold. STRAWBERRY CARAMELS Place in a saucepan one cupful of granulated sugar, one cupful of golden corn syrup and one tablespoonful of butter. Boil to the soft ball stage, then add one glassful of whole preserved strawberries, and boil until a hard ball will form between the fingers in cold water or to 250 degrees. Turn into a buttered pan, cool, and cut into small squares.
JELLY CARAMELS Take two cupfuls of granulated sugar, one cupful rich cream, or if milk is used add a tablespoonful of butter, and one cupful of golden corn syrup. Boil to the hard ball stage then add a teaspoonful of vanilla, and pour into separate pans only about a third as thick as the usual caramels. Stiffen a glassful of any good jelly with a little gelatine melted in a little cold water. Pour this jelly when it begins to stiffen over one of the layers of caramel. Let stand until nearly cold, then remove the other layer of caramel from pan and place over the jelly. Let stand until perfectly cold, preferably over night, then cut into squares. Preserved fruits can be used instead of the jelly, and in this case, especially if the preserves are thick, no gelatine need be used.
CHOCOLATE CREAM CARAMELS These are made in the same way as the above except that a layer of fondant is placed between the two layers of caramel. Melt the fondant, and pour over the caramel, and when barely cool place the other layer on top. Press lightly so that the layers will blend together. When cool cut into squares. MOLASSES CARAMELS Take one cupful of brown sugar, two cupfuls of New Orleans molasses, one-half cup of milk, and one-half cupful of butter. Boil to the hard ball stage, then remove from the fire, and add one teaspoonful of vanilla. Pour into a buttered pan, mark off into squares when partly cool, and when cold cut into cubes. FRANCONIA CARAMELS Take one cupful of light brown sugar, one cupful of molasses, one cupful of milk and two table spoonfuls of butter. Boil to the hard ball stage, then remove from fire and add one-half cupful of walnut meats, and a teaspoonful of vanilla. Turn into a buttered pan, and when cool cut into cubes, and dip each one in melted chocolate.
TUTTI-FRUTTI CARAMELS Take two cupfuls of light brown sugar, one cupful of golden corn syrup, one-half cupful of milk, one tablespoonful of butter, one-half cupful of chopped dates, one-half cupful of chopped figs, one-half cupful of chopped seeded raisins, and one-fourth cupful each of candied orange peel and citron. A half cupful of black walnut meats will improve this candy. Boil to the hard ball stage, stirring often to keep from sticking. Remove from fire, add a teaspoonful of vanilla, then pour into buttered pans, and mark off into squares.
BUTTERNUT CARAMELS Take two cupfuls of light brown sugar, one cupful of golden corn syrup, one cupful of milk and one tablespoonful of butter. Boil to the hard ball stage, then remove from the fire and add one cupful of chopped butternut meats. Pour into buttered pans, and when partly cool mark off into squares. When cold cut in cubes with a sharp knife, and wrap each caramel in the paraffine paper. CARROT CARAMELS Boil some carrots or better bake them until quite tender, then pass through a sieve. To two cupfuls of this carrot pulp add two cupfuls of sugar, one-half cupful of corn syrup, two lemons, using both the juice and grated peel, one-half cupful of finely chopped almonds, also one-half cupful of water. Boil to the hard ball stage, and pour into well-buttered pans. When cool cut into cubes.
A dozen variations on one basic caramel: sugar, corn syrup, milk or cream, butter, boiled to the same endpoint. Once you have the temperature and the pan sorted out, the rest is flavoring.
- Hard ball, as this book means itThe text equates "hard ball" with about 250F, which by modern candy charts is the top of the firm-ball range. That is the right target for a chewable caramel; 255F and up gives something closer to a toffee that will pull fillings out. Use a digital thermometer and trust it over the cold-water test.
- Chocolate by the square"One square of chocolate" is one ounce of unsweetened baking chocolate, and the one-fourth pound in the chocolate caramels is four such squares. Modern bittersweet bars are sweeter and contain added fat, so expect a softer, sweeter result if you substitute.
- Corn syrup, golden and white"Golden" corn syrup appears to be the darker, mildly molasses-flavored grade, closest to what is now sold as dark corn syrup; white is light corn syrup. They differ in flavor, though either will do the anti-crystallizing work.
- Pan and stirringMilk-and-sugar mixtures scorch at these temperatures. Use a heavy pan at least four times the volume of the ingredients, stir steadily with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula, and pay particular attention to the molasses and tutti-frutti batches, which catch fastest.
- CocoanutThe original may well mean fresh coconut grated at home, though packaged shredded coconut was also on sale by this date. Unsweetened desiccated or frozen grated coconut is the closest match; sweetened flake will push the candy over into cloying.
- Sultanas and vanished nutsSultanas are golden raisins. Butternuts and black walnuts were common farmhouse nuts and are now specialty items, usually mail-order and shelled; regular English walnuts or pecans substitute without trouble.
- "One glassful"A jelly glass, six to eight ounces depending on the maker, so roughly a cup, in both the strawberry and jelly caramels. It is an imprecise measure and the fruit's own moisture varies, so in the strawberry version keep boiling until the thermometer returns to 250F rather than timing it.
- Paraffine paperWax paper. Cut squares, wrap each one, and store airtight; unwrapped caramels weep and fuse within a day in humid weather.
Caramels of this kind — sugar, glucose syrup and milk boiled together until the milk proteins and sugars brown — became a staple of American commercial confectionery in the later nineteenth century, and household candy books of the 1910s taught home cooks to copy them. Corn syrup is what makes the recipes work and what dates them: cheap, reliably crystal-free glucose syrup, sold in light and dark grades, is generally said to have become widely available in American kitchens around the turn of the twentieth century, and candy manuals of the period reach for it in nearly every boiled recipe. The names in the list show how such books padded a single formula into a chapter: Sultana, Franconia and tutti-frutti are simply the basic caramel with raisins, walnuts or chopped candied fruit stirred in at the end. The carrot caramels at the close belong to a longer tradition of using root vegetables as a sweet bulking agent — carrots are often said to have served as a stand-in for costly sugar and dried fruit in nineteenth-century puddings and preserves.