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HOREHOUND CANDY Take two cupfuls of brown sugar, one cupful of corn syrup, and one-half teaspoonful of cream of tartar. Pour over this the horehound liquid made by steeping two ounces of dried horehound (which can be obtained at the drug store) in one pint of hot water. Boil down to a cupful before adding to the sugar. If you do not wish it to be very strong of horehound don't use quite so much. Boil to the hard crack stage or about 300 degrees. Pour into a buttered pan or pans. Mark deeply into small squares while still warm, and when cool it will break easily.
A straightforward hard candy whose only unfamiliar element is the herb. The proportions work as written; the infusion is the step that needs attention.
- Getting the horehoundDried horehound (Marrubium vulgare) is no longer a drugstore item but is sold by herb suppliers and online in bulk. Two ounces is a large, loose volume of dried leaf, so use a wide pan for the steeping.
- Reduce the infusion firstSteep the herb in a pint of hot water, strain it, then boil the strained liquid down to one cup before it goes anywhere near the sugar. The recipe does not specify straining, but reducing with the leaf still in it is likely to draw out harsher bitterness.
- Bitterness is the variableHorehound is genuinely bitter, and two ounces gives an old-fashioned, medicinal strength; the recipe itself says to use less if you do not want it strong. Taste the reduced infusion before committing it.
- 300F is the target, not "hard crack"Use a candy thermometer and take it to 300-305F. The old "hard crack" test — a drop in cold water snapping cleanly between the teeth — works but wastes syrup and is slower than reading a dial.
- Cream of tartar's jobThe half teaspoon inverts part of the sucrose so the batch stays glassy instead of turning grainy. Do not increase it; more acid makes the candy sticky and slow to set.
- Corn syrupOrdinary light corn syrup is the same product the book means. Glucose syrup is interchangeable here; high-fructose corn syrup is not the same thing and is not sold for home baking.
- Pan and markingAn 8-inch square pan, buttered generously, will hold the batch as a substantial slab. Score it with an oiled knife or a bench scraper while it is still pliable — perhaps two to three minutes after pouring. Wait longer and it will shatter unpredictably.
- Yield and keepingA generous batch; the sugar and corn syrup alone weigh well over a pound before boiling, and it cuts into several dozen small squares. Dust lightly with powdered sugar and store airtight; hard candy pulls moisture from the air and will weld itself into one mass in a humid kitchen.
Horehound is a grey-leaved mint-family plant, long grown in kitchen gardens and long used for coughs — the note that it "can be obtained at the drug store" places the candy squarely in the era when confectionery and pharmacy overlapped. Boiling a bitter herbal decoction into sugar was the standard way to make a medicine palatable, and horehound drops were sold as much for the throat as for pleasure. Books like this one, published when home candy making was a fashionable domestic craft, routinely printed the pharmacy standbys alongside caramels and fondants. Horehound has largely dropped out of the American sweet shop but survives regionally, notably in Texas and the mountain South, and is still stocked at historical-site confectioners. Anyone pregnant or nursing should note that medicinal quantities of horehound are traditionally avoided in those cases.