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Divinity (Whites of two eggs two cups)
Whites of two eggs, two cups of granulated sugar, one-half cup of water, one cup of Karo syrup, one heaping cup of nuts, vanilla. Put one cup of sugar and one-half cup of water in a pan, one cup of sugar and one cup of Karo syrup in another; put them both on the stove, but see that the sugar and water mixture gets done first; cook sugar and water until it makes a soft ball in cold water, and the other mixture until it becomes brittle in cold water; beat the whites of the eggs to a froth and add the sugar-and-water mixture to the eggs; while yet warm, beat in the sugar and Karo mixture; pour in nuts and beat as long as possible. Pour into a buttered pan and cut into squares.
— Miss Clara L. Munger
A two-syrup divinity, unusual in using both a soft-ball batch and a hard-crack batch in sequence. A candy thermometer and a stand mixer make it straightforward; without them it is a wrestling match.
- The hinge: humidityDivinity will not set on a damp day. The finished candy relies on a very low residual moisture, and above roughly 50 percent relative humidity it stays sticky no matter how long you beat. Pick a dry day or don't start.
- Soft ball and brittle, in numbersThe sugar-and-water pan goes to soft ball, 235-240F. The sugar-and-Karo pan goes to the brittle or hard-crack stage, 300-310F. The instruction that the first mixture "gets done first" matters: it is beaten into the whites while the second is still climbing.
- KaroKaro is a brand of corn syrup, still sold under that name; the light grade is what is wanted here. Any light corn syrup works; use light, not dark, or the colour and flavour go wrong. Golden syrup is not an equivalent substitute, being darker and stronger in flavour.
- Beating the whites"To a froth" in this period means soft, not stiff. Take them to soft peaks so the hot syrup can be poured in a thin stream down the side of the bowl without deflating them.
- "Beat as long as possible"Beat until the mass loses its gloss, holds a ribbon on the beater, and a spoonful dropped on the pan keeps its shape. With a stand mixer this is usually 8-12 minutes after the second syrup goes in; stop the moment it dulls, or it will set in the bowl.
- NutsA heaping cup means about 5 oz. Walnuts and pecans are the usual choices; toast and cool them first, and add them at the very end.
- Pan and cuttingAn 8-inch square pan, buttered or lined with parchment, gives a good depth. Cut while barely warm with a knife wiped between cuts; once fully set it crumbles at the edges.
- YieldRoughly 36 squares from an 8-inch pan. It keeps a few days in an airtight tin with the layers separated by waxed paper, and goes chalky after that.
- VanillaNo quantity is given. A teaspoon, added with the second syrup or just before the nuts, is in line with other divinity recipes of the period.
Divinity belongs to the first generation of American candies built on commercial glucose syrup: Karo went on the market in the early 1900s, and corn syrup's resistance to crystallisation is precisely what lets a home cook beat a sugar-and-egg-white foam into something smooth rather than grainy. The name's origin is undocumented and is generally explained as a cook's remark on the first taste; it appears in print in the 1910s and 1920s, often in exactly this setting, a subscription cookbook of contributed receipts with the donor's name attached. The double-syrup method here is more elaborate than the single-batch approach, and it suggests a cook who had worked out that a very hard-cooked corn syrup batch beaten in second gives a drier, more reliable set. Divinity is now most strongly associated with the American South, but its early spread appears to have been national.