Popcorn Balls

A two-ingredient hard-crack syrup poured over popped corn. The only real variable is how far you cook the syrup, and the original gives no popcorn quantity.

• The hinge: cold-water test"Brittle when dipped into cold water" corresponds to what is now called the hard-crack stage, roughly 300-310F on a candy thermometer. Short of that the balls stay tacky and slump; cooked much beyond it, molasses is liable to scorch and turn bitter.
• New Orleans molassesThis meant a light-to-medium cane syrup, sweeter and milder than today's blackstrap. Use unsulphured baking molasses, not blackstrap, which will taste harsh at this concentration.
• QuantitiesA pint is 2 cups of molasses; 3/4 cupful of sugar is 3/4 cup. The recipe never says how much popcorn, which is its main gap. That is a generous quantity of syrup and will coat several quarts of popped corn, but the ratio is left entirely to the cook's judgement.
• Have the corn ready and warmPopped corn should be sorted free of unpopped kernels and held in a low oven, around 200F, before the syrup goes on. Cold corn chills the syrup on contact and it sets before it is distributed.
• ShapingThe mass is hot enough to burn. Butter your hands heavily, or wear food-safe gloves under buttered mitts, and work quickly in one direction from the edge of the bowl; the window before the candy sets is about a minute or two.
• Marble slab or buttered platesMarble is used because it draws heat off fast. A sheet pan lined with parchment or a lightly buttered silicone mat does the same job.
• KeepingWrap each ball in waxed paper once fully cool and store airtight. Molasses is hygroscopic, so in humid weather they will go sticky within a day.