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Sugar: a Great Source of Heat and Energy: Cook
MOLASSES TAFFY 2 cups of sugar 2 tablespoonsuls of butter 1/3 cup of glucose 1 tablespoonful of vanilla ex- 2/3 cup of water tract 1 cup of molasses Cook sugar, glucose and water as in Pop Corn Balls, but to 245 deg F. (hard ball when tested in cold water); add the molasses and butter and cook to 260 deg F. Pour on oiled slab or platter; while cooling turn the edges towards the center, and when cool enough pull in the hands or over a hook until very light-colored and cold. Flavor while pulling, adding the extract a little at a time. Finally pull out into strips and cut in short lengths. GLACE GRAPES (MALAGA OR TOKAY), CHERRIES, MARSHMALLOWS, ETC. 2 cups of granulated sugar 1 cup of water 1 tablespoonful of glucose Dissolve the sugar in the water and glucose, stir until the sugar is melted and proceed exactly as in making fondant. Cook to about 295 deg F. or until the syrup begins to show a slight tendency to an amber color, then remove at once from the fire to a saucepan of boiling water. Only sound grapes can be used, for if juice oozes from the fruit the effect of the candy is spoiled. If marshmallows are of large size, cut them in halves. English walnuts or almonds may also be used. Drop the article to be candied, gently, into the syrup, then with dipping fork lift out and set on the bottom of an inverted tin pan. Candied articles do not stick to tin. After a time, even with great care, the syrup will become cloudy. Discontinue the dipping and if necessary prepare another dish of syrup. The cloudy syrup may be used in cooking apples, etc. but it is not suitable for candied articles. BOILED FROSTING 3/4 cup of fine granulated sugar White of 1 egg 1/3 cup of water Grating of lemon rind or 2 or 3 drops of acetic acid 1/2 teaspoonful vanilla extract With the sugar and water a syrup is to be made that does not grain; thus the syrup is to be cooked in the same manner as fondant; i.e., stir the sugar and water until the sugar is melted and becomes hot, wash down the sides of the saucepan, cover and let boil three or four minutes, to dissolve any grains of sugar that remain; add two or three drops of acetic acid and let boil undisturbed to about 238 deg F., or until when the syrup is turned from the spoon spins a thread two inches in length clings from the spoon. Turn the syrup in a fine stream onto the white of egg, beaten dry, beating constantly meanwhile. Continue the beating, occasionally, until the frosting is cold. If the frosting be cooked too much, add a little lemon juice; if when cold it runs from the cake, the syrup was not cooked long enough. To remedy, put the frosting over the fire in a dish of water at just about the boiling point and beat constantly until the frosting thickens.
Three sugar-work recipes from the same chapter, all of them dependent on accurate temperatures. The book's numbers are sound — the equipment is what has changed.
- Glucose is corn syrupThe "glucose" called for is commercial glucose syrup, sold today as light corn syrup. It is there purely as an interfering agent to keep the batch from crystallising; substitute an equal volume of light corn syrup, and do not leave it out.
- Acetic acidThe two or three drops of acetic acid in the frosting are doing the same anti-crystallising job. Plain distilled white vinegar works, or use a pinch of cream of tartar; laboratory-strength glacial acetic acid is not a kitchen ingredient.
- MolassesUse unsulphured cane molasses of the sort sold for baking. Blackstrap is far more bitter and mineral than what a 1900 kitchen meant by molasses, and it will dominate the finished taffy.
- Thermometer, and check itTest your thermometer in boiling water first and adjust for the reading you get. At 260F a few degrees either way is the difference between chewy pulled taffy and a brittle slab, and the cold-water test the book offers as a cross-check is worth doing alongside.
- The 295F syrup is the real hazardSugar at 295F causes deep burns instantly and clings to skin. Have the pan of boiling water ready before you start so the syrup can be moved off the heat and held at temperature, keep children and pets out, and keep a bowl of cold water at the elbow rather than reaching for the tap.
- Oiled slabA marble slab lightly wiped with a neutral oil is ideal; a heavy rimmed baking sheet or a silicone mat works. Butter the hands rather than flouring them before pulling, and pull while the mass is still hot enough to move but cool enough to hold — that window is short.
- Weather mattersTaffy and glacé fruit both fail on a humid day. The glaze on dipped grapes will go tacky within hours in any case, so dip them the same day they are served.
- Raw white in the frostingBoiled frosting cooks the egg white only partially: the hot syrup heats it, but not to a temperature that can be relied on to hold long enough to pasteurise. Use pasteurised whites, sold in cartons, if serving anyone elderly, pregnant, very young or immune-compromised.
- YieldThe taffy makes something over a pound of candy; the frosting recipe, built on a single white, covers the top of one 8-inch layer or a small two-layer cake.
This comes from a chapter framing sugar as fuel, which is how nutrition writing of the early 1900s justified confectionery in a household manual: sugar was measured in calories and calories were understood as heat and work, so candy could be defended as economical energy rather than mere indulgence. The technique on show is the American candy-thermometer method, which was gaining ground in the closing decades of the nineteenth century without yet being universal in home kitchens -- every recipe here is pinned to a Fahrenheit figure, with the older cold-water tests (hard ball, thread) kept as a check for cooks who lacked the instrument. Commercial glucose syrup, refined from corn starch and cheap by the end of the nineteenth century, is what makes the glace and frosting reliable in a home kitchen; before it, confectioners leaned on cream of tartar or vinegar. Pulled molasses taffy itself belongs to the taffy-pull, a sociable evening entertainment in nineteenth-century America, and the instruction to pull "until very light-colored" describes the aeration that turns dark syrup into pale, opaque ribbons.