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Sugared Popped Corn
2 quarts popped corn 2 cups brown sugar 2 tablespoons butter 1/2 cup water Put butter in saucepan, and when melted add sugar and water. Bring to boiling-point, and let boil sixteen minutes. Pour over corn, and stir until every kernel is well coated with sugar.
A boiled-sugar coating poured over popped corn, in the manner of old-fashioned caramel corn. The whole dish hinges on how far the syrup is cooked, and the original gives you a clock rather than a temperature.
- The sixteen-minute boilSixteen minutes of hard boiling with this much sugar to water will take the syrup well past thread stage, somewhere in the hard-ball range or beyond, though the exact point depends entirely on the pan and the heat. The original gives no temperature, so watch a thermometer rather than the clock; once the sugar begins to darken it will turn bitter.
- How much popped cornTwo quarts of popped corn is roughly 1/4 to 1/3 cup of unpopped kernels, depending on the corn. Measure it loosely and have it warm and waiting in a very large bowl before the syrup is ready.
- Brown sugarNineteenth-century brown sugar was less refined and more moist than today's light brown. Light brown sugar, firmly packed, is the closest match; dark brown gives a stronger molasses note that is not unpleasant here.
- Pan choiceUse a heavy saucepan at least three times the volume of the syrup. Sugar boiled to this stage climbs the sides and foams up sharply when it thickens.
- Work fast at the pourThe syrup sets within a minute or two of leaving the heat. Pour it over the corn in a thin stream while stirring with a heatproof spoon or silicone spatula, and keep stirring until the coating dulls and the kernels separate.
- CoolingTurn the coated corn out onto parchment or a buttered sheet pan and break up clumps as it cools. Boiled sugar at this temperature will blister skin instantly, so do not pat it into shape by hand.
- Yield and keepingMakes about 2 quarts, enough for six to eight as a sweet. Store airtight; humidity turns the coating sticky within a day.
Sugared or caramelled popcorn belongs to the American sweets tradition that grew up around cheap corn and cheap sugar in the second half of the nineteenth century, as mechanical poppers made popped corn a fixture at fairs, circuses and street stands. Household cookbooks of the period treat it as a confectionery exercise: the same boiled-syrup skill used for fondant, fudge and boiled frosting, applied to a bulk of popped kernels instead of nuts or fruit. Brown-sugar versions like this one sat alongside clear white-sugar or corn-syrup glazes. Commercial versions with peanuts were being sold under trade names by the 1890s, but home cooks went on making the simple stovetop coating, since it needed nothing more than a saucepan and attention.