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Pop-Corn Balls
Put a quarter of a pound of sugar and one gill of water in a saucepan. Boil five minutes, skim. This should form a rather thick syrup. Pop the corn as directed, turn into a bowl and pour the syrup in a fine stream over the corn, stirring all the while. A few drops of lemon juice or vanilla may be added to the syrup. Grease your hands lightly, take about two tablespoonfuls of the corn and press gently in the form of a ball. Stand these balls on a greased paper to dry and they are ready to use.
A plain boiled-sugar confection with no thermometer and no quantities for the corn itself. Both gaps are easy to close.
- A gillHalf a cup, or 4 fluid ounces. A quarter pound of sugar is about half a cup plus two tablespoons of granulated sugar.
- How far to boilFive minutes over an unspecified flame is not a target. Cook the syrup to 250-265F (hard-ball stage) so the balls set firm rather than staying tacky. Below about 240F they will slump on the paper.
- The hingePour in a thin stream while stirring constantly, and stop stirring the syrup itself once it boils. Scraping crystals off the pan sides or stirring the hot syrup starts crystallization and gives you sugar sand instead of a coating.
- How much cornThe original assumes you know. About a third of a cup of kernels, or roughly 2 1/2 to 3 quarts popped, is right for this quantity of syrup. Pick out all unpopped kernels first.
- Pop the corn as directedThe cross-reference is to another entry in the book. Any method works; a covered pan with a tablespoon or two of oil over medium-high heat, or an air popper, gives dry corn that takes syrup well.
- Lemon juiceThe few drops do more than flavor. The acid inverts a little of the sugar and helps keep the syrup from graining. Vanilla should go in off the heat, or it cooks away.
- ShapingWork while the mass is hot enough to hold together but cool enough to touch, and keep the greasing light. Butter or a neutral oil on the palms both work; press gently, since packing hard makes a ball you cannot bite.
- Yield and keepingThey dry in an hour or so and keep a few days wrapped individually; humidity turns them sticky.
Popcorn balls belong largely to the second half of the nineteenth century in America, when cheap sugar and cheap popping corn met in the same kitchen. Popping varieties of maize are indigenous to the Americas, and the balls became a fixture of parties, church socials and, by tradition, Halloween and Christmas giving. The recipe's brevity is typical. A cook who had boiled sugar before needed only the proportion and the word "thick"; a household sugar thermometer was far from a given.