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German Confectioner
Cook cocoanut, sugar, and glucose in double boiler until mixture clings to spoon, add whites of eggs, stir vigorously, and cook until mixture feels sticky when tried between the fingers. Spread in a wet pan, cover with wet paper, and chill on ice. Shape in small balls, first dipping hands in cold water. Bake twenty minutes in a slow oven on a tin sheet greased with white wax.
A coconut confection printed without quantities, as often happened when a recipe was carried over from a professional confectioner's method. The technique is sound but the proportions have to come from elsewhere.
- No quantities givenThe original lists cocoanut, sugar, glucose and egg whites with no amounts, so this cannot be followed as printed without a working ratio from a comparable macaroon recipe. Treat it as a method rather than a formula.
- GlucoseCommercial glucose syrup, a confectioner's ingredient rather than a household one. Light corn syrup is the ordinary modern stand-in; its job here is to keep the sugar from crystallising, not to sweeten.
- CocoanutMeans desiccated or freshly grated coconut, unsweetened. Modern sweetened flaked coconut will throw the sugar balance well off.
- The doneness test"Sticky when tried between the fingers" is the old confectioner's hand test on a cooked sugar mass. Fish out a small amount and cool it in cold water before handling it rather than touching the hot mass.
- Slow ovenRoughly 250-300F. These are meant to dry and set with only the faintest colour, not to brown.
- White waxPurified (bleached) beeswax, used for greasing confectionery tins because it leaves no flavour and does not scorch at low heat. Parchment paper does the same job with no fuss.
- Wet pan, wet paper, cold handsAll three are anti-stick measures for a sticky chilled sugar paste. Keep a bowl of cold water beside you while shaping and re-wet your palms between each ball.
- Twenty minutesThe recipe's time is given for small balls in a slow oven. Larger ones will still be soft in the centre at that time, so keep them uniform in size.
The heading reads as a trade description rather than a national one, and a recipe labelled this way suggests a professional shop method rather than a home one. That shows in the writing here, which assumes the reader already knows the proportions and the hand test for cooked sugar and needs only the sequence. Glucose syrup was largely a shop ingredient in this period, produced industrially from cornstarch and not commonly stocked in a domestic pantry, which is one reason the recipe reads as a borrowing.