Home › The Waldorf Kitchen › Rock Candy

Rock Candy

This is really crystallized sugar in its simplest form. Place some clarified sugar in a sugar boiler, and boil to the feather, and add a few drops of acetic acid or spirits of wine in order to assist the separation of the crystals from the more hardened portions of the syrup. Pour the syrup into moulds, and let it remain in the hot closet at a temperature of from 90 to 100 deg. of heat; leave it there for eight or ten days, according to the size of the crystal desired. In the process of crystallizing, the impurities contained in the sugar are left behind in the water, and the sugar is rendered as nearly pure as possible. When the crystallization is complete, pour off the surplus syrup, turn the mould upside down, and let it remain until fully drained. The moulds are made of strong tin or copper, and must be considerably smaller at the bottom than at the top, and pierced with small holes round the sides in uniform rows, tier above tier, and sewn with coarse thread across the mould from side to side, after which they must be pasted up with paper, or covered with potter's clay all over the outside, in order effectually to close the holes and prevent the syrup from leaking out. When quite drained, remove the paper from the sides, warm the mould equally round the outside, and strike the edge of it with a sharp, hard knock upon the table, when the sugar will relieve itself from the mould. Place the mould upon a sieve or board, and set it in the hot closet until it is perfectly dry. This candy may be tinted a rose or scarlet color by adding a little prepared carmine or cochineal before boiling. The purer the sugar used for making the syrup the whiter the candy will be.