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Molasses Candy
Take equal quantities brown sugar and Orleans molasses (or all molasses may be used), and one table-spoon sharp vinegar, and when it begins to boil skim well and strain, return to the kettle and continue boiling until it becomes brittle if dipped in cold water, then pour on a greased platter. When cool enough, begin to throw up the edges and work, by pulling until bright and glistening like gold; flour the hands occasionally, draw into stick size, rolling to keep round, until pulled out and cold. With a greased knife press nearly through them at proper lengths, and they will easily snap; flavor just before pouring out to cool. -Sterling Robinson.
A standard nineteenth-century pulled taffy, thickened with molasses rather than corn syrup. Everything depends on hitting the right temperature and then working the mass while it is still hot enough to move.
- The hinge: hard crack"Brittle if dipped in cold water" is the hard-crack stage, 300-310F on a candy thermometer. A degree or two under and the sticks stay tacky and slump; much over and the molasses scorches bitter.
- Orleans molassesNew Orleans molasses meant a good grade of Louisiana cane molasses, lighter and milder than blackstrap and not far from today's ordinary unsulphured molasses. Blackstrap is a different product entirely and will make the candy harsh and dark.
- Why the vinegarOne tablespoon of acid inverts part of the sucrose as it cooks, which keeps the finished candy from going grainy. Cream of tartar does the same job in later recipes. Do not increase it.
- QuantitiesNone are given beyond "equal quantities." One pound each of brown sugar and molasses is a workable batch and makes roughly a pound and a half of pulled sticks; add about a quarter cup of water to help the sugar dissolve at the start.
- Skim and strainThis step addressed the scum and cane debris in period brown sugar and barrel molasses. With modern refined ingredients there is usually nothing to skim, though a brief skim after the first boil does no harm.
- The platterA greased marble slab or a heavy oiled sheet pan is better than a platter; thin china can crack under 300F syrup. Let the edges set until you can fold them inward with an oiled bench scraper before touching the mass.
- Flouring the handsButter or a neutral oil is the modern practice and gives a cleaner surface. Flour was cheap and always to hand, but it dulls the gloss the recipe is aiming for. Heavy gloves under thin food-safe ones make the first minutes of pulling bearable.
- Flavoring"Flavor just before pouring out" means off the heat, once boiling stops. Volatile oils such as peppermint, lemon or wintergreen boil away if added earlier; a teaspoon of oil-strength flavoring or a tablespoon of extract suits a batch this size.
- Humidity and storagePulled candy pulls moisture from the air and turns sticky. Make it on a dry day and wrap the snapped lengths individually in waxed paper in an airtight tin.
Molasses candy was among the cheaper sweets a nineteenth-century American household could make, and pulling it was as much entertainment as cookery: the taffy pull was a recognized form of winter-evening sociability. The reference to "Orleans molasses" places the recipe in the cane-syrup economy of the Gulf, where New Orleans was the clearing house for Louisiana sugar and its by-products, and where the lighter grades of molasses were preferred for the table and for candy while the darker ones went to distillers and feed. The Dixie Cook-Book printed contributed recipes over the contributor's name, and Sterling Robinson's instructions read like a demonstration given aloud - the pulling described by its look, "bright and glistening like gold," rather than by any measurement.