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Popcorn Balls
1/2 cup water 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 cups Karo, Blue Label 1¾ cups granulated sugar 4 quarts popped corn Combine the Karo, sugar and water and boil until a little when tried in cold water forms a hard ball, 254 degrees F. Add the vanilla and pour into the popped corn from which all hard grains should be removed. Stir till coated, rub the hands with Mazola and form the corn into medium sized balls, pressing closely together.
A straightforward hard-ball candy syrup poured over popped corn. The only real difficulties are the thermometer reading and the speed at which the syrup sets.
- MazolaCorn oil, still sold under the same name. Any neutral oil works for greasing the hands, and a light film is enough — too much and the balls will not knit.
- 254 degrees FThat is within the hard-ball stage, the point at which the syrup will set firm but still yield to the teeth. A candy thermometer is easier to read than the cold-water test the recipe gives; boil well beyond this point and the balls turn brittle, well under and they slump.
- Four quarts of popped cornAbout one-half cup of unpopped kernels. Warming the popped corn in a low oven before the syrup goes on keeps the coating fluid long enough to distribute.
- Working the hot syrupThe mixture is well above boiling water temperature and will cling to skin. Let the coated corn cool for a minute, oil the hands generously, and press quickly — the batch stiffens within a few minutes of pouring.
- Removing hard grainsThe unpopped kernels are worth picking out as the recipe says; hidden in a sticky ball they are a genuine risk to teeth.
- YieldAround 15 to 18 balls of about 2 1/2 inches. Wrap each in waxed paper once cool; they keep several days but soften in humid air.
Popcorn balls are a nineteenth-century American sweet, originally bound with molasses or sorghum syrup and associated with harvest time, husking bees and later with Halloween giving. The corn syrup version belongs to a newer era: Karo was launched in 1902 by the Corn Products Company, and books of this kind — in which the syrups and oils are named by brand — appear to have served a promotional purpose, encouraging cooks to reach for glucose syrup where they had once reached for molasses or cane sugar alone. The result is a page in which corn is the popped grain, corn is the syrup, and corn is the oil on the cook's hands.