Homemade Candy
Its Food Value and Some General Information Regarding It
Candy making is a never-ending source of pleasure to every one participating in it, because it is both fun for the maker and a delight to the partaker. For an evening's entertainment or an afternoon's enjoyment, what better than candy making. It is one of the few occupations that are as enthusiastically welcomed by the children as by adults, for from youth to old age every one loves candy.
Popular thought on the subject of candy making is being revolutionized, as it becomes known that candy is just as essential a food for both children and adults as meat, bread or potatoes. Candy being a pure sweet, a perfect carbohydrate, supplies added energy and needed fuel to keep the body in the best physical condition.
Parents do their children a great injury by denying them pure, wholesome candy, for the growing child requires a large amount of sugar to supply the necessary energy for its almost ceaseless activity.
Home-made candies are much better than factory-made, because of the known source of ingredients, the careful blending of materials and the cleaner surroundings in the kitchen and pantry.
Candy making is as simple or as complex as one chooses to make it. While a large number of utensils can be used, all that is really necessary is a pan, a thermometer and the fire, and of these one is just as essential as the other.
A knowledge of definite temperatures in candy making is essential to uniformly satisfactory results, for sugar in cooking gives different results at varied temperatures. Indeed no other single material in cookery presents so many different variations, and oven the experienced person often finds it impossible to recognize these without the guidance of the rising and falling mercury of a thermometer. The use of a Taylor Home Candy Thermometer also adds an element of interest to the operation. Watching the constant changes in the sweet syrupy mass of sugar as the cooking progresses is a fascinating as well as a most profitable study. More batches of sugar hopefully planned as candy have been spoiled through lack of knowledge of correct temperatures than in any other way.
The Taylor Home Candy Maker's Thermometer is designed to promote accuracy and success in candy making, and incidentally to abolish those mystifying terms "soft ball," "hard ball," "crack," etc., all of which are vague and indefinite.
The Effect of Altitude
Before use the candy thermometer should be regulated to conform to the local altitude, as follows:
Place the thermometer in a kettle of water, heat and let boil for ten minutes. If the mercury marks 212 degrees the thermometer is correct as it is, but if there is a variation of 2 degrees or more, allowance must be made. If the water boils at 210 degrees 2 degrees must be subtracted every time the thermometer is read. Do not ignore a variation of even 2 degrees; absolute accuracy in this matter of temperature is essential to satisfactory results in candy making.
What Heat Does to Sugar
In boiling syrups for candy making, bear in mind that the various degrees of heat produce various results in the syrup and that the trick in candy making is to remove the heat at the exact moment when the desired result is secured.
Use and Care of the Thermometer
The Taylor Home Candy Maker's Thermometer registers to about 365 degrees Fahrenheit, and when not in use should be kept hanging. If, as sometimes happens, the thread of mercury becomes separated (that is, a portion of the mercury becomes detached and runs to the top of the tube when the thermometer is held sideways or upside down), it can be re-united by holding the thermometer bulb downwards and giving a sharp jerk. Do not remove the thermometer to read it. It should be fastened to the vessel containing the mixture by the adjustable metal clip on the back of the instrument. Remember that mixtures which require stirring must be stirred below the thermometer as well as elsewhere.
A thermometer should never be subjected to the extreme top limit of temperature as marked upon its scale. Before testing candies dip the thermometer into hot water.
When through using, let the thermometer stand in hot water until the candy adhering to it is dissolved, then wash carefully in hot, soapy water, rinse in clear hot water and dry carefully.
Keep the thermometer scrupulously clean, for were it placed in any syrup with the sugar from the previous boil sticking to it, the whole mass would probably spoil. Success in candy-making depends on strict attention to this and similar small details.
General Directions for Boiling Sugar
Put the water in a saucepan and add the sugar to be boiled. When the sugar has melted, add the corn syrup, or cream of tartar, and stir until dissolved. Bring Quickly to the boiling point and skim. The white froth need not be removed--only the discolorations. Place the lid on the pan for a few minutes so that the steam may condense on it, and wash off any sugar that may have boiled over. When the syrup is boiling at its own level, put in the thermometer and boil to the degree that is required. If any particles of sugar are still sticking to the sides of the pan, wash off with a brush dipped in water, or they will cause the syrup to grain. Sugar is always boiled in this manner except when otherwise stated.
To Color Sugar
To color sugar red, place in a basin one pound of gianulated sugar, add a few drops of carmine and spirits of wine. Rub it through the fingers until the mass is of uniform color. Place it on a tin in a warm place to dry, then bottle and keep for use. The above process will color sugar yellow when saffron is used, green when green is used, and violet when violet coloring is used.