Candying-art - 6/29/99 Period and modern descriptions of the candying process. Description of the various stages of sugar candying in period and now. By Alys Katharine. NOTE: See also the files: candy-msg, desserts-msg, honey-msg, sugar-msg, sugar-paste-msg, Sugraplums-art, Roses-a-Sugar-art, cookies-msg. ************************************************************************ NOTICE - This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday. This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter. The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors. Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s). Thank you, Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous Stefan at florilegium.org ************************************************************************ Date: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 10:59:04 -0500 (CDT) From: alysk at ix.netcom.com (Elise Fleming) Subject: SC - Sugar Temperatures Greetings from Alys Katharine. Here is the beginning of a brief article I started to write about sugar and the candying process. The Candying Process As previously mentioned, the Italians, Spanish,and even the French, were a bit ahead of the English in producing candies and confections. By the mid-1600s, the French claimed to differentiate twelve different stages in boiling, or candying, sugar. Modern cookbooks generally list only eight. One problem with redacting period recipes is that the cook "knew" the correct height or temperature for the sugar. "Cook to the height of Manus Christi," "Cook until it is the proper height," are not much help to today's beginning confectioner. Fortunately, several modern redactors have worked out some temperatures which, together with descriptions from period recipes, may help the neophyte confectioner. Before you begin your own confections, invest in a good candying thermometer. Follow the instructions to calibrating your specific one. If you are making a hard candy, do so when it is dry and cool, otherwise the heat and humidity will make the candy sticky. (one expert recommends cooking the syrup 2 degrees higher to alleviate the problem.) Be sure to have a pan big enough so that the syrup at full boil does not run over the edge. Greasing the top two inches with butter can also prevent this. Crystals may form on the sides of the pan. If you put on a lid for the first three minutes of cooking, the steam will prevent their formation. Or, you can wipe them away with a damp pastry brush. If you boil the syrup too far, add more water and start again. (This works especially well with comfit making where the water is constantly being boiled off.) Period cookbooks instruct the cook to clarify the sugar. This purifying process was necessary even through the early years of the twentieth century to produce a clean, and fine, enough sugar for making candies. One process for clarifying sugar was to use the white of an egg. The cook boiled up a thin syrup of sugar with water equal to about half the weight of the sugar. The impurities rose in scum which was then removed with a skimmer. Another variation was one egg white beaten into one cup of cold water. Four cups of sugar were dissolved into one cup of water. The egg white was added and the mixture was boiled on a gentle heat while one removed the scum as soon as it arose. One could also use 1/2 ounce of gum arabic dissolved in a little boiling water and added to the same proportion (4:1) of sugar and water as above. Another relatively modern suggestion for loaf sugar was to use the white of an egg to six pounds of sugar, but adding one tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar to prevent graininess. The cook needed to add small amounts of cold water as it boiled to prevent the syrup from boiling over. Again, the scum was removed as it boiled up. For loaf sugar the process was repeated three or four times and strained through cheesecloth. Honey also needed clarification but today's honey usually does not, unless one is using honey directly from the hive. There is a whitish "scum" that appears as one begins to boil today's honey. I usually remove this as it appears. Here are some of the "degrees" of sugar with corresponding farenheit temperatures, as well as documentation from period sources. If any readers know of others, I would appreciate hearing from them. Please note that cooks often tested the "doneness" with their hands. A few modern cookbooks still give hints on how to accomplish this feat. the candymaker dips the thumb and forefinger into ice water, then into the boiling syrup, and then back ito the ice water. Or, the syrup can be raised out of the pot by a spoon so the cook can dip in his/her fingers. A candy thermometer is certainly safer today. 1. The Thread, also known as "lisse": A short, thin thread appears when the sugar is drawn out between fingers and thumb. After a few seconds cooking a few seconds more, the thread can be drawn out to double its length without snapping. Or, one can drop it from a spoon to spin a thread. Karen Hess(Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery) gives the temperature as 215°F, "manus christi height," Recipe S5. The Joy of Cooking gives the temperature as 230°F- 234.°F 2. The Pearl: Sugar will form small pearl-like round bubbles. A pinch of syrup can be drawn out between thumb and forefinger without breaking. (Note the similarity of description above as is Hess's suggested temperature.) At least one cooking authority says that this is "the proper degree for most kinds of candy making." Hess suggests 220°F, "candy height," Recipe S5. The Ladies Cabinet, 1655, Recipe 95 states, "...(to see when it is enough) it will stand on a stiffe purle when you drop some of it upon a Plate of silver..." 3. The Souffle or Blow and The Plume or Feather: (Some authorities consider these as two different stages. Others combine these into one.) Dip a spoon with holes into the syrup and hit it sharply on the edge of the pan. Blow through the holes. If bubbles form on the opposite side one has reached the "blow." If, when one dips the spoon and shakes it to release some of the liquid, the syrup flies in flakes or hangs in strings, it is called the "feather." Hess identifies the temperature as 232°F, Recipe S6, "grand souffle or feather." She states that the next stage is caramel and was considered to be "burnt." 4. The Ball or "Boulet": Drop a small amount into cold water. If you can roll it between your fingers and thumb to form a small, soft (but not sticky) ball you have reached the "soft ball" stage. The Joy of Cooking gives the temperature as 238°F. At 244 degrees it can be rolled up and will hold its shape, the "firm ball" stage. At 248°F the ball will be somewhat malleable but not yet rigid, the "hard ball" stage. The Ladies Cabinet says, "boil it till it will roul between your finger and your thumb," Recipe 40. In Recipe 60 THE LADIES CABINET again notes, "boil it til it roule between your finger and your thumb, then cast it into your standing Moulds..." Beyond these stages of syrup modern cookbooks list the "crack" or "snap" stage at 270°-300°F. I have not yet seen any period designations for this temperature. As Hess hinted at in Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery, stages beyond 232°F were considered unusable for candymaking. The final modern stage is "caramel" which occurs at 310°-338°F. The sugar begins to brown quickly, turn to black, and give off a burnt odor. Edited by Mark S. Harris Candying-art 3