Fudge is expensive when you buy it in candy stores, but it’s easy to make. The hard part is beating the mixture because it gets so thick. Electric mixers make the job easy for people today, but years ago, fudge was mixed by hand. Candy thermometers became available to household cooks in the early 1900s, but they were expensive. Prior to that, people determined the temperature of their candy mixtures by dropping a bit of the syrup into cold water….
Popcorn is a special type of corn; not all varieties of corn will “pop.” In the 1800s, some families raised their own popcorn. After cutting the corn from the stalks, they dried it, then shelled it by hand. They put the dried popcorn in “poppers” which were shaped like long, thin boxes made from tightly woven wire, attached to a long handle. Then the corn could be popped over an open flame without having to get too close to the…
There are basically two types of fondant that are used for making bonbons. The first is poured fondant, a creamy mixture used as a filling, and the other is rolled fondant or fondant icing, which is of a thicker texture and used for coating candy or icing cakes. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS CANDY MAKING AT HOME The proverbial “sweet-tooth” is a characteristic of the American people. Hundreds of tons of candy are annually consumed, and fortunes have been made in…
There is actually a marshmallow plant that usually grows wild in swamps and marshlands. The marshmallow plant (Althaea officinalis) is not the same as the common mallow plant (Malva sylvestris). Marshmallow has a thick, sticky consistency similar to the okra plant. Made into a candy, doctors often offered it to children to soothe their sore throats. But eventually, marshmallow root sap was replaced by other binding agents such as gum arabic and gelatin. Without the sap, the candy no longer…
Molasses (or black treacle in the U.K.) is a thick, sticky liquid sweetener made from refining sugarcane or sugar beets. I’ve always loved the taste of molasses, even sometimes eating a spoonful from the jar. Of course, I like it in baked goods, too. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS: MOLASSES CANDY Boil molasses over a moderately hot fire, stirring constantly. When you think it is done, drop a little on a plate and if sufficiently boiled, it will be hard. Add a…