Part 138

CONDUCTIVITY OF ALUMINUM ALLOYS: See Alloys.

«Confectionery»

«Cream Bonbons for Hoarseness.»—Stir into 500 parts of cream 500 parts of white sugar. Put in a pan and cook, with continuous stirring, until it becomes brown and viscid. Now put in a baking tin and smooth out, as neatly as possible, to the thickness of, say, twice that of the back of a table knife and let it harden. Before it gets completely hard draw lines with a knife across the surface in such manner that when it is quite hard it will break along them, easily, into bits the size of a lozenge.

«Nut Candy Sticks.»—Cook to 320° F. 8 pounds best sugar in 2 pints water, with 4 pounds glucose added. Pour out on an oiled slab and add 5 pounds almonds, previously blanched, cut in small pieces, and dried in the drying room. Mix up well together to incorporate the nuts thoroughly with the sugar. When it has cooled enough to be handled, form into a round mass on the slab and spin out in long, thin sticks.

«Fig Squares.»—Place 5 pounds of sugar and 5 pounds of glucose in a copper pan, with water enough to dissolve the sugar. Set on the fire, and when it starts to boil add 5 pounds of ground figs. Stir and cook to 240° on the thermometer. Set off the fire, and then add 5 pounds of fine cocoanuts; mix well and pour out on greased marble, roll smooth, and cut like caramels.

«Caramels.»—Heat 10 pounds sugar and 8 pounds glucose in a copper kettle until dissolved. Add cream to the mixture, at intervals, until 2 1⁠/⁠2 quarts are used. Add 2 1⁠/⁠4 pounds caramel butter and 12 ounces paraffine wax to the mixture. Cook to a rather stiff ball, add nuts, pour out between iron bars and, when cool enough, cut into strips. For the white ones flavor with vanilla, and add 2 pounds melted chocolate liquor for the chocolate caramel when nearly cooked.

«Candy Orange Drops.»—It is comparatively easy to make a hard candy, but to put the material into “drop” form apparently requires experience and a machine. To make the candy itself, put, say, a pint of water into a suitable pan or kettle, heat to boiling, and add gradually to it 2 pounds or more of sugar, stirring well so as to avoid the risk of burning the sugar. Continue boiling the syrup so formed until a little of it poured on a cold slab forms a mass of the required hardness. If the candy is to be of orange flavor, a little fresh oil of orange is added just before the mass is ready to set and the taste is improved according to the general view at least by adding, also, say, 2 drachms of citric acid dissolved in a very little water. As a coloring an infusion of safflower or tincture of turmeric is used.

To make such a mass into tablets, it is necessary only to pour out on a well-greased slab, turning the edges back if inclined to run, until the candy is firm, and then scoring with a knife so that it can easily be broken into pieces when cold. To make “drops” a suitable mold is necessary.

Experiment as to the sufficiency of the boiling in making candy may be saved and greater certainty of a good result secured by the use of a chemical thermometer. As the syrup is boiled and the water evaporates the temperature of the liquid rises. When it reaches 220° F., the sugar is then in a condition to yield the “thread” form; at 240° “soft ball” is formed; at 245°, “hard ball”; at 252°, “crack”; and at 290°, “hard crack.” By simply suspending the thermometer in the liquid and observing it from time to time, one may know exactly when to end the boiling.

«Gum Drops.»—Grind 25 pounds of Arabian or Senegal gum, place it in a copper pan or in a steam jacket kettle, and pour 3 gallons of boiling water over it; stir it up well. Now set the pan with the gum into another pan containing boiling water and stir the gum slowly until dissolved, then strain it through a No. 40 sieve. Cook 19 pounds of sugar with sufficient water, 2 pounds of glucose, and a teaspoonful of cream of tartar to a stiff ball, pour it over the gum, mix well, set the pan on the kettle with the hot water, and let it steam for 1 1⁠/⁠2 hours, taking care that the water in the kettle does not run dry; then open the door of the stove and cover the fire with ashes, and let the gum settle for nearly an hour, then remove the scum which has settled on top, flavor and run out with the {217} funnel dropper into the starch impressions, and place the trays in the drying room for 2 days, or until dry; then take the drops out of the starch, clean them off well and place them in crystal pans, one or two layers. Cook sugar and water to 34 1⁠/⁠2° on the syrup gauge and pour over the drops lukewarm. Let stand in a moderately warm place over night, then drain the syrup off, and about an hour afterwards knock the gum drops out on a clean table, pick them apart, and place on trays until dry, when they are ready for sale.

«A Good Summer Taffy.»—Place in a kettle 4 pounds of sugar, 3 pounds of glucose, and 1 1⁠/⁠2 pints of water; when it boils drop in a piece of butter half the size of an egg and about 2 ounces of paraffine wax. Cook to 262°, pour on a slab, and when cool enough, pull, flavor, and color if you wish. Pull until light, then spin out on the table in strips about 3 inches wide and cut into 4- or 4 1⁠/⁠2-inch lengths. Then wrap in wax paper for the counter. This taffy keeps long without being grained by the heat.

«Chewing Candy.»—Place 20 pounds of sugar in a copper pan, add 20 pounds of glucose, and enough water to easily dissolve the sugar. Set on the fire or cook in the steam pan in 2 quarts of water. Have a pound of egg albumen soaked in 2 quarts of water. Beat this like eggs into a very stiff froth, add gradually the sugar and glucose; when well beaten up, add 5 pounds of powdered sugar, and beat at very little heat either in the steam beater or on a pan of boiling water until light, and does not stick to the back of the hand, flavor with vanilla, and put in trays dusted with fine sugar. When cold it may be cut, or else it may be stretched out on a sugar-dusted table, cut, and wrapped in wax paper. This chewing candy has to be kept in a very dry place, or else it will run and get sticky.

«Montpelier Cough Drops.»—

Brown sugar 10 pounds Tartaric acid 2 ounces Cream of tartar 1⁠/⁠2 ounce Water 1 1⁠/⁠2 quarts Anise-seed flavoring, quantity sufficient

Melt the sugar in the water, and when at a sharp boil add the cream of tartar. Cover the pan for 5 minutes. Remove the lid and let the sugar boil up to crack degree. Turn out the batch on an oiled slab, and when cool enough to handle mold in the acid and flavoring. Pass it through the acid drop rollers, and when the drops are chipped up, and before sifting, rub some icing with them.

«Medicated Cough Drops.»—

Light-brown sugar 14 pounds Tartaric acid 1 1⁠/⁠2 ounces Cream of tartar 1⁠/⁠2 ounce Water 2 quarts Anise-seed, cayenne, clove, and peppermint flavoring, a few drops of each.

Proceed as before prescribed, but when sufficiently cool pass the batch through the acid tablet rollers and dust with sugar.

«Horehound Candy.»—

Dutch crushed sugar 10 pounds Dried horehound leaves 2 ounces Cream of tartar 3⁠/⁠4 ounce Water 2 quarts Anise-seed flavoring, quantity sufficient.

Pour the water on the leaves and let it gently simmer till reduced to 3 pints; then strain the infusion through muslin, and add the liquid to the sugar. Put the pan containing the syrup on the fire, and when at a sharp boil add the cream of tartar. Put the lid on the pan for 5 minutes; then remove it, and let the sugar boil to stiff boil degree. Take the pan off the fire and rub portions of the sugar against the side until it produces a creamy appearance; then add the flavoring. Stir all well, and pour into square tin frames, previously well oiled.

«Menthol Cough Drops.»—

Gelatin 1 ounce Glycerine (by weight) 2 1⁠/⁠2 ounces Orange-flower water 2 1⁠/⁠2 ounces Menthol 5 grains Rectified spirits 1 drachm

Soak the gelatin in the water for 2 hours, then heat on a water bath until dissolved, and add 1 1⁠/⁠2 ounces of glycerine. Dissolve the menthol in the spirit, mix with the remainder of the glycerine, add to the glyco-gelatin mass, and pour into an oiled tin tray (such as the lid of a biscuit box). When the mass is cold divide into 10 dozen pastilles.

Menthol pastilles are said to be an excellent remedy for tickling cough as well as laryngitis. They should be freshly prepared, and cut oblong, so that the patient may take half of one, or less, as may be necessary.

«Violet Flavor for Candy.»—Violet flavors, like violet perfumes, are very complex mixtures, and their imitation is a {218} correspondingly difficult undertaking. The basis is vanilla (or vanillin), rose, and orris, with a very little of some pungent oil to bring up the flavor. The following will give a basis upon which a satisfactory flavor may be built:

Oil of orris 1 drachm Oil of rose 1 drachm Vanillin 2 drachms Cumarin 30 grains Oil of clove 30 minims Alcohol 11 ounces Water 5 ounces

Make a solution, adding the water last.