Horehound Candy

by Nancy

Recipe 1

1 3/4 pints horehound leaves and stems

1 pint water

3 c. sugar

1/2 c. butter

Make a strong brew of horehound by boiling the leaves and stems in the water for half an hour.  Strain and add sugar to the resultant liquid.  Boil again and add butter.  Continue to boil until syrup has reached the 'hard ball' stage.  Pour into a buttered shallow tine.  When cool, mark it into squares.  When hardened, break squares apart and wrap each one in greaseproof paper.

In older times these candies were used to treat colds and coughs.

Recipe 2

Make a strong horehound infusion by boiling one cup of fresh horehound leaves with two cups of water for ten minutes.  Let steep for five minutes and then strain.

To make the candy, use one cup of the horehound infusion to two cups of white sugar.  Place sugar in a small saucepan and stir in 1/8 t. cream of tartar, then add the horehound infusion.  Stir until sugar dissolves, then cook over low heat until it reaches 290ºF.  Pour onto a buttered plate and score into cough drop size pieces when it is semi-hardened.  When cool, break apart into sections and store in a cool place until used.

Peanut Brittle 2

Partial Thermal Degradation of Carbon Dioxide Foamed Saccharides with Protein Inclusions

by Jana

Chemicals used:

Sucrose (disaccharides)

Glucose (monosaccharides)

Solidified mixed esters

H20

NaCl

Protein pellets

NaHC03

4-hydroxy - 3-methoxy-benzaldehyde

Al foil

1.  Weigh out 75 grams of sucrose into a clean 250 ml beaker.  Transfer to a clean 400 ml beaker.

2.  Into the 250 ml beaker, weight out 62g of glucose solution.

3.  Pour the glucose into the 400 ml beaker.  Use a total of 19 ml of H20 in two batches to rinse the small beaker with a stirring motion.  Add rinsings to the large beaker. 

4.  Heat this mixture slowly.  Stir constantly.  Bring to a boil.  Use as cool a flame as will maintain boiling, but avoid burning the saccharides.

5.  Weigh out 9.5 g. of solidified mixed esters

6. Add the solidified mixed esters to the boiling glucose-sucrose solution.

7.  Continue to heat and stir.  Use a paper towel to hold the beaker.

8.  Weigh out 0.3g of NaCl and 55 g of protein pellets.

9.  when the temperature is 138ºC, add the NaCl, and the protein pellets (arachin, conarchin, and oleic-linoleic glycerides)

10. Continue to stir.

11. Weigh out 3.7g of NaHCO3

12. Obtain 1.3 ml of 4-hydroxy-3-methoxy-benzaldehyde

13. Lightly coat a 25 cm x 25 cm peice of Al foil with another sample of the mixed esters.

14. When the temperature is at 154ºC, remove the flame.  Place the beaker on a paper towel near the Al foil.

15. While one partner holds the beaker and it prepared to stir, the other adds the 4-hydroxy-3-methoxy-benzaldehyde and the NaHCO3.  Stir vigorously!

16. When the beaker is nearly full to the top, pour the mixture onto the Al foil and spread thinly.

17. When cool, break into into pieces and consume at will.

18. Clean all apparatus.

Sucrose (disaccharides) = granulated sugar

Glucose solution (monosaccharides) = dark corn syrup

Solidified mixed esters = butter or margarine

H20 = water

NaCl - table salt

Protein pellets = peanuts

NaHCO3 = baking soda

4-hydroxy-3-methoxy-benzaldehye = vanilla extract

Al foil = aluminum foil

~This 'recipe' was made in Jana's 8th grade science class.  Her group's reward for doing the best job with the experiment?  The teachers and janitors ate it up after school, leaving them none for the next day. 

Peanut Brittle

by Ernest Freeman

2 c. white sugar

1 c. white corn syrup

1 c. water

2 c. peanuts

2 T. butter

1 t. vanilla

2 t. baking soda

Cook sugar, syrup and water to hard crack.  Add peanuts.  Remove from heat.  Add vanilla, butter and then baking soda.  Mix lightly.  Pour on marble slab to cool.

~This recipe has actually been doubled from the original.  Ernest must have liked it enough to do a double batch every time.

Divinity

by Roma

2 c. sugar

1/4 c. corn syrup

1/2 c. water

1 egg white, beaten stiff

nuts (optional)

flavor (optional)

Cook sugar, corn syrup, water and vanilla to soft ball stage.  Pour into egg white and stir in.  Add nuts and flavor if desired.  Drop onto wax paper by spoonfuls.

~When Karma and Eileen were  little,  the doctors felt egg yolks were good for kids, but that some children were allergic to egg whites, so Mom always separated the eggs and stirred the yolks into their baby cereal.  This meant we always had lots of extra egg whites.  Sometimes Mom used them to make angel food cake, but my favorite was when she made divinity.