Sugar Cooking

Sugar is a very unusual and fun food. 

As sugar heats, the sugar crystals change their shape and characteristics. 

Cooked sugar as a mixture with milk or water is very soft.  It is cooked to about 230 degrees.

That temperature best forms the soft fudge we all enjoy.

As the sugar temperature climbs to the 240's, we get marshmallow.

At the 250's we start to get caramel in its very many forms.

At the 260's temperature the sugar starts to get chewy and we now have nougets.

Taffies are even stringier and chewier and are usually made around the 270's temperatures.

At the 280 degrees we start to have a soft crack stage  - much like a butterfinger core.

At the 290 temperature the sugar turns to harder brittles. 

This 290 degree temperature is a very popular temperature.  It is almost a fully cooked temperature needing a lot less perfection.

That is why so many people make peanut brittle.  It is mostly void of getting a bad batch....

At around 310 degrees sugar forms butterscotch, peppermint candies, and all the hard suck candies

Methods

While there are a number of sugar cooking machines, the standard is the old fashioned copper pot.

Today that comes in many forms including totally automated versions.

The more automated, the better we can produce a wider variety of candies and sugar products.

We own several cooking pots, but our most automated is the Eagle Warrior by Savage Equipment Company. 

It is quite automated and very expensive.

We use it to make honeyed peanuts.  It is also excellent for making caramel.