The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1886-06-10
CANDY.
~
Process of fManufacturing.-Its Adultera-
tiOn by UnscrupulOus Manufac-
turers.

The word candy comes TO us from the
Arabic and Persian gaHd, another name
for sugar. Candy-making is n consider
able trade in itself. The census of 1880
reported 1862 confectioners. There
are eight or ten large factories in New
1ork k alone, employing perhaps a hun
dred people each, and using 4 hundred
barrels or more of sugar week, besides
quantities of glucose.
The ''StIck" candy. which seems to
be an indigenous American product, is
of ordinary II su-r5r, boiled down
with water aud u little cream of tartar
10 prevent crystalliZation. The mass is
taken in patches of about fifteen pounds
10 marble table where it is kneaded
like bread, and the tlavoring and color
ing worked in. The paste then goes to
the ''pnlling-hoohs,' where for live or
six minutes it is pulled and twisted and
rrpuil"d and retwisted ut the hands of a
workman who certainly earns his liv-
ing. Thence it returns TO the marble
table, ut one end of which is a metal
plate, kept hot, on which he works the
| candy into its final shape. Stripes are
pressed into the batch, two feet long and
Il foot thick, and it is then drawn and
twisted out till it is the proper size of
the penny stick" the right length of
which is clipped off by huge scissors.
Clear candy is not kneaded or pulled.
Flat candy is run into pans. and knife
is run across where it is TO be broken in
to sticks or squares. The drops, fishes,
and other fancy shapes are made by
! passing the paste through machine,
which cuts and presses it to the proper
size and shape.
Lozenges are rolled out like pie-crust,
sometimes printed in carmine with a
hand-stamp, and then cut out with dies.
'Sugar-plums" and sugared almonds
are made in a very interesting way, by
throwing the nut, seed, or other nucleus
with boiling sugar into great copper
pans, which are shaken by hand or
revolved by machinery over a hot fire.
Rolled over and over in the moist sugar,
the plums soon begin to grow, and are
polished off" by each other, while,
! above, steam-worked fans carry off the
dry dust. Gum drops are made of gum
arabic and sugar, boiled and mixed,
seven or eight hundred pounds at a
time, in huge copper steam-kettles,
whence the mixture is taken out into
smaller kettles to be favored and color
ed. The cheap gum drops and .'marsh-
mallOws" are now made chiefly from
! glucose. Cream or soft candies are
made in simple way, from sugar mix
ed with cream of tartar to prevent crys-
| tallizing. TO give them their fancy
forms, a fiat tray is filled with starch
which is pressed into moulds by series
| of plaster -of-Paris models-a drop, hand,
| face, berry, or what it may be-arrang-
Il
moulds the hot cream is poured, and
then allowed to dry. Some factories
have rs much as $4,000 pounds Of starch
IN this use. The drying-room is kept at
a high temperature, in which the
"creams' soon become dry and solid.
They are then separated from the starch
by huge sieVes. If they are to be gloss
ed, they are placed in huge tin pans
and cold solution of sugar poured
over them to stand over night. In the
morning the ice of sugar on top is brok-
en-, and the creams" are found coated
with fine crystals. The liqueur- drops
are Il very curious product. The syrup
is mixed with brandy or favored water,
and is poured into the starch moulds
As it cools at the top and on the mould,
| the crystal makes a continuous case, i'm
| pTlSOulug lLS liquor WltHtn.
The adulteration of candy is chiefly
by the use of terra alba, or white clay
This harmful stuff can be detected by
disSolving the suspected candy in water,
when the clay falls to the bottom undis-
solved. An ounce roll of cheap lozen-
gcs will sometimes contain three
| quarters of an ounce of this injurious
stuff The coloring of candies is, for
the most part, not dangerous, since Il
| piece of red cOlOring the size of Il gum
drop will color 5000 pounds of candy.
Unscrupulous manufacturers, however,
| sometimes use mineral instead of the
safe vegetable colors, and cart-loads OF
such candy have been seized and de-
stroyed by the health officers in New
York For the most part, carmine and
cochineal are used for red, saffron for
yellow, caramel or burnt sugar for
brown, and this with carmine fol
orange. Green and blue candies are to
be avoided. These colors are used
sometimes, however, in decorating"
Il surface treatment of fine candies by
hand, in which water-colOr artist is
employed to do art work at wholesale
according to the model set him. As fol
this purpose the proportion of ooloring
matter to sugar is about one-millionth,
the result of swallowing paint is not SC
disastrous as might be expected. In
favoring essential oils are used, about i
pound to a thousand pounds of sugar
and this is worked in during the boiling
or kneading. Licorice colOrs and flaw
Ors both at Once.-R. IL. BOaOEer, IN
Hdrper's Muqdztlle