CHAPTER V

RECIPES AND FORMULAS

POP-CORN must form the base of the confection; it is not a material that can be added to a confection with any improving result.

The public when it buys a nut bar, wants a nut bar, and when it buys a pop-corn bar, wants a pop-corn bar, and not a bar made up half and half.

In the use of cocoanut, raisins, or nuts in pop-corn, let the quantity of these be very small in proportion to the pop-corn.

Sell your partly popped and unpopped kernels for chicken or pig feed at one cent a pound. Do not harm your confectionery business by trying to use them in that.

You can grind that product in your mill (Stock No. 2001) as fine as coffee. Sell it as a breakfast food to be served with cream and sugar or to be cooked and served like oatmeal. It will take more power to grind it than it takes to grind pop-corn, so do not expect your popper motor to do it.

An excellent breakfast dish is made by putting a little milk upon a molasses fine pop-corn cake. Try it.

Grind sifted pop-corn to make your fine corn cakes, not the siftings.

If you desire to put up an extra fine grade of buttered pop-corn, or pop-corn brittle, you may use a wire screen size one and one-third to the inch and separate the largest popped kernels for these high-grade goods.

You will find that a small amount of cocoanut will add to the quality of pop-corn when made up in vanilla or molasses syrup in the form of brittle or cakes.

Ground, shredded, thread or flaked cocoanut may be used to increase variety and please various trade. In fact, all three styles of cocoanut added to one style of pop-corn is a good thing.

The use of cocoanut in winter and in summer and its use in pop-corn in different climates with the risk of its becoming rancid are to be considered.

Fresh cocoanut will make a better tasting piece of confection, for it gives a flavor all its own. You must cut it up, grate it and use it in your confection on the same day in order to insure the quality of your goods. If the cocoanut is enclosed in a coating of the candy it will keep as well as the pop-corn.

Dried cocoanut will not become rancid, and will add to the quality of your confection. You need not be afraid of its becoming rancid when you do not get it completely incased with candy.

As to whether the cocoanut is ground, shredded or flaked, makes no difference as far as its use is concerned, but it gives a different flavor and appearance to the confection.

Butter should be cooked into the candy to get the best results.

Use a heaping tablespoonful of cream of tartar to ten pounds of sugar to stop graining when you use no corn syrup. Cook it in the candy.

A little Konut cooked in the candy for coating whole pop-corn makes it stir more easily. Use half as much as the recipe calls for butter.

Boiling or Cooking Syrup.

This is the most important operation. If you do it wrong nothing done afterwards can correct it.

Boiling is to take out the water from your syrup.

The proportions of ingredients will affect the amount of boiling required.

The higher the altitude at which the boiling is done the lower is the degree required to boil it, and the degree will vary to which the candy must be cooked to have it harden in cold water.

You must cook your syrup higher in summer than in winter to attain the same keeping qualities.

Sometimes it is advisable, especially in warm weather, to cook your syrup high and then add molasses, which will set it back. Then boil to your test.

Cooking your candy high may prevent you having time before it hardens to get it well spread over the corn. At the same time you must carry the various operations through as fast as possible so you may be able to use high cooked candy.

Any time you let a batch cook too high you can set it back by adding a little syrup or water.

The degree of cooking alone does not regulate the keeping. The proportion of the materials also has to do with the keeping qualities.

If you are using too small a proportion of corn syrup to the sugar the resulting candy will turn back to sugar, that is, it will grain just the same, no matter to what degree you cook it, unless you use cream of tartar.

In some kinds of ground pop-corn penny goods, it is desirable to let the candy grain in order to prevent stickiness. This is attained by the use of a smaller proportion of corn syrup to sugar and by not letting the goods cool off entirely before boxing. Boxing while warm induces graining.

Candied pop-corn that it is intended should grain a little, may be kept from sticking to the machines and tools by wiping them with a wet rag or sponge. You can easily tell whether to use water or butter when the other will not prevent sticking.

Grease is used in the candy to give the required elasticity and make it less moisture attracting.

The coating of pop-corn with candy is done to keep the pop-corn from absorbing moisture. Consequently the candy must be as moisture proof as possible. And each kernel of pop-corn should be entirely enclosed in a candy casing.

A recipe containing corn syrup and sugar may be boiled to a higher degree than a recipe with molasses in it. Also a clear sugar batch may be boiled to a higher degree than any other. It takes an expert to boil sugar to 345 degrees over an open fire and not burn it. If you use a lot of molasses you cannot boil high enough to prevent sticking and spoiling. Use light molasses, New Orleans molasses. It costs more, but gives quality.

Cooking to a high degree dries out the candy so that it attracts moisture more unless other ingredients, such as grease, are put in to counteract it.

Days when the air is heavy with moisture and the weather warm, it is better not to make candy or make only what you cannot get along without, for the reason that it becomes sticky so quickly that you cannot wrap it before it is in condition to stick to the paper.

You see that you cannot be told just what proportions of materials, cooked to a certain test, will result in a candy that will keep in your territory. You must find that out for yourself. This book merely points out the way.

RECIPES

When measuring pop-corn for these recipes a peck is a heaping peck measureful.

=1. Buttered Pop-Corn.=

Put one pound of best creamery butter into the pop-corn kettle (No. 2004-2) and set it on the stove. Melt and boil the butter. Considerable steam will rise from it. When that steam has cleared away, which will be in a very short time, the butter is boiled enough. Take the kettle off the fire, set it on top of a barrel, and stir in a handful of salt. Dump two pecks of whole pop-corn into the kettle. Mix it by a motion of stirring and lifting the paddle (No. 2006-1) up through it. After thoroughly mixing, bag from the kettle or put the corn in a water jacketed buttered corn tank (No. 2019-1) from which it is sold hot. After a batch or two you can make the proportions to suit your trade. This article should be made fresh and sold retail at five cents for a ½ pound bag holding a pint. Use Knott’s Pop-Corn Mixing Machine and put in four pecks of pop-corn to one pound of butter.

Never sell buttered corn made the day before. It will drive trade away.

=2. Sugared Pop-Corn.=

This is made in three flavors and put up in seven different styles. It is sold extensively in Philadelphia and that section of the country. It is generally made in three colors and flavors. Chocolate, white with vanilla flavor, and pink with wintergreen flavor. Other flavors may be made with colors to correspond, such as orange, lemon and sassafras. When put into ¼-pound glacine bags to sell for five cents, or when put into gelatine-covered boxes, so the corn will be protected but still visible, you can have it in single flavors or any desired combinations.

Here is the way to make it:

Put in your kettle (No. 2004-2) on the stove (Stock No. 113) 25 pounds sugar (12½ quarts), 2½ pounds corn syrup (1¼ quarts), 3 quarts water. Bring to a boil and pour into syrup stock tank (Stock No. 2013-1). Put in kettle on fire 2 quarts syrup and ½ ounce butter. Boil until it hardens in cold water; set kettle on Mixing Machine; add a little vanilla for flavor. Dump in one peck of whole pop-corn; stir until it separates; add your chocolate or color over the fire and add the flavor after the kettle is set on the stirring stand.

=3. Brittle.=

This may be made in different flavors and colors: chocolate, vanilla, wintergreen, molasses, etc.

Use soda only in molasses brittle. The most common is molasses brittle with cocoanut.

Place your kettle (Stock No. 2004-2) on the stove with 48 pounds sugar (24 quarts), 18 pounds corn syrup (9 quarts), 2 gallons water (8 quarts), 1 quart molasses. Bring to a boil and pour into syrup stock tank (Stock No. 2013-1).

Put in kettle (Stock No. 2004-2) 3 quarts syrup and ¾ pound butter and heaping teaspoonful salt. Boil 320 degrees. Before entirely cooked put in half a pound of long thread cocoanut.

Set the kettle on the Mixing Machine and stir in a heaping teaspoonful of baking soda. Dump in two pecks of whole pop-corn. Stir well. Dump on table while hot and spread out in open thin style to cool.

Put up in ½-pound, 1-pound bags, 5-pound, 10-pound boxes, or in barrels.

=4. Crispettes or Molasses Round Whole Pop-Corn Cakes or Fritters.=

=Recipe A.=

Place in your kettle (Stock No. 2004-2) 48 pounds sugar (24 quarts), 16 pounds corn syrup (8 quarts), 2 handfuls of salt (¼ quart), 2 gallons of water (8 quarts), 2 quarts of molasses. Bring to a boil and pour into syrup stock tank (Stock No. 2013-1).

Put in your kettle (Stock No. 2004-2) 1 quart of syrup, Konut half size of a hen’s egg (Konut is a butter substitute) and butter size of a large hen’s egg. Boil to 300 degrees. Set kettle on Mixing Machine. Dump in two pecks of whole pop-corn. Stir thoroughly.

Scoop out onto crispette mould and proceed as instructed, page 31.

=Recipe B.=

Put into the kettle 18 pounds corn syrup (9 quarts), 1 gallon molasses (4 quarts), 1 gallon water (4 quarts), 4 pounds butter, 4 pounds parasub (a butter substitute), 10 pounds “C” (a grade of brown) sugar. Bring to a boil. Melt in 40 pounds white sugar. Pour this in syrup stock tank. Letting this syrup stand over night seems to season it so it uses better.

Put in the kettle 1 quart of syrup. Boil to 300 degrees. Drop in a tablespoonful of salt just as you take the kettle off the fire. Put kettle on Mixing Machine. Dump in two pecks of whole pop-corn. Stir thoroughly.

Scoop out onto crispette moulds and proceed as instructed, page 31.

The maker of this recipe claims that cooking the salt in the batch makes the candy sticky.

=Recipe C.= (With soda.)

Put in kettle (Stock No. 2004-2) 75 pounds (37½ quarts) sugar, 25 pounds (12½ quarts) corn syrup. Bring to a boil and pour into syrup stock tank (Stock No. 2013-1.)

Take ¾ quarts of stock in kettle on fire. Add ¼ quart molasses, ¼ pound Konut, parasub or other good butter substitute. Put in ⅛ pound butter and a tablespoonful of salt. Boil to 285 degrees. Set kettle on Mixing Machine and put in pinch of soda. Dump in one peck of sifted whole pop-corn. Stir thoroughly and quickly. Scoop out to fill crispette moulds or dump batch on three pans and proceed as instructed on page 30.

=Recipe D.= (With cream of tartar.)

Put in kettle (Stock No. 2004-2) 60 pounds sugar (30 quarts), 2 gallons water (8 quarts). Bring to a boil and pour into syrup tank (Stock No. 2013-1).

Put in kettle on fire 1 quart stock, ⅛ quart molasses, ¼ pound butter, 1 even teaspoonful cream of tartar. Boil until hard in cold water. Set kettle on Mixing Machine. Dump in two pecks whole pop-corn. Stir thoroughly and quickly; dump while hot on pans or fill moulds.

=5. Whole Pop-Corn.=

This may be made up in round sticks, bars, bricks, blocks, round cakes and balls, any shape. Many flavors and colors may be used. The white pop-corn yields well to using colors to represent various flavors.

Chocolate is its own color. Use pink color with wintergreen flavor, vanilla with the natural white color of the pop-corn, molasses is its own color, orange color with the orange flavor, etc. These five colors, each in eight shapes, give forty varieties of pop-corn packages.

Use 60 pounds sugar (30 quarts), 40 pounds corn syrup (20 quarts), 2 gallons water (8 quarts). Bring to a boil and pour into syrup stock tank (Stock No. 2013-1). Put in your kettle 1½ quarts of this stock. The color, or chocolate, you may put in the batch on the fire, the flavor (wintergreen, orange, vanilla, etc.) you must add to the batch when you take the kettle off the fire, otherwise the flavor will boil away. Add chocolate just before you take kettle off the fire. Put in a teaspoonful of salt and a piece of butter size of half an egg. Boil to 286 degrees. Take kettle off fire and set on Mixing Machine; add flavor. Dump in one peck of sifted whole pop-corn and stir thoroughly. Fill crispette moulds or dump on pans and proceed as instructed, page 30.

Remember that a handful of fresh ground flaked or shredded cocoanut adds a variety to the goods; also raisins and peanuts. Add these at the time you set the kettle off the fire onto the stirring stand. These increase the number of styles under this recipe over two hundred and forty.

=6. Fine Pop-Corn.=

Follow the foregoing recipe for making fine or medium ground pop-corn cakes.

=7. Pop-Corn Sandwiches.=

Make pop-corn in sheets three-eighths or one-half inches thick. Between two sheets put peanut butter, whole peanuts, raisins, etc. The particular likes of your neighborhood may be catered to by the filling you put into these sandwiches. You can cut them into various sizes, even as small as a caramel if you wish.

=8. Pop-Corn Bricks.=

Make five batches: first, molasses; second, vanilla; third, chocolate; fourth, wintergreen; fifth, molasses. Fine pop-corn. Each batch is panned, pressed one inch thick and cut up in rack; make as many piles as you run pans; place the vanilla on top of the molasses. The cutting rack has a beveled edge so that it will easily slip over the previous sheet to register the cut cakes one on top of the other. When the five sheets are piled you can easily separate the bricks for wrapping. Use Knott’s Brick and Bar Cutting Machine, it does the best work.

Oh! What to Do When Materials Cannot Be Had.

Sugar in the shape of the good old white granulated sugar is not in sight sometimes (as in 1919, or in the year 1917 all through the Eastern States).

Consider brown sugar. Remember that brown sugar is not to be used in white goods. It can be used in place of combined white sugar and molasses; weight of brown sugar for weight of white sugar, plus molasses, with nearly same results. There are several grades of brown sugar and the price increases as the grade improves. If you use brown sugar, where formerly you used white, reduce by from 10 to 20 per cent. the quantity of corn syrup to a batch.

No Sugar of Any Kind to Be Had?

Then get some grape or corn sugar. You will have to work out new formulas, yes; but that is oftentimes better than going out of business.

Corn syrup? Yes, even get along without it. Before corn syrup was on the market cream of tartar was used to cut the grain of sugar.

It needs more accurate handling of the batch and requires working with cleaner kettles than is required with corn syrup. Try using an invert sugar, or corn sugar. Water will cut the grain in sugar if enough is used.

Without cane sugar and without corn syrup, how is pop-corn to be made? Do not forget there is honey, corn, or grape sugar, maple sugar, molasses and sugar substitutes on the market. Molasses alone cooked as high as it will go without burning will make a good winter corn cake. Honey is a very fine flavor and of high sugar content.

Pop-corn cakes can be made, even without sugar or corn syrup and be mighty nice in flavor and wholesome. When you do not get sugar, others do not have it and if you can deliver goods, you make the price to cover any increase in cost of materials.