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.