250 Ways to Make Candy

Note: This edition of 250 Ways to Make Candy has been updated with Metric equivalents.


Until the beginning of the nineteenth century, the art of making sweetmeats was practiced chiefly by physicians and apothecaries, who used sugar and honey to conceal the taste of their medicines.


In earlier civilizations, sugar was unknown, but sweets were supplied from natural sources such as honey and the sweet saps of trees and canes. The convenience of sugar in its present form makes transportation of sweet products a simple matter.


Today, when it is pure, candy is recognized as a valuable food. Children need the fuel supplied by sugar to replace the energy’ they use in daily activities and this need is the best reason for homemade candies. If pure and wholesome sweets are provided at home, youngsters are less likely to indulge in unsupervised consumption of purchased candy. Ability in the art of candymaking is an excellent aid to popularity. The hostess who serves a variety of homemade candies when she entertains, is admired for her ingenuity. Homemade candies attractively boxed make inexpensive and desirable gifts, and often a skilled candymaker may turn her interest into a source of revenue by creating a commercial demand for her confections.


In the preparations of candies, the fundamental principle is to select the best ingredients and follow the directions in the recipe faithfully. There is no place in cookery where inferior materials are reflected more conspicuously than in candy.


Candymaking is undoubtedly one of the most interesting forms of cooking because of its wide scope of variations. Although chocolate is America’s favorite flavoring and there are innumerable recipes that include this flavor, fruits and extracts lend a note of distinction to some types of sweets. A wide variety of sugars, syrups, molasses, honeys, nuts and food colorings may be used for unique results. To the beginner and to the experienced candymaker, this book brings a fund of detailed information and clever ideas that will enrich her repertory and delight her family and friends.