THE WORKSHOP.
Sugar boiling, like every other craft, requires a place to do it, fitted with tools and appliances. The requisites and requirements can be easily suited to the purse of the would-be confectioner. A work to be useful to all must cater for all, and include information which will be useful to the smaller storekeeper as well as the larger maker. To begin at the bottom, one can easily imagine a person whose only ambition is to make a little candy for the window fit for children. This could be done with a very small outlay for utensils. The next move is the purchase of a sugar boiler's furnace not very costly and certainly indispensable where quality and variety are required, it will be a great saving of time as well as money, the sugar will boil a much better color, so that cheaper sugar may be used for brown or yellow goods, while one can make acid drops and other white goods from granulated. Dutch crush, or loaf sugar, which would be impossible to make on a kitchen stove from any sort of sugar.
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Fig. 2. Steel Candy Furnace. |
Fig. 206 a. Excelsior Furnace. |
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No. 1—24 in. high, 19 in. diameter. Price, $7.50. No. 2—30 in. high, 23 in. diameter. Price, $12.00. |
Height 26 in., 4 holes, from 9 to 18 in. diameter. Made entirely of cast iron. Price, $16. Weight 225 lbs. |
Fig. 12.
CARAMEL CUTTERS—2 Styles.
Each with Steel Shaft and Screw Handles and two sets Blocks.
No. 2—with 13 Steel Cutters, price $6.50
We make this Cutter with longer rod and any number of extra cutters at 50c. each cutter.
No. 1—with 13 Tinned Cutters, price $11.00
With longer rods and any number of extra cutters at 30c. each cutter.
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Fig. 16. Price 76c.
Fig. 6.
STEAM JACKET—MADE TO ORDER.
LIST OF SUGAR BOILING TOOLS
REQUIRED FOR A START.
| 1 | Candy Furnace | Price, | $7 50 |
| 1 | Copper Boiling pan 15×6 | " | 4 50 |
| 1 | Candy Thermometer | " | 1 75 |
| 1 | Marble Slab 48×24×2 | " | 8 00 |
| 1 | Caramel Cutter | " | 6 50 |
| 1 | Candy Hook | " | 75 |
| 1 | Pallette Knife | " | 50 |
| 1 | Doz. Taffy Pans | " | 2 00 |
| 1 | Pair English Candy Shears | " | 1 50 |
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| Total | $33 00 |
More slab room will be required as trade increases.
We cannot go any further into the mysteries of this art successfully unless we provide ourselves with a candy machine and rolls to enable us to make drops. They are indispensable, and if we are to go on, we must have them to enable us to make drops, and every confectioner sells drops. These machines are made to suit all classes of trade, big and little. The small ones make just as nice drops as the large ones, and will turn out in the course of a day 2 or 3 cwt., by constant use, so that for retail purposes this quantity would generally be sufficient.
Fig. 12½.
Candy Machine and Rollers for Boiled Sugar.
For Fruit Drops, Acid or Cough Drops Imperials, Etc.
These Machines are made to fit a Standard Gauge, and will admit of any number of Rollers being fitted to one frame. Thus parties having our frames can at any time order additional rollers which will work satisfactorily.
The Rollers are 2 in. diameter, 3⅝ in. long. Almost every conceivable pattern can be cut on them.
| CANDY ROLL FRAMES, | $ | 6 00 | each. |
| PLAIN DROP ROLLS, | 14 00 | per pair. | |
| FANCY DROP ROLLS, | from | 16 00 | " |
Having so far got our workshop arranged the next thing is to keep it in order. Sugar boiling is dirty sticky business, especially on wet days, unless every part is kept scrupulously clean and dry, slabs and tables should be washed, no trace of sifting, scraps, or boiled goods, should be left exposed to the atmosphere during the night, the floor well swept, and a little clean sawdust put down every night.
The comfort and ease in working in a clean place far more than offsets the trouble and time it takes to put it in order, besides the goods are much drier, brighter and easier to bottle or pack. Nothing is more unpleasant than to work with sticky slabs, slimy machines or dirty scales. The boil adheres to the slabs, sticks to the rollers, spoiling the shapes, and become cloudy and spotty in weighing. We are not writing without knowledge. Any one who has worked or visited small workshops can endorse the value of these remarks, and call to mind this imaginary picture. However, there are exceptions, still the hint will be useful in a good many cases.
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Fig. 5. Steel Candy Shears. English Candy Shears, $1.50. |
Fig. 201 a. Price, $1.75 Copper Cased Candy Thermometer. |