Be sure and have your starch room separate from the rest of your shop, even if you have to make an enclosure in one corner of your kitchen. If so, muslin or some other cheap fabric will answer the purpose. Also leave your candy slab so as to afford ample room on every side of it. Your spinning table should be as long as your room can accommodate, and at least three or three and a half feet wide. Never allow your flavors and colors to become mixed on one shelf. Lumber is cheap, so have lots of shelf room to spare, so when you start after a certain flavor you will not have to overhaul your whole stock of bottles to find it. It might be well to arrange them in alphabetical order. Have a separate shelf for your raw material, such as shelled nuts, chocolate, cocoa butter, paraffin, etc.
In dipping chocolate, provide yourself with oilcloth covered boards of a convenient size, about twelve by eighteen inches, as the oilcloth is superior to wax paper, and cheaper. These boards should be placed, when filled with chocolates, in a rack, which should be located in as cool a place as possible. These boards may be used for bon bons by covering them with wax paper. Nails are cheap, so have a nail for everything that is made to hang up, and see that it hangs there. See that your coal box is as near the furnace as possible. I would suggest that the kindling for tomorrow’s fire be prepared the night before. If possible, have two candy hooks in the shop, as they can be had for a song. Your candy thermometer should be placed in a can of water, which should be directly behind the stove; this will keep the tube free from gummy candy, so that the figures can easily be read, and it will also be more accurate. A small bin, say three by six feet and twelve inches high, will be very useful for mixing your candies in in the fall of the year, and it will cost very little to put it up. Have it placed in one corner of your room when not in use for candy. It can be used to advantage for a great many purposes. Also hang a good, strong dipper over the glucose barrel, for use, and do not get into the filthy habit of taking it out with your hands. By pouring at least two quarts of cold water into the glucose barrel when first opened, the glucose will run out so much easier and will not adhere to the dipper in the least. Also have a good, strong barrel near your furnace, to set your kettle on when stirring your batch; you will avoid an accident, such as tipping while stirring, and also keep your floor in a good, tidy condition.
If I have failed to mention some things in this article, exercise your own good judgment, with the idea of convenience always uppermost in your mind, and time will tell you of your business foresight in a substantial manner.
As this book will fall into the hands of some who have never made candy, I will add the following points:
First. In making taffies, be sure that your slab or marble is always clean and well greased. I would suggest that it be greased with cotton seed oil, or some reliable slab dressing such as you will find mentioned in the rear of this book, as it is far better than lard and never becomes rancid. This of course is known by all candy makers and will be looked at lightly by them, as they know all of these points; but, as I have said before, as this book will fall in the hands of new beginners, I will endeavor to place all the information possible before them so that they will be able to understand just what to do and avoid mistakes from the start.
Second. In cooking hard candies, such as tablets, buttercups, ocean waves, stick candy, or in fact any kind of candy that is cooked over 280° and is to be pulled on the hook or handled, you must use while doing so a pair of buckskin gloves or mittens, as they not only protect the hands but also give the goods a fine gloss.
I will no doubt use a great many plain words in all formulas, but it is for the purpose of making all the points in candy making so plain that a new beginner will have no trouble to understand just what to do, and if he will follow out my instructions, just as I have placed them before him, I am satisfied that he will become proficient in the art of candy making in a short time.
POINTER IN MELTING CHOCOLATE FOR DIPPING.
When you prepare chocolate for dipping, and should you find out that you have no cocoa butter in stock for thinning it, add a little Nucoa butter. It will answer the purpose and is equal to cocoa butter, and also cheaper.