Hello wock,
Thank you for your question.
I started by searching for recipes for sour candies to see exactly
what went into them:
GetSuckered.com was unavailable tonight, so I viewed a page cached by
Google at:
http://216.239.53.100/search?q=cache:YKx9DxSjQVoC:www.getsuckered.com/products/+%22sour+candy%22+%2Brecipe&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
They show that hard candy is made with the following:
Hard Candy Recipe Mix 3/4 lb. $2.00 (sugar, corn syrup & salt) (add
water & flavoring)
And, they show a variety of sour oils just for this purpose:
SOUR CANDY FLAVOR OILS:
0.5 oz 2.95 and 1.5 oz. 6.95
16 oz. As listed
Sour Green Apple -[Art] $29
Sour Apple -[Art]
Sour Berry -[Nat&Art]
Sour Cherry-[Nat&Art]
Sour Grape-[Art]
Sour Lemon-[Nat]
Sour Pink Lemonade-[Nat&Art]
Sour Lime-[Nat&Art]
Sour Mandarin orange-[Nat]
Sour Orange-[Nat&Art]
Sour Peach-[Nat&Art]
Sour Raspberry-[Art]
Sour Strawberry-[Nat&Art]
Sweet & Sour-[Nat&Art]
Sour Tangerine-[Nat&Art]
Sour Watermelon-[Nat&Art]
So, it appears that the oil is added to the mix rather than coming
pre-packaged as a sour sugar.
At the Food Network, a chat transcript with Marc Summers notes the
following:
http://www.foodtv.com/forums/chattranscripts/summers07292002/0,7383,,00.html
"...Lorin: My kids and I would like to know what exactly makes sour
candy sour.
Marc Summers: Well, it's a particular acid that they add to the candy.
We talked about that on our sour episodes - and just in case you
missed them, you can now buy "Unwrapped" on home video by going to the
website. I believe that particular episode is available. You can buy
it and, if your kids want to know about it, you can play it over and
over and over again."
The Unwrapped Store is available here:
http://store.foodnetwork.com/shop/thumbnail.asp?department_code=1&category_code=20&search_type=subcategory
Oddly enough, there was little more I could find on the internet, so I
trotted over to Google Groups to see what discussions I could find on
sour candy:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&threadm=Schaller_Barb-0212960836080001%40mac-240-61.htc.honeywell.com&rnum=1&prev=/groups%3Fq%3D%2522sour%2Bcandy%2522%2B%252Brecipe%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26selm%3DSchaller_Barb-0212960836080001%2540mac-240-61.htc.honeywell.com%26rnum%3D1
"Do I add citric acid for "sour" candy?
Can anyone tell me if it is the addition of citric acid to boiled
candies that gives it the sourness.
You betcha! We call it 'pucker power.' :-)
My old instruction booklet recommends 1/4 tsp. of citric acid
crystals added to fruit flavors in a recipe using 2 cups sugar. When
sugar mixture reaches -- oh heck, here's the whole recipe:
Basic Hard Candy
2 cups sugar
2/3 cup light corn syrup
3/4 cup water
Flavorings and colorings
Measure sugar, corn syrup and water into a 1-quart saucepan and blend
together. Add food coloring. (I don't -- I add it later. -b) Place
over high heat and stir until mixture boils. Wash down sides of pan
with water in a pastry brush (I don't) to remove crystals. (never been
a problem) Clip thermometer to the side of the pan and continue to
boil to 300 deg F, washing down occasionally to prevent
crystallization (i don't) . When
mixture reaches 300 deg (doesn't take more than about 10 minutes),
remove the pan from the burner and allow boiling to subside before
adding hard candy flavor or oil flavoring (I add the color now--I use
paste colors rather than liquid). Gently stir in flavor and pour into
oiled sucker molds or pour onto cookie sheet or marble slab.
Variations: Try adding pucker power to your fruit flavors by allowing
the syrup to cool to 260 deg then gently stir in fruit flavor and 1/4
tsp citric acid; mold as usual."
And a comment from another in the thread:
"You want to add the citric acid (liquid form if the candy is a hard
candy - (50% citric acid powder and 50% water) at the same time that
you add the flavor - do not cook the acid in. Add to taste (rule of
thumb - 1/2 the amount of the flavoring, so if you use 1 oz flavor use
1/2 ounce of citric acid)."
So, it appears there are two methods for obtaining the sourness of
sour candy:
Use a flavor oil or add citric acid to the flavoring you chose to use.
I checked [sour +"flavor oil"] to see if there were online suppliers
other than GetSuckered.com and, although there are lots of sources for
food flavorings and a few for flavor oils, it seems GetSuckered has
cornered the market, at least online, for sour flavor oils.
Just to tie this all together, I went over to How Stuff Works to see
how cotton candy is made:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/question156.htm
How do they make cotton candy?
"Cotton candy is one of those amazing foods that makes no sense until
you know the secret. There is no way to produce cotton candy without
special equipment, but if you have the equipment, it is incredibly
easy!
Cotton candy is nothing but pure sugar. To make the sugar "cottony,"
you need four things:
Heat to melt the sugar and turn it into a liquid
A set of very small holes that the liquid sugar can flow through to
form threads of sugar
A spinning head that slings the liquid sugar outward so it is forced
through the holes
A bowl to catch the threads
This page has a really nice picture. You pour sugar into the center of
the head. "
http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/framed.htm?parent=question156.htm&url=http://www.gmpopcorn.com/catpg_35.htm
"The head contains the heater to melt the sugar and make it liquid.
Then, by spinning the head, the cotton candy machine forces the liquid
sugar out through tiny holes in the head. The instant the thin threads
of sugar hit the air, they cool and re-solidify, so in the bowl of the
machine a web of sugar threads develops. The web is easily collected
on a paper cone."
You can find cotton candy equipment and supplies here:
http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/framed.htm?parent=question156.htm&url=http://www.funprofit.com/funfoodz/nfcncinfo.asp
So, it seems you can add the sour flavor oil to the sugar, or use
standard flavoring and citric acid to achieve your desired result.
Search Strategy:
"sour candy" +recipe
make +cotton +candy
I trust my research will help you make sour cotton candy. If a link
above should fail to work or anything require further explanation,
please do post a Request for Clarification and I will be pleased to
assist further.
Regards,
-=clouseau=- |
