On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 1291

knockedapartinfast-movingsurroundings—
the total number of crystals formed in a hot
syrup will be lower. Put these two trends
together, and we see that when a hot syrup
beginstocrystallize,itwillproducefewerand
largercrystalsthanacoolone,andthereforea
coarse texture. This is why recipes for fudge
or fondant, candies with a fine, creamy
texture, call for the syrup to be cooled
drastically — from 235ºF/113ºC down to
around 110ºF/43ºC — before the cook
initiatescrystallizationbystirring.
StirringMakesSmallerCrystals Crystal size
and texture are also influenced by stirring.
We’ve seen that agitation favors the
formation of crystal seeds by pushing sugar
molecules into each other. A syrup that is
stirred infrequently will develop only a few
crystals, while one that is kept in motion
continuouslywillproducegreatnumbers.And
the more crystals there are in a syrup, all


competing for the remaining free molecules,
the fewer free molecules there are to go
around,andsothesmallertheaveragesizeof
eachcrystal.Themoreasyrupisstirred,then,
the finer the consistency of the final candy.
Thisisthejustificationforwearingyourarm
out when making fudge: the moment you let
up, the formation of seeds slows down, the

crystalsyou’vemadeuptothatpointbeginto
grow in size, and the candy gets coarse and
grainy.
RulesforCreatingFine-Textured
Candies
In order to produce many small sugar
crystals from a syrup, the candy maker
should
includesomecornsyrupintherecipeto
interferewithcrystalformation
removedriedsyrupfromthepaninterior
beforecoolingthesyrup