To Boil Sugar From Syrup to Candy, or to Caramel

Source: Eliza Acton, 1845

Instructions

Acton's premise: the technicalities by which confectioners distinguish the different degrees of sugar-boiling seem to her calculated rather to puzzle than to assist the reader, so she describes the degrees in plain English terms instead. Judge by the tests below, not by a thermometer, which she does not use.
After it has boiled a certain time (the length depending in a measure on the quality of the sugar as well as on the quantity of water added) the sugar becomes a thin syrup, and will scarcely form a short thread if a drop be pressed between the thumb and finger and they are then drawn apart.
From five to ten minutes more of rapid boiling will bring it to a thick syrup. At this degree the thread may be drawn from one hand to the other at some length without breaking; but its appearance in dropping from the skimmer will perhaps best denote its being at this point, as it hangs in a sort of string as it falls.
After this the sugar will soon begin to whiten and to form large bubbles in the pan. What you do next depends on what you are making.
If it is intended for barley-sugar or caramel: add some lemon-juice or other acid at this stage, to prevent its graining, or becoming sugar again.
If it is wanted to candy: stir it without ceasing until it rises almost to the top of the pan, in one large white mass. Use it immediately, or lade it out into paper cases or on to dishes with the utmost expedition, as it passes in an instant almost from this state to one in which it forms a sort of powder. Should that happen, add water, stir it until dissolved, and reboil it to the proper point.
For barley-sugar likewise, stir it constantly and watch it carefully after the lemon-juice is added.
If you are inexperienced in the process, drop a small quantity from time to time into a large basin of cold water. When in falling into this it makes a bubbling noise, and if taken out immediately after it snaps clean between the teeth without sticking to them, pour it out instantly.
If it is wanted for sugar-spinning, plunge the pan as quickly as possible into a vessel of cold water.