History of Jawbreaker & Rock Candy

Jawbreaker

Jawbreakers range from the size of a hazel nut to the size of a golf ball, and come in many flavors and colors. They are popular with children, and often sold in vending machines. Though originally a trade name, the term jawbreaker became so widespread that it is considered a generic name for any brand candy of this type.

History:

Egyptians prepared sweets with honey, fruits, spices, and nuts. Sugar was not known in Egypt.The first written evidence of its appearance dates to A.D. 500 in India. The method of making sugar from the boiled syrup of the sugarcane plant spread from India through the Arab world, and sugar was introduced to Europe sometime around A.D. 1100 They first thought it was a spice.Sugar was so rare that it was used, for the most medicinally, prescribed in minute doses by physicians.By the 16th century, widespread sugarcane cultivation and the technology for refining sugar developed sufficiently that sugar was not such a precious.Small manufacturers produced candies in Europe at that time.By the late eighteenth century, entrepreneurs had developed candy-making machine, and more complex candies were made and on a bigger scale.

The jawbreaker was made famous by the company: Ferrara Pan Candy Company of Forest Park, Illinois. The origin of the name is obscure. The word jawbreaker first showed up in the English language in 1839, used to mean a “hard-to-pronounce word.” Ferrara Pan was founded by an Italian immigrant to the United States, Salvatore Ferrara, in 1919.He ended up saved up enough money to open his own candy shop in Chicago in 1908.

His products was a kind of sugar-coated almond known in Italy as confetti. These became so popular that Ferrara started his own company to make them.

Raw materials

The crucial ingredient in the jawbreaker is sugar.Jawbreakers use natural colors and flavors. Manufacturers may also add calcium stearate, a binding agent, and a wax such as carnauba wax, to provide a shiny, polished surface.

Jawbreakers are made by the hot pan process, and the type of pan used is very important. Candy-making pans are little like pans found in an ordinary kitchen. They are huge spherical copper kettles with a wide mouth. The pans rotate constantly over a gas flame so the sugar inside is kept tumbling. The worker who makes candy in using these pans is known as a panner.

Read more: http://www.madehow.com/Volume-6/Jawbreaker.html#ixzz2TTQh1ue4

Rock Candy

Rock candy is the purest form of sugar available.While most traditional sweeteners contain a degree of sugar (depending upon the product), rock candy contains pure cane sugar.

Sugar India, rock candy’s origins can be traced to India and Iran. Historical writings in Arabic from the 9th century recounted the process of making candy sugar, which in turn produced rock candy. It took on a crystallized form after a scientific metamorphosis.

It takes several days to make rock candy.The same method is used to produce diamonds and quartz. The scientific process of crystallization includes breaking apart the molecular structure of sugar and allowing the structure to reform with larger and purer crystals.

Read more: The History of Rock Candy | eHow http://www.ehow.com/about_5449922_history-rock-candy.html#ixzz2Tqk5RpAu