Is my "candi sugar" now caramel?

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RadicalEd

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So I tried to make up a big old batch of invert sugar (7 lbs or so) for a few future projects of mine. I think I may have let the temps get a little hight during the cook time, and while cooking it gave off a wonderful caramel aroma, and the pots and utensils certainly had rather tasty caramel on them. Now, there is very little aroma and caramel flavor from the syrup, mostly just a mild sweetness. So either did I:

A) make a big batch of caramel, and the volatile organic compounds escaped overnight.

or

B) make a big batch of invert sugar and a little nit of caramel on the pots/utensils.

Here's a pic of it; sorry for low image quality. I tried to get a light behind it to show the color, should that help.

candisugarzg3.jpg
 
It went something like:

Pour sugar into pot. Mix with a little water and lemon juice. Stir like crazy, turn on heat, and continue to stir like crazy. Let it reach boiling. Realize that my pot was too small, so frantically transfer to another, larger, pot. Re-heat to boiling and realize that I needed a bunch more invert sugar made, so add another bag. Split that into half, one half in each pot. Attempt to keep temp around 130*C (266*f), kept it more like 125*C (257*f). After a while, raise temp to 147*C (296.6) and kill flame. Pour into bucket sitting in a large bowl of water with the faucet flowing into the bowl to cool.

So as you can see, hardly the sterling process that I was trying to adhere to, and hence my concern.
 
Hmm, I dunno, seems ok. I suspect it fine. If you have a ton of it put a lb in a gallon of water and measure the gravity after dissolving it. Make sure you get 1.036-1.046 (I get 1.046 with mine). If that's correct, then you be fine. I doubt it's caramel. How much lemon juice did you use? If you did it correct it should become solid and not stay a liquid.
 
I'll take a measure of the gravity as soon as I have a chance to use it, then.

I used 2 tbsp of lemon juice, it seemed about right but I was getting some different amounts from different recipes.

Truth be told, a little water got into the cooling sugar from the faucet, maybe a cup, cup and a half. One of those bump-the-faucet moments. Right now it's practically a solid; I can lift the bucket by that spoon in the pic. I held it for a minute or so without it coming free, but I could have done longer. So it's really really thick and hard, but still not a "solid". Which is kinda fine by me (as long as there is no other consequences), as getting all of that out of the bucket if it was rock hard would be a major PITA.

Thanks for your help, O'Flannagain. I appreciate it.
 
It was my experience that you need to hold at 300 for a minute or so to solidify nice. I am pretty sure this is the temp required to get out the water to the point where it will become hard.

My first ruined batch last night I did do this and managed a nice muffin tin full of sugar - carmalized and ruined, but solid.

My second batch I was a little more cautious and stopped immediately after 299. While the pucks seemed very hard when cooled, I left them in a stack on the counter six high. A looked at them in an hour and they were like the leaning tower of Piza. Slowly smooshed the lower sugar pucks.

Were you trying to make invert sugar? I thought to do that you only needed to boil for it a few minutes and didn't get any change in color?
 
RadicalEd said:
I'll take a measure of the gravity as soon as I have a chance to use it, then.

I used 2 tbsp of lemon juice, it seemed about right but I was getting some different amounts from different recipes.

Truth be told, a little water got into the cooling sugar from the faucet, maybe a cup, cup and a half. One of those bump-the-faucet moments. Right now it's practically a solid; I can lift the bucket by that spoon in the pic. I held it for a minute or so without it coming free, but I could have done longer. So it's really really thick and hard, but still not a "solid". Which is kinda fine by me (as long as there is no other consequences), as getting all of that out of the bucket if it was rock hard would be a major PITA.

Thanks for your help, O'Flannagain. I appreciate it.
Click to expand...

lol, yea it would definitely be a PITA if it was rock solid. I like to use it 1tbsp lemon juice per pound. I'm no expert at this, but I have made it a few times and it's turned out good. Once it's rock solid you can break it up with a hammer though and have nice little rock candis.
 

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