While the mass of sugar starts out molten, being split into so many little pieces gives it much greater surface area than before — much more of it is exposed to the cooler air — and so it goes from being liquid to being solid in an instant. The resulting sugar cobweb collects all around the inside of the big pan, and you can use a paper cone to lift it out and wrap it up into the familiar pouf. Candyfloss machines make this process relatively simple, but long before they existed confectioners were still trying to get something like this to happen to sugar.
Then you return with the knife to pick up another strand, continuing as long as the sugar remains molten — hopefully long enough for you to get enough sugar threads wrapped around your mold to make a nice web or nest to put delicacies in. Luckily for those of us who do not possess such wells of patience and dexterity, in two Americans applied for a patent for a candyfloss machine.
Deadly dull descriptions notwithstanding, the thing was a hit. At the World's Fair in St Louis, Morrison, who happened, ironically, to be a dentist , and Wharton sold spun sugar to all comers. According to a lovely and authoritative Gourmet article by Bruce Feiler, they sold a whopping 68, boxes. Sweet-toothed readers take note: Another confection to have its world debut at the fair was the waffle cone.
Inside the head, the sugar trickles down into the heating element, a metal coil operating at about degrees, sufficient to melt the sugar. Spinning at 3, rpm, the head flings the liquid sugar outward by centrifugal force.
Two rows of diagonal slits in the band disperse the liquid sugar into thin filaments known as floss. A plastic net called a stabilizer, which lines the inside of the floss pan, gives the cooling strands a foothold. The threads are collected in a special collar.
The design of such machines is very simple, so it will also not be difficult to choose the right one for you. Compact machines are best suited for private households, as they are easy to store. It is also important that such equipment can be easily disassembled during cleaning, and ideally its elements should be dishwasher safe.
For extensive use, go for a durable model and also with the option of different sizes. The heating power of the device will certainly be important here — the higher it is, the more efficient it will be and you will be able to prepare candy floss in approx.
The choice of equipment also depends on how are you are going to use it. If you intend to use it on a permanent basis e. It should be resistant to mechanical damage, so a stainless steel model is a good bet. A vibration reduction system will prevent it from sliding on the countertop.
If you want to make candy floss outdoors — at festivals, fairs, or at a holiday resort — the criteria will be different. Two aspects will then be the most important — mobility and protection from external factors. The candy floss machine should be placed on a mobile stand, ideally with a cover over the collar to protect the candy floss from dirt, rain or insects. Spun sugar was a treat for the wealthy -- the two essential ingredients, sugar and time, were luxuries for most people.
Spun sugar is still made today, but modern recipes include cream of tartar and corn syrup , ingredients that help prevent recrystallization. Spun sugar was a precursor to cotton candy -- modern cotton candy would have to wait for the technological advances of the Industrial Revolution and the teaming of two unlikely business associates.
In , John C. Wharton, a candy maker, and William J. Morrison, a dentist, received a patent for "certain new and useful improvements in candy machines. Instead of melting sugar in a pan over an open fire, it was melted by an electric heating element at the base of a funnel-shaped dish. Instead of flinging the substance with a fork, the machine rotated rapidly, flinging the syrup through tiny holes in the funnel using centrifugal force. An outer bowl caught the threads as they cooled.
The finished product was fine and fluffy, almost ethereal. Thus, the inventors dubbed it "fairy floss. Here again, sugar's chemical construction was instrumental to the outcome.
The molten sugar was flung so forcefully and cooled so rapidly that the molecules didn't have time to reorganize as crystals. Cotton candy, like caramel and toffee, is thus called a noncrystalline candy.
Fairy floss was a huge success at the St. Louis World's Fair in But like many prototypes, the cotton candy machine had room for improvement. It was noisy, shook terribly and often broke down.
A spring base, added in, increased its efficiency and durability [source: Feiler ]. Although little has changed in the cotton candy machine's basic design, today's machines continue to evolve with technology. Larger models can hold 3 pounds 1. Some heads are compartmentalized, allowing the operator to load up to three different colors and flavors of sugar and switch between them during one run. The head descends into one or more coiled heating elements that reach a temperature of about degrees Fahrenheit degrees Celsius.
Temperature and voltage can be set and monitored digitally. The rotating bowl may span almost 30 inches 75 cm and spin at 3, revolutions per minute, spewing filaments of molten sugar that measure just 50 microns in diameter [source: Science World ]. Colors and flavors have come a long way, too.
Simpler innovations include a stabilizer, a sturdy mesh attached to the inner wall of the bowl that makes the candy easier to collect, and a plastic dome called a bubble, which shields half the bowl to help protect the cotton candy from dirt and insects.
In , this carnival food met mass production when a fully automated machine was unveiled. Cotton candy could now be found at grocery stores and other outlets long after the carnival left town.
0コメント