CLEANLINESS A NECESSARY FEATURE.

Of all places, a candy shop should be a model of cleanliness. Make this a strict rule and always adhere to it.

Visitors often inspect your kitchen, and of course form opinions. These opinions cannot be creditable to any extent if your place is not neat and tidy. The opinions visitors form on such tours of inspection will do much to build up your trade or tear down your patronage, and make you a reputation. In my mind it is the most essential step toward a successful candymaking business.

Don’t be afraid that your helper will learn candymaking; a good helper—one that takes an interest in his work—will more than repay you for the trouble in teaching him, in the additional help you get out of him.

PLAIN TALK TO THE EMPLOYE.

Success in any business is rarely ever obtained by any man who lacks sobriety. The candy maker is no exception to this rule, as all our formulas are carried in our heads, after we become proficient in the business, and a close-thinking brain is indispensable. Wages are decided by worth. If the man who preceded you in your present position received twelve or fifteen dollars a week, is that any reason you should receive the same amount? You may not be worth twelve dollars, and you may make yourself worth more. Strict attention to business, making your employer’s interests your own, working a little overtime if necessary, all increase your worth to your employer, and he will not be slow to recognize it in a substantial manner.

The oldest candy maker is not always the best candy maker, and is not always worth the greatest wages. The young man of ability, integrity, honesty and hustling qualities is the winner.

WINDOW DECORATIONS.

One thing I wish to impress upon the mind of every reader of this book; that is, too much attention cannot be given to your display window. I consider this one-half the store. A neat and tasty display will attract people to your window, and nine times out of ten they will see something to tempt their appetites.

Keep your window clean and well lighted; change the display in them every other day; keep neat, tasty signs on your goods; introduce new and novel features.

I will give you a few ideas on window decorations:

DISPLAY NO. 1.

Cover the bottom of your window with clean paper; then empty a barrel of granulated sugar in the window; make a pile in center, and four small piles, one on each corner; place on the center pile three cakes of sweet or bitter chocolate. Now place on a white china plate a pile of chocolate creams, one for each corner pile, and now run a row of chocolate creams from each corner pile to the center pile. Then place a sign on this display as follows:

DISPLAY NO. 2.

Dump a whole bag of raw Spanish shelled peanuts into the window. In the center place a large bowl of salted peanuts, place a nice silver scoop in the peanuts, and the following sign in front of the bowl:

DISPLAY NO. 3.

Place a number of empty five-pound candy boxes tastily in your window. Take fancy colored cheese cloth, covering window boxes and all; puff it up, place a dish of bon bons daintily piled on each box, make a pile of your one-pound candy boxes at the back, bring to a pile in the center, and place a palm or other plant at each rear corner of the window.

The following sign will add to the display:

DISPLAY NO. 4.

Cover and drape your entire window in violet colored cheese cloth; pin bunches of cheap cloth or paper violets in various places in the window; fill small fancy baskets with violet ribbon tied on handles, with crystalized violets, violet colored bon bons, violet tipped chocolates, or any candies of violet color.

Sign as follows:

DISPLAY NO. 5.

Cover and drape your entire window in American Beauty colored cheese cloth. Pin large paper or cloth roses about the window, fill baskets with pink bon bons, tie red ribbon in basket handles, run strings of red roses from center of top of window to each corner; make a large tray of pink candy chips, and set in rear center of window; place palm or plant of some kind at rear corners of window.

Following sign with large bow of red ribbon in the corner:

DISPLAY NO. 6.

Fill bottom of window with crushed white stone; make a pile of larger stones in one corner, leaving a space in the center of the pile; line the inside with red colored tinfoil; place a light inside—an electric light with red globe is preferred. Now sprinkle coarse salt over the rock, like snow. Make a log cabin out of stick, which can be easily done, and place in one corner; build a small bench to set in front of cabin, get two or three small toy figures of men, place them about in different places. Make a large pile of Klondike Nuggets (see page 99); have a sign painter paint a curtain to go across the back of the window, representing a field of ice and snow. Place the following sign in the window:

Pack in half-pound boxes.

DISPLAY NO. 7.

Cover bottom of window with pink crepe paper; fill as many half-pound boxes as you can get into the window, arranging them tastily with fig glaces (see page 98). Fill a large platter with fine layer figs and place on each side.

Use the following sign:

DISPLAY NO. 8.

Cover bottom of your window with white or cream colored paper, also a board back about six feet high. Now cut some bright red crepe paper in strips about one inch wide; run these strips across bottom, fasten one end, then twist. After you have them twisted enough to look well, fasten the other end. Now run strips from front top of window down to board back, twisting them before you fasten both ends. Now make a fancy design with your red strips on front of board back. Fill entire window with mint drops—white color with red stripes—and display the following sign:

DISPLAY No. 9.

Have a large pan made—large enough to hold a fifty-pound chunk of ice. Have hole made in one corner and provide a way to run the waste water into some receptacle. Place chunk of ice in pan; dig a hole in center of chunk, fill four glasses with green colored water and set on each corner of chunk of ice, fill hole in center with fresh mint sprigs, run a row of fresh mint around edge of pan.

Place the following sign on the mint:

Make a display of bottled goods around this display. (For making mint phosphate see soda formulas.)

DISPLAY No. 10.

Cover bottom with cloth, paper, or some other material; fill entire window with butter-scotch (see page 78) and pile up well.

Individual display is always a good way to dispose of any particular article you wish to push. An entire window trimmed in caramels, chocolates, hoarhound drops or marshmallows will make them sell.

During the summer, if your windows are not closed, think it is a good idea not to trim them, as the goods get dirty, and covered with flies, giving one the impression that your goods are all like the ones displayed in your windows. Better to keep a few nice plants in your window.

A WORD TO THE EMPLOYER.

When your candymaker has exercised his skill in preparing your confections, see that they are properly cared for after being placed in the store. By the carelessness of inexperienced clerks many candies are ruined and rendered unfit to sell to the better class of trade.

Bon bons should never be stacked high in the show case shortly after being made, because they are soft and will not stand pressure.

Some clerks, in selling chocolates or candies of any kind, handle them as if they were lumps of coal, instead of exercising the greatest care and gentlest touch. Too great attention cannot be paid to this feature of the business. A clerk must learn this, and if after a reasonable time does not, is unfit for the business and should seek some occupation where brains are in less demand.

In piling bon bons on your dishes or trays, place a sheet of heavy wax paper between each layer. This will prevent them from sticking.

HOW TO ARRANGE YOUR SHOP.

Arrange your shop with a view to economy of time. A man working in a poorly arranged shop will walk many extra miles during a day’s work. Place your furnace in a well-lighted place; it will save gas bills and enable you to always see the condition of your batch, providing the draft is not cut off to any extent. Sugar, glucose and water are used in almost all candies, therefore have them side by side; you cannot easily move the sink, so move your sugar, glucose and scales as near it as possible.

Keep a pail of clean water beside your furnace, and when not using your paddle place it in the water; this will prevent the paddle from becoming sticky and collecting filth, which condition it is generally in when not cared for in this manner.

Be sure and have your starch room separate from the rest of your shop, even if you have to make an enclosure in one corner of your kitchen. If so, muslin or some other cheap fabric will answer the purpose. Also leave your candy slab so as to afford ample room on every side of it. Your spinning table should be as long as your room can accommodate, and at least three or three and a half feet wide. Never allow your flavors and colors to become mixed on one shelf. Lumber is cheap, so have lots of shelf room to spare, so when you start after a certain flavor you will not have to overhaul your whole stock of bottles to find it. It might be well to arrange them in alphabetical order. Have a separate shelf for your raw material, such as shelled nuts, chocolate, cocoa butter, paraffin, etc.

In dipping chocolate, provide yourself with oilcloth covered boards of a convenient size, about twelve by eighteen inches, as the oilcloth is superior to wax paper, and cheaper. These boards should be placed, when filled with chocolates, in a rack, which should be located in as cool a place as possible. These boards may be used for bon bons by covering them with wax paper. Nails are cheap, so have a nail for everything that is made to hang up, and see that it hangs there. See that your coal box is as near the furnace as possible. I would suggest that the kindling for tomorrow’s fire be prepared the night before. If possible, have two candy hooks in the shop, as they can be had for a song. Your candy thermometer should be placed in a can of water, which should be directly behind the stove; this will keep the tube free from gummy candy, so that the figures can easily be read, and it will also be more accurate. A small bin, say three by six feet and twelve inches high, will be very useful for mixing your candies in in the fall of the year, and it will cost very little to put it up. Have it placed in one corner of your room when not in use for candy. It can be used to advantage for a great many purposes. Also hang a good, strong dipper over the glucose barrel, for use, and do not get into the filthy habit of taking it out with your hands. By pouring at least two quarts of cold water into the glucose barrel when first opened, the glucose will run out so much easier and will not adhere to the dipper in the least. Also have a good, strong barrel near your furnace, to set your kettle on when stirring your batch; you will avoid an accident, such as tipping while stirring, and also keep your floor in a good, tidy condition.

If I have failed to mention some things in this article, exercise your own good judgment, with the idea of convenience always uppermost in your mind, and time will tell you of your business foresight in a substantial manner.

As this book will fall into the hands of some who have never made candy, I will add the following points:

First. In making taffies, be sure that your slab or marble is always clean and well greased. I would suggest that it be greased with cotton seed oil, or some reliable slab dressing such as you will find mentioned in the rear of this book, as it is far better than lard and never becomes rancid. This of course is known by all candy makers and will be looked at lightly by them, as they know all of these points; but, as I have said before, as this book will fall in the hands of new beginners, I will endeavor to place all the information possible before them so that they will be able to understand just what to do and avoid mistakes from the start.

Second. In cooking hard candies, such as tablets, buttercups, ocean waves, stick candy, or in fact any kind of candy that is cooked over 280° and is to be pulled on the hook or handled, you must use while doing so a pair of buckskin gloves or mittens, as they not only protect the hands but also give the goods a fine gloss.

I will no doubt use a great many plain words in all formulas, but it is for the purpose of making all the points in candy making so plain that a new beginner will have no trouble to understand just what to do, and if he will follow out my instructions, just as I have placed them before him, I am satisfied that he will become proficient in the art of candy making in a short time.

POINTER IN MELTING CHOCOLATE FOR DIPPING.

When you prepare chocolate for dipping, and should you find out that you have no cocoa butter in stock for thinning it, add a little Nucoa butter. It will answer the purpose and is equal to cocoa butter, and also cheaper.

By mixing equal parts of bitter and sweet chocolate you will have a better colored and better eating chocolate than by using only sweet chocolate.

NOTICE.

Whenever you cook a batch of candy that contains cream and is to be pulled upon the hook, see that the batch is one-half glucose and one-half sugar, as cream in a pulled batch has a tendency to grain in a short time. Therefore, remember this and avoid grained batches.

A POINTER ON DIPPING BON BONS.

Don’t allow yourself to get in the habit of pouring water in your dipping cream while dipping bon bons, as ninety-nine out of every hundred do, and still know that it will only add to making the bon bons get dry and hard and spotted much sooner. Always dip as quickly as possible and only melt as much cream at a time as you think you will be able to use. This will avoid your adding water.

HOW TO DIP CHOCOLATES IN HOT WEATHER.

This recipe or pointer is worth twice the price of the book. It will do the work in the hottest weather without fail, and costs about ten or fifteen cents a day to operate it. Get a good cracker box, knock off the top cover, and one side of the box; now take the side piece you have just taken off, put it on again with two small hinges on the bottom part, so that it will open and shut in good shape. Now take the box to a tinsmith and have him make out of galvanized iron a pan four inches deep and just the size of the box, to be slipped in on top where the cover was taken off. Now get a five-cent staple and clasp and screw it on the side of the box, so that when the side is closed up it can be fastened while chocolates are cooling.

HOW TO USE THE BOX.

Now, when you get ready to dip chocolate, put one bucket of ice in the pan, and a cup of salt, and start to work, and every time you get a pan or boardfull done, open the side of the box and slip in the pan of chocolates just dipped; and before you can dip the next pan this one will be cool and dry and ready for the store. Keep the side door always shut while chocolates are in the box, so as to keep the hot air from same. The bottom of the pan will then always be dry and avoid sweating and allowing drops of water to fall upon your goods. This box can be made at a cost of seventy-five cents. Don’t fail to try it.

HOW TO PREPARE CHOCOLATE FOR DIPPING.

In preparing chocolate for dipping, a great deal depends on the grade of chocolate you use. Cheap chocolate is dear at any price as the profits in chocolate goods are as great, if not greater, than many other candies. I would suggest that you use some brand that is reliable. You can find that kind advertised in the rear of this book, as I only advertise those that I know are all right. Any of these, properly handled, will do good work.

First, melt your chocolate over steam; see that it is cut up fine, and while melting always stir it with the hand, instead of a spoon or paddle, as you can always detect just how hot it is. Don’t get the chocolate any more than blood warm, then take it away from the water and let the bulk of the steam escape, and when the water is just nice and warm place the chocolate over it again and it will keep it the same temperature while using it. If using a cheap brand, add a little nucoa butter and stir it in well. After you have taken it out and laid it on the slab or pan, what chocolate you are going to dip with, work it with your hand until it feels quite cool. This will prevent the drops from turning gray; but see that they are cooled off immediately after being dipped. If you use the better grade of chocolate you need not use the nucoa butter, as it contains enough itself, and when properly handled will prove satisfactory.

SPECIAL NOTICE.

You will probably notice that in all my recipes I quote glucose instead of cream of tartar. I do this as this book is intended for a class of candy makers who are just starting and are still young in the business; also for some who have as yet never made candies but are just striving to learn; and as glucose properly handled is equal to if not a great deal better than the cream of tartar, and also more profitable, I prefer to give it in all of my recipes. Of course there must be some common sense and judgment used, and it is policy not to use as much glucose in hot weather as in the severe winter months; therefore you will be able by experience only to master this point.

Use your own judgment, and if you are bright, originate new goods, call them some pretty name, and place them so as to look well in the store. That is half of the battle won towards becoming a successful candy maker. Of course it is necessary to first know the principles of making candy. When you learn that, have confidence in yourself and go ahead, and it won’t be long before you will be able to prepare a great many pretty candies out of a small quantity of raw material.

In looking over this book you will find that we have instructed you to prepare a variety of dainty candies which are made from fondants, nuts, fruits, etc. This is intended for new beginners, also for a few old-time candy makers who have fallen behind in certain goods and always stick to one kind the year round and are too busy to look up new goods or to originate little novelties for the show case.

HOW TO MAKE PLASTER PARIS MOLDS.

Don’t run the plaster paris into starch, as it requires too much work to whittle them in shape. For a smooth mold follow these instructions:

Soak in cold water one-half pound of Jap gelatin for three hours, then put it in the kettle and cook it, stirring all the time until it is dissolved, then pour it in a deep pan and let set. Try it once in a while by sticking your finger in it, and when the impression you make with your finger does not close up at once, then put in one of each kind of molds you wish to get pattern of, and let remain in gelatin until it gets cold and sets. Then pick out the molds and mix whatever plaster paris you wish to use in cold water so that it can be run through a funnel, and run it in the impressions made. When they set you can take a pin, pick them out and refill the impressions a dozen times if you like and your molds will come out nice and smooth. Don’t get the plaster paris too thin when mixing; also use the dentist’s plaster paris, as it is the best for this use and costs very little more than the common.

A very soft center for a hand-made chocolate can be produced by placing eight or ten pounds of bon bon cream in a one-gallon ice cream can, and then surrounding the can with ice, and leave so for a few hours; then as your helper takes out of the can pieces of the cream and rolls them around as you dip them, you will find after they are dipped that in less than ten minutes you have a softer center than you can produce by running cream in starch.