[Sca-cooks] Dragon Beard Candy

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Aug 9, 2005, at 11:07 AM, Susan Fox wrote:

> Just an online demo of confectionary that I thought people here  
> might find interesting.  They don't seem to include the recipe,  
> which is not surprising because they are trying to sell the candy,  
> yes?
> http://www.yuzumura.com/bamboogarden/ma ster8mb.wmv <http:// 
> www.yuzumura.com/bamboogarden/master8mb.wmv> (no, I'm not sure how  
> big it is).

What I got was 8.4 MBs, and thank heaven for mplayer, since I refuse  
to have Windows Media Player on my hard drive.

This is pretty fascinating stuff, though. The voice-over claims it's  
made from sugar and maltose (in this context a heavy syrup usually  
derived from malted rice), which past experience suggests is used to  
prevent undue crystallization at inopportune moments. I imagine it's  
cooked to a taffy-like consistency, somewhere short of hard crack,  
and the actual hand work appears to be identical to that for Dragon's  
Beard Noodles. What makes this interesting is the pulling designed  
not only to smooth out lumps, but, I suspect, add via friction to the  
ambient heat of the sugar mass, keeping it softer and more pliable  
than it would otherwise be.

Adamantius



"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la  
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them  
eat cake!"
     -- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques Rousseau,  
"Confessions", 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
     -- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry  
Holt, 07/29/04