While it actually started snowing this past weekend, it didn’t begin snowing steadily until today. Watching the snow outside - lazy, large, and loose is best kind - I thought about eating candy. Unfortunately, I’ve been sucking on zinc lozenges in an attempt to ward off the cold so my tongue felt thick, coated, and unsuited for maximum candy intake. Additionally, I don’t have much candy squirreled away in my cubicle so I couldn’t actually eat any candy.
If you’ve read the Little House on the Prairie series, you’ll remember that in the first book “Little House in the Big Woods,” the Ingalls’ experience an excellent surplus of maple sugar from Laura’s maternal grandfather when they are still living in Wisconsin. Aside from maple syrup, boiling maple sap to make candy was also popular. High-fructose corn syrup has replaced maple syrup as the ingredient of choice for candy making, but for maple candy there isn’t any other substitution. In the book - you can read the excerpt here - the Ingalls boil maple sap to a soft/hard-ball stage and drizzle it generously onto a tray of fresh snow, where it cools to become a soft taffy-like candy. I don’t recall Ingalls Wilder giving this a specific name, but it is known as:
- Jack Wax
- Sugar on Snow
- Tire d’érable (French Canadian)
- Maple Taffee (Canadian)
Like snow itself, Jack Wax is meant to be eaten immediately. It doesn’t store at all.
Sugar snow is a phenomenon that occurs when a cold front with snowy conditions follows a warm day. The resulting drop in barometric pressure ensures a continuous flow of maple sugar, as the cold weather tricks the trees into believing it is still winter, thus witholding maple sugar (a source of nutrition) from the tree buds.The minimum sugar concentration for maple syrup is 66%. According to sources, the sugar concentration of maple candy ranges from 85% to 87%.
Using a candy thermometer will give you more accurate results and please the exacting types, but Jack Wax can be made without a thermometer. Using 100% real maple syrup - “maple flavored” will not do at all - boil in a pot on low heat. From sap to syrup, the maximum boiling point for maple syrup is 7-7.1 °F (219 °F) above the boiling point for water (212 °F) thus the maximum boiling point for making candy is higher. Always keep an eye on this, or be around the kitchen.
If you like a soft, easy-to-chew type of candy, boil the maple syrup until it has reached the soft-ball stage (230 °F–234 °F). If you’re without a thermometer, drop a bit of the syrup into a glass of cold water. If it turns into a definite ball in the water and flattens out in your hands, you’re ready to pour it into the snow. If you prefer a more tooth-pulling version, five degrees more ought to do. Any longer or hotter and it will begin to crystallize and become maple sugar. Or burn.
Again, you need to eat this stuff right away. Using a fork helps.
Some people like it with donuts or dill pickles to balance out the sweetness. Saltines are also good; this combination in particular reminds me of a snack in China. Maltose syrup is sandwiched between two enormous and crispy saltine crackers. Sometimes there is a wooden stick inserted so you eat it like a popsicle.
An important message: When you make jack snow, make sure the snow is clean. No yellow snow.
And remember to brush your teeth!
A link to reading Laura Ingalls Wilder’s account of sugar snow, sugar on snow, and grandparents.
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