How to Test Candy Temperatures Without a Thermometer (2024)

FAQs

How to Test Candy Temperatures Without a Thermometer? ›

To test your candy temperature, you'll want a bowl of cool water to drip the sugar into. You'll know you've reached the soft ball stage when the sugar forms a small ball in the water. The ball will quickly flatten after a few moments of handling as it warms in your hand.

Drop a small amount of the candy mixture with a teaspoon into a small bowl of cold water. Each time you test the candy use a fresh bowl of cold water. If the candy forms a thin thread and does not "ball up", it is in the thread stage or 230°—235°F.

For the Cold Water Test: 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of the syrup (candy mixture) is dropped from a clean spoon into a small bowl of very cold water (not ice cold). Quickly examine and/or carefully pick up the sugar from the cold water. The firmness of the sugar indicates the highest temperature the syrup reached.

While you may think you can get away with using a meat thermometer in place of a candy thermometer (or vice versa), this is definitely not the case. A candy thermometer's long, narrow shape allows you to safely check the temperature of hot sugar or hot oil without burning yourself.

To check your sugar syrup has reached the correct stage without using a sugar thermometer, place a bowl of very cold water next to the hob. Using a clean spoon, carefully take a little of the syrup and drop it into the bowl of cold water. Leave to cool for a moment then pick up the ball of syrup.

There are several ways to determine temperature without a thermometer, but one common method is to use a temperature-sensitive material with a known melting or boiling point. For example, you can use ice, which melts at 0°C (32°F), or a substance like paraffin wax, which has a specific melting point.

Hard-crack stage (300 degrees Fahrenheit and above): A small amount of syrup added to cold water makes a loud cracking noise and separates into brittle threads. The hard-crack stage is for toffee and hard candies like lollipops. Above 330 degrees Fahrenheit, the sugar begins to caramelize and brown.

Hubl is the perfect solution for your food temperature logs. Not only does it allow you to record hot and cold temperatures, it also provides helpful guidance based on FSA best practice. Hubl lets you record hot temperatures for cooking, sous vide and hot holding.

How do you test temperature at home? ›

Turn on the digital thermometer. Place the thermometer under your armpit, making sure it touches skin, not clothing. Hold the thermometer tightly in place until you hear the thermometer beep indicating it's done. Remove the thermometer and read the number.

Hard-crack stage (300 degrees Fahrenheit and above): A small amount of syrup added to cold water makes a loud cracking noise and separates into brittle threads. The hard-crack stage is for toffee and hard candies like lollipops. Above 330 degrees Fahrenheit, the sugar begins to caramelize and brown.

Even without a candy thermometer, you can still check if the fudge is cooked by doing a cold water test. Drop a piece of hot fudge into a glass filled with ice water. It should form a soft ball that can easily flatten between your fingers.

It usually takes about 10-12 minutes to get to this point while boiling the mixture and it's very helpful to have a candy thermometer on hand for tracking the heat of the mixture as we want to go past this point and bring our mix closer to that 300 degrees F point.