Barley sugar

As noted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) there are at least two distinct methods of preparing confections which have been called "barley sugar".

Heating to a higher temperature (185 °C or 365 °F) produces a viscid liquid, which if suddenly cooled remains transparent.

[8] Elizabeth Pidoux, the first Mother Superior of the Benedictine nuns at the Prieuré Perpétuel de Notre-Dame des Anges in Moret-sur-Loing, France is credited with the first recipe for barley sugar.

[9] The recipe was eventually passed on to a later Benedictine community that returned to Moret, the Sœurs de la Charité.

[14] In 1970, the recipe for Sucre d'orge des Religieuses de Moret was entrusted to confectioner Jean Rousseau by Sister Marie-André.

[10][11][5] In 1997, the Rousseaus organized the Confrérie du Sucre d'Orge des Religieuses de Moret sur Loing, a non-religious society to support the making of the traditional candy.

Seeing barley sugar being made at Tringhams on Holborn-hill had once been a "great attraction", but the old favorites had lessened in popularity.

[23] Sugar candies were also popular in Germany, and recipes traveled to North America with English, Scottish and German settlers.

[2]: 3–4  By the 19th century these molded candies were a popular Victorian Christmas treat in Germany, England, and some areas of North America.

In 1829, the Italian Confectioner describes the making of "barley-sugar" twists, tablets and drops using sugar, lemon, vinegar or alum, and "any essence you choose".

[29] Isabella Beeton's Book of Household Management (1861) uses egg white and suggests the addition of saffron for colouring.