Ireland: Yellowman (Crunchy Brown Sugar and Golden Syrup Toffee): March 14, 2008

The words "Ireland" and "candy" probably don't automatically go together in most people's minds when considering traditional Irish food. In the last few decades, of course, renowned Irish candy-makers have sprung up -- specifically chocolatiers like Lír and Lily O'Brien's. But much older than anything these folks produce is a traditional Irish sweet that hails from the northern counties, and is famous enough to have been enshrined in song.

Yellowman is associated with the great annual harvest-time cattle fair at Ballycastle, County Antrim. ("Did you treat your Mary Ann / To some dulse and yellowman / at the old Lammas Fair / at Ballycastle, O?" asks the old song.) It's a toffee based on golden syrup and brown sugar. Vinegar sharpens the taste, and the toffee acquires a unique bubbly, light, crunchy consistency due to the reaction of the vinegar with the baking soda that's added to the mixture when it's hot enough. Yellowman was sold from numerous competing stalls at the Ballycastle fair, the various entrepreneurs making all kinds of claims for their own product. One stallkeeper claimed that his family's recipe for yellowman would cure all known diseases. (Pity it wasn't true.)

Yellowman is fairly quick and easy to make if you want to give it a try. It's a pleasant candy just eaten on its own: and some of the new generation of Irish chefs have started putting it in other desserts, such as ice cream.

Click on "read more" for the recipe.

First, have ready:

• A 10 x 15-inch well-buttered cookie sheet or Swiss roll pan, with at least a 1/2 inch rim. This recipe will completely fill the cookie sheet almost to the top of the rim.

• A deep heavy-bottomed candy-making or jam-making pot, at least 9 to 12 inches deep. The candy will foam up extremely high when the baking soda is added, and you'll be glad of the extra headroom.
• A wooden spoon or other long-handled spoon capable of resisting candymaking temperatures (up to 140C / 280F)
• Ideally, a candymaking thermometer. If you don't have one, set aside a glass of very cold water to use for testing the sugar syrup as it boils.

The ingredients:

• 450g / 1 lb golden syrup (If you can't get this, substitute white corn syrup. The flavor will be different, but the recipe will still work. However, it's worth going out of your way to get golden syrup for this.)

• 225g / 1/2 lb brown sugar
• 1 large tablespoon butter
• 1 heaping tablespoon baking soda / bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tablespoons vinegar

In the candymaking pan, melt the butter. Add the syrup, sugar and vinegar, and stir over medium heat until the sugar is completely dissolved.

Raise the heat to medium-high so that the mixture begins to boil. When it has bubbled up to about twice its original height, put in the candy thermometer if you're using one. About ten minute's boiling at medium heat will bring the mixture to 140C / 240F, just above the soft crack stage. If testing using cold water, use a tablespoon to spoon out a small amount of the boiling sugar syrup (be careful!!) and drip it into the cold water. When it forms small clear balls that are hard to the touch and crack when you bite them, the syrup is ready.

Sprinkle the baking soda over the surface of the candy and stir it in. Be careful about where your hands are at this stage, as the candy will foam up alarmingly and rise up to fill the pan more than halfway. Stir until the soda is completely incorporated.

When the foaming has died down, immediately pour the foamy candy mixture into the cookie sheet / Swiss roll pan. If you have to spread it out so that the pan is filled, be as gentle as you can and try to avoid breaking too many of the bubbles.

It will take approximately half an hour for the yellowman to cool. After about fifteen minutes in the pan, you may want to score the yellowman with a knife to make it easier to break up later.

When the candy is entirely cool, break it up. If the cookie sheet or Swiss roll pan has some give to it, simply twist the pan a little between your hands and the yellowman will crack into large pieces. You should be able to pull the pieces out of the pan and break them up further in your hands. If the yellowman resists you, though, break it up with a wooden meat-tenderizing mallet or something similar.

Store in a tightly closed container.

If you're into candymaking and you're interested in treating this toffee as taffy, that technique will work with this recipe too. You will get a shimmering, almost metallically golden taffy as a result. But it will lose the characteristic bubbly, crunchy consistency.

As mentioned above, crushed chunks of yellowman work wonderfully in homemade ice cream (or as a topping for ice cream or other desserts).

(This recipe is part of the 2008 Festival of Traditional Irish Saint Patrick's Day Recipes at EuropeanCuisines.com. For the rest of the recipes, please check the menu at this page.)

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