A question about a recipe: Firm Caramel -- for many wonderful caramel things!

thanks for the info. just made it and really love it...tho my pieces are more malleable than the ones you all created with bianca. but they are quite lovely to eat... will have to try again... :)

I just went back to that table, and it sure looks like it would be harder to burn the sugar than I made it out to be! Maybe I wasn't paying attention, but it the temperature seems to go up pretty quickly.

Wow, that's a handy, descriptive site! When I was a kid, we would inevitably break the candy thermometers, so we had to do the water test a lot. I like to use a short, clear glass, or one of those pyrex measuring cups, so you can see what's going on when you drip the syrup into the water. And I always loved being the one to fish out the ball, so after I determined (with so much coaching from mom) what stage it was at, I got to eat the candy. The difference between hard-crack and burned is a pretty fine line, though, as I've found out from personal experience. If your pot has good heat retention, you'll want to get the syrup out of there as soon as possible.

There's a helpful chart on the different stages of sugar syrup here: http://www.baking911.com/candy/chart.htm