Saleratus, anyone?

I love thrift stores.  I found a facsimile of Common Sense in the Household at Goodwill, which has a Library of Congress registration date of 1871.  I got this for $1.  The original book was over 550 pages of recipes and hints, including how to get dried ink out of a white shirt.  For my purposes, I looked in the candy section.  There are only two candy recipes:  Molasses candy and sugar candy.

The first interesting thing is the use of “saleratus”.  I think this is baking soda, but I will search the Internet for a proper definition.  What this tells me, however, is that at some point written recipes switched from using the term saleratus to baking soda.  This could help with dating some recipes, like that Cornell reprint I am debating.

Here is the poop on saleratus.  It is a soda, but not sodium bicarbonate.  According to my search, it is more likely potassium bicarbonate.  Here is one site that describes it, even mentions how it was mixed with water.  The Merriam-Webster site says it is "a leavening agent consisting of potassium or sodium bicarbonate."  Joe Pastry even says somebody sold both potassium bicarbonate and sodium bicarbonate under the name saleratus.  When I make these recipes, I will try baking soda and hope it works.  Otherwise, I will need to find a seller of potassium bicarbonate.

The next interesting thing is the assumptions.  This is definitely not a beginners manual.  What exactly is “pull white” supposed to mean?  How much water is the saleratus supposed to be dissolved in before adding to the candy?  What is supposed to be used for “flavor to taste”?  Measurements are still not all exact, such as “butter the size of an egg.”  There are also no temperatures; the candy should “crisp in cold water”.  Yet another oddity, the molasses candy is stirred frequently but the sugar candy is boiled without stirring.  Does something in the molasses keep the sugar from crystallizing?

The last interesting thing is that the author calls the molasses candy “taffey” (author's quotes, not mine) when cut into squares but without pulling.

I think I am going to do the molasses candy as my first experiment.  There are only 5 ingredients with no real special equipment involved.  I know this isn’t fancy French creams, but a guy has to start somewhere.