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Glucose syrup is a liquid sweetener used in a lot of candy making. Unfortunately, it is incredibly thick which makes it difficult to measure. Imagine corn syrup except about three times thicker. When I measure it, a lot tends to get stuck on the spoon (or more often spoons) and then even more gets lost in the bowl I use to measure it. Are there any tricks to measuring thick syrups and other difficult ingredients?

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4 Answers

up vote 6 down vote accepted

Another option is to get one of the plunger type measuring cups. Once you push out the ingredient, you can use a spatula or spoon to scrape the end of the spatula. This works great for honey, molasses, syrup etc.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/kitchen/b78b/?cpg=froogle

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Between this and a silicone spatula, you can save almost all of the liquid for the recipe. – Peach Dec 24 '10 at 22:15
Cook's Illustrated says you can line the plunger with plastic wrap for an easier release, but this might just make it so that you have to scrape the ingredient off the plastic wrap. – KatieK Dec 25 '10 at 1:10
I have never seen a need to line the plunger. The tight fit cleans as it goes. If you are good with your measurements, you can pull out and add one ingredient, pull again and add a second. Add a few and then push them all into the bowl at the same time. Its actually kind of fun. – Doc Walker Dec 25 '10 at 2:42
up vote 5 down vote

Put the bowl on a scale and put the difficult ingredients directly from their packaging into the bowl. That way, you don't have to clean up any measuring utilities and waste no ingredients.

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I'd actually contend you should do ALL the ingredients, difficult or not, on a scale. Much more accurate than measuring cups and spoons for most things. That's why most electronic scales have a tare (or zero out) button. Measure one thing. Zero out. Measure the next. Zero out. All in one bowl. – Doug Johnson-Cookloose Dec 25 '10 at 0:48
Alas. So many recipes only have volumetric measurements. – KatieK Dec 25 '10 at 1:08
I do all my measurements by weight, but I always use a separate bowl in case I put a little two much in. (Also, because I usually need some ingredients heating on the stove while others are being measured.) – Computerish Dec 25 '10 at 6:16
@KatieK: That seems to be an American theme. In the UK, most measurements above tablespoons are given by weight in the majority of recipes. But US recipes always seem to be volumetric, which is always a pain as cup measures are not widely used here. I have cup measures for such purposes, most people do not - highly unreliable with sensitive recipes like cakes. – Orbling Dec 26 '10 at 4:15
up vote 4 down vote

Spray whatever you are going to measure it into with pan release (Pam) first. Or if you don't have that, rub it with a tiny amount of vegetable oil. You can do this whether it is the bowl for the scale as eckes rightly mentioned, or a measuring cup. Same trick works with molasses and honey.

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I've used that technique for baking ... but I might be worried about using it for candy making. I don't know if oil causes problems ... I'm guessing not for all candies, based on the discussion of favoring oilds for candy, but it's possible this could be a problem for some recipes. – Joe Dec 25 '10 at 3:06
Interesting idea for baking, but I agree with Joe. Probably not a good idea for candy making. Anything, especially anything with fat, can mess up a candy recipe. – Computerish Dec 25 '10 at 6:17
up vote 1 down vote

Besides the methods already mentioned, you can also measure by displacement if you're working with volumetric measurements and one of the other ingredients to be added at the same time is a liquid -- use a measuring cup large (and precise) enough for both measurements, add the liquid first, then add the stickly item until the liquid is pushed up to the measurement necessary for them both together.

Of course, if the sticky item floats, then you'll need to push it down with something. If there's a lot of liquid vs. the sticky item, you can always just use some of the liquid, so you can use a small enough measuing device with precise enough markings.

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