I’ve recently been back in touch with a friend from elementary school whom I haven’t seen in - oh gee, about 30 years now. When I was chatting on the phone with my Mom she remembered that we had an old recipe from this very friend’s mother. As it’s something most folks probably haven’t heard of - and just because I really love sugar - I thought I might share the recipe here. I’ve tweaked the directions a bit, and added in the conversions for those who need them. Otherwise, though, this is the traditional recipe that we were given.

Tablet

• 2 lb sugar (4 cups or roughly 900g)
• 3 oz unsalted butter (6 tbsp or 85g) - do not substitute margarine!
• 1 cup milk (250 mL)
• 1/2 tin sweetened condensed milk

Melt butter in a saucepan; add sugar and milk. Simmer slowly till it boils. Add condensed milk, stirring until mixture returns to a boil. Continue to stir until the product has a golden colour and gritty texture. (Warning: this could take anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes! This is a good turn-taking activity, so involve the family.)

If you use a candy thermometer, when the candy reaches 235°F-240°F (112°C-115°C) it’s time to remove it from the stove. Alternatively, dribble a wee bit onto a plate and see if it sets up, or drop a bit from a spoon into a glass of water. If it forms a soft ball, it’s ready, otherwise go back to cooking and stirring until it passes the test. (This is called a soft-ball test.)

Beat with a damp wooden spoon about 60 times. Pour into a greased pan. As it begins to set up, score carefully into small squares. It is best left to cool overnight, so think ahead if you want it for a special occasion.

Tablet is a traditional Scottish treat that is basically like fudge (or sucre à la crème, for the Québecois among you.) It might be fun to cook up a batch of each, and compare them. It could be a tasty cultural experience for your homeschoolers!

Homeschool ideas (in case you feel a good dose of culture isn’t enough justification to mix up a batch of this Celtic confection):

• Explore where the ingredients come from and how costly they might have been. Think about whether this would have been a commonly eaten food or an extra special treat;
• Compare and contrast with similar recipes. Look at both ingredients and method of preparation;
• Explore the historical use of sugar as a medicinal ingredient (e.g. in syrups and candies for soothing a cough or cold);
• Look into the nutritional side of this wonderful treat: show the kiddies how to figure out caloric, sugar or fat content & then set a reasonable serving size…

A few obvious words of warning, for those who don’t always find these things so obvious:

1. This mixture gets very hot, so this isn’t the time for the little ones to be helping out. They will, however, be delighted to help you eat the finished product! Be sure to prepare a safe place to work and to rest your cooling Tablet, so you don’t end up spilling it or scorching anything.
2. When you pour the tablet into the pan you want to scrape out your cooking pot best you can. Immediately put all your cooking pots and utensils to soak in hot water. The cooked sugar will harden like cement if you leave it even a short while.
3. Not recommended for calorie-reduced diets. If you are not insulin-dependent abuse of this sweet might just change that. Although other writers have recommended a variety of accompaniments for Tablet, I prefer a good glass of ice cold milk (I’m sure that’s not traditional Scottish, but it’s how my Daddy taught me to eat my sweets.)

Thanks to Sandra & Muriel for this recipe, and to Mom for saving it all these many years!

This work was created by Ruby of Freehold 2, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

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