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☠️ Poison Pantry 1867

Bonbons cast in leaden moulds

Boiling sugar syrup, poured into moulds made of lead, and handed to children.

From
Mackenzie's Ten Thousand Receipts
Published
1867
Yikes Scale
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Exactly as printed, 1867

Bonbons.

Provide leaden moulds, which must be of various shapes, and be oiled with oil of sweet almonds. Take a quantity of brown sugar syrup in proportion to their size, in that state called a blow, which may be known by dipping the skimmer into the sugar, shaking it and blowing through the holes, when gleams of light may be seen; add a drop of any esteemed essence. If the bonbons are preferred white, when the sugar has cooled a little, stir it round the pan, till it grains and shines on the surface; then pour it into a funnel and fill the little mould, when it will take a proper form and harden; as soon as it is cold take it from the moulds; dry it in two or three days and put it upon paper. If the bonbons are required to be colored, add the color just as the sugar is ready to be taken off the fire.

To Candy Ginger.

Mackenzie's Ten Thousand Receipts, 1867. Public domain; transcription unaltered.

So what happens if I make it?

Hot syrup poured into lead picks up lead. That is the entire mechanism, and there is nothing clever about it.

The part that has aged worst is who the sweets were for. There is no level of dietary lead now considered safe for a child, and lead exposure in early childhood does its damage quietly and permanently.

Notes from the 21st century

  • Lead was the standard moulding metal. It melts low, casts fine detail and costs little. Confectioners used it because it worked, not because anyone was being reckless.
  • The oil does not help. Sweet almond oil was there to release the sweet from the mould. It is not a barrier, and it does not stop the metal leaching.
  • The same pages get worse. Elsewhere the confectionery section hydrolyses starch to glucose with oil of vitriol — concentrated sulphuric acid — boiled for thirty-six hours.

Also in this book

  • Choking remedy — If it will go neither up nor down, put two grains of tartar emetic in the choking person's mouth.
  • Common Ratafia — Ten pounds of bitter almonds infused in ten gallons of spirit, perfumed with ambergris.
  • Jamaica Rum (factitious) — Four gallons of neutral spirit, one of real rum, and half an ounce of sulphuric acid.

Don't take our word for it. The complete book is online, free and searchable.

Read the original page →

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