Wayne Gisslen

Stages of Sugar Cooking

Appears in
Professional Cooking: 10th Edition
Professional Cooking

By Wayne Gisslen

Published 2025

  • About
Testing the temperature with a candy thermometer is the most accurate way to determine the desired doneness of a syrup.

In the old days, syrups were tested by dropping a little bit into a bowl of cold water and checking the hardness of the cooled sugar. The stages of doneness were given names that described their hardness. Table 37.1 lists these stages of sugar cooking.

Table 37.1 Stages of Doneness in Sugar Cooking

Temperature
Stage °F °C
Thread 230 110
Soft ball 240 115
Firm ball 245 118
Hard ball 250–260 122–127
Small crack 265–270 130–132
Crack 275–280 135–138
Hard crack 290–310 143–155
Caramel 320–340 160–170