Pattonville has many food classes that students can take. People would say the best thing about food classes is making delicious foods and eating them. Recently in Food Science, students made rock candy. I know you’re wondering why rock candy was a chosen food to be made. Mrs. Janet Kuhn, one of the high school’s food teachers, said, “It demonstrates how sugar crystalizes and transforms. It is a basic scientific phenomenon.”

If you’re interested in making rock candy here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

 4 ½ cup sugar

1 ½ cup water

Clean glass jar

Cotton string

Pencil or knife

Food coloring (optional)

½ tsp to 1 tsp flavoring oil or extract (optional)

Pan

Stove or microwave

Instructions:

1. Pour the sugar and water into the pan.
2. Heat the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. You want the sugar solution to hit boiling, but not get hotter or cook too long.
3. Stir the solution until all the sugar has dissolved. The liquid will be clear or straw-colored. (Boil for 10 minutes)
4. If desired you can add food coloring and flavor to the solution.
5. Set the sugar syrup in the refrigerator to cool. You want the liquid to be slightly cooler then room temperature.
6.  While the sugar solution is cooling, prepare your string.to a pencil, knife or other object that can rest at the top of the jar. You want the string to hang in the jar, but not touch the sides or bottom.
7. Dampen the string with a little of the syrup just made and dip the string in sugar.
8. Once your solution has cooled, pour it in the clean jar. Suspend the seeding string in the liquid. Set the jar somewhere quiet. You can cover the jar with a paper towel or coffee filter to keep the solution clean.