Congratulations to Alicat, Michelle and Sky. They each will receive Cook Until Desired Tenderness, by Cleo Papanikolas, as they were the first to correctly identify the fake stage was:
D. Glass
Feather, the most popular guess, was indeed a stage of sugar cooking, according to the 17th century text, Le Confiturier francois
"Cooked to the feather....it is recognized by placing a spatula in the syrup, and shaking the syrup in the air; the syrup flies away as if dry feathers without stickiness..."
Personally I thought Pearl sounded the most unlikely!
Read more about The History of Sugars and Confectionary in On Food and Cooking, by Harold McGee. For those of you following along at home, the answer to the contest is in the section on Stages of Sugar Cooking in the 17th Century, on page 651.
