Crystallization forms the basis of candy-making with parsnips. By means of a modification of the old fashioned French hand method, it is possible to make a confection that is good in itself, useful as the basis for other confections, and of unusually long keeping qualities. Parsnip candy, though the invention of to-day, has a pleasing old fashioned taste and appearance.

Candied Parsnips.—In method of preparation and keeping qualities, they resemble the candied flag root of our grandmothers. They are useful to trim a box of candy. Peel the parsnips and leave them in cold water for two or three hours. Cut cross-wise into very thin slices, drop the slices into boiling water, and let them boil five minutes. After they have thoroughly drained, put them into a syrup made by boiling together one part of water and three parts of granulated sugar. Make sure that the syrup really is a syrup—that the sugar and water have thoroughly united. Add the parsnips and boil for ten minutes.

Next comes the use of a novel modification of hand crystallization—a process that the amateur candy-maker may well afford to make herself master of, because it is useful for many confections. Obtain a pan with sloping sides into which the drying rack will drop half way. As the pan must be used for candy-making and nothing else and as the greatest strength is not necessary, a suitable dish can probably be obtained from a ten-cent store. Stir carefully with a wooden paddle in order to make sure that all the pieces are separated and that the hot syrup comes into contact with all the surfaces of the confections.

Pour the hot mass over the rack—in position in the pan—and immediately put a board over the pan. Make sure that the vegetable is evenly distributed. The wood absorbs the moisture while a tin cover would make trouble by causing the steam to condense and drop back onto the candy. Leave the pan undisturbed for twenty-four hours. Then lift the rack out, pour the syrup into the kettle and cook to two hundred and twenty degrees. Return the vegetable to the syrup and stir carefully; each piece must be immersed. The small pieces of candy will be heated through in so very short a time that it is necessary only to make sure that each piece has been thoroughly immersed in the hot syrup. Make sure that the rack is clean and free from particles of the syrup. Thereupon, again pour it over the rack arranged in the pan as before. Repeat the process four times, each time cooking the syrup two degrees hotter. The result is a slow crystallization which covers the candy so that it is perfectly preserved and very good to taste and look upon. Although the work must be distributed over six days, only a very few minutes are required except upon the first day.

Parsnip Boutonniere.—The candied parsnip forms the basis of one of the most decorative of all boutonnieres. For each of them have ready, besides a supply of the parsnips, candied as above, artificial fern, sometimes sold under the name "imitation air plant," a lace mat, a number twenty-two wire, and one yard of ribbon one-half inch wide, the preferred color. See the illustration opposite page 72.

Mix one cupful of sugar and one-third cupful of water, and color the same as the ribbon. Cook the syrup thus made to two hundred and twenty-five degrees. Into this hot syrup drop the crystallized parsnips, and allow them to remain a few minutes. After they have become thoroughly and evenly colored, pour them upon a wire screen. After they have dried, attach to about two dozen of them pieces of wire about six inches long. It is well to place a drop of thick syrup at the point at which the wire enters the candy.

Cut the ferns into lengths of from two to four inches. Mix the wired candies through the bunch of ferns, occasionally twisting a strand of fern around the wires so that all wires will be hidden. Slip the lace mat up over the wires and the ends of the ferns, wrap wires with tissue paper and cover with tinsel foil, either silver or gilt, and tie the center of the ribbon around the stem directly under the mat and form a rosette. About five inches from the point tie the ends together in a bow knot.