Rock is a type of hard stick-shaped boiled sugar confectionery

Confectionery

Confectionery is the set of food items that are rich in sugar, any one or type of which is called a confection. Modern usage may include substances rich in artificial sweeteners as well...

 most usually flavoured with peppermint or spearmint. It is commonly sold at tourist

Tourism

Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...

 (usually seaside) resort

Resort

A resort is a place used for relaxation or recreation, attracting visitors for holidays or vacations. Resorts are places, towns or sometimes commercial establishment operated by a single company....

s in the UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 (like Brighton

Brighton

Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...

 or Blackpool

Blackpool

Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...

); in Ireland in seaside towns such as Bray

Bray

Bray is a town in north County Wicklow, Ireland. It is a busy urban centre and seaside resort, with a population of 31,901 making it the fourth largest in Ireland as of the 2006 census...

 and Strandhill

Strandhill

Strandhill or Larass is a village and townland in County Sligo, Ireland.-Location:Strandhill is situated at the western base of Knocknarea on the Cúil Irra peninsula, and is Atlantic facing. Although the main part of the village lies within the townland of Larass/Strandhill, it also extends into...

; in Gibraltar; in Denmark in towns such as Løkken and Ebeltoft

Ebeltoft

Ebeltoft is a town with a population of 7,559 on the central east coast of Denmark, located in Syddjurs municipality in Region Midtjylland on the Danish peninsula of Jutland....

; and in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

 and Tasmania

Tasmania

Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...

, Australia.

It usually takes the form of a cylindrical stick ("a stick of rock"), normally 0.5 inches (1.3 cm) to 1 inches (2.5 cm) in diameter and 8 inches (20.3 cm) to 10 inches (25.4 cm) long. Blackpool rock is usually at least an inch in diameter, and can be as thick as six inches across and up to six feet long when made for special retail displays. These cylinders usually have a pattern

Pattern

A pattern, from the French patron, is a type of theme of recurring events or objects, sometimes referred to as elements of a set of objects.These elements repeat in a predictable manner...

 embedded throughout the length, which is often the name of the resort where the rock is sold, so that the name can be read on both ends of the stick (reversed at one end) and remains legible even after pieces are bitten off. Rock is also manufactured as a promotional item, for example with a company name running through it.

It is sometimes found in the form of individual sweets, with writing or a pattern in the centre; these are, in effect, 'slices' of rock.

Making rock

Traditional seaside rock is made using granulated sugar and glucose syrup. The mix is approximately 3:1, i.e. three parts sugar to one part glucose syrup. This is mixed together in a pan with enough water to dissolve the sugar (not enough water will result in burning the sugar or the end product being sugary and possibly 'graining off'). This is then boiled to approximately 147 °C or 'hard crack' before being poured onto water-cooled steel plates. Once poured, food colourings for the casing and lettering are added and mixed in by hand using a spoon or small palette knife. Once the toffee mixture is poured onto a water-cooled plate, it begins to form a skin underneath, this makes it possible to cut out the colourings, using a pair of shears. The casings and lettering is constantly 'turned in' to prevent 'chill' (unsightly lumps in the finished product). The remainder of the toffee is stiffened up before going onto a 'pulling' machine, a machine that has a fixed arm, and two moving arms, one rotating clockwise, the other counter-clockwise. The pulling machine aerates the toffee, turning it from a solid golden mass into the soft white that forms the centre of the stick of rock. Whilst on the pulling machine, flavourings are added by pouring in measured amounts. A small amount of now white toffee is taken from the pulling machine, this is used to keep the form of the letters which are made from the coloured toffee.

Lettering

The letters not made in order of appearance in the name (B, L, A, C, K, P, O, O, L) but by their shape, 'square' letters, (B, E, F, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, R, T, W, X, Y and Z), are made first, as they will not lose their shape, 'triangle' (A and V) and 'round', (C, D, G, O, Q, S, U) are made last to prevent them from losing their shape, as the toffee is still reasonably soft at this point. For example, the letters that make up 'BLACKPOOL ROCK' may be made in this order: B, P, R, K(x2), L(x2), A, C(x2) and O(x3). The individual letters are placed between blocks or sticks at this point, to prevent them from losing shape and going flat. The letters are then placed in their correct spelling order with a 'strip' of white, aerated toffee between each letter to make it readable.
Capital letters are the most common form of lettering as small case lettering is far more complicated, owing to their tails and high backs.

The now aerated white toffee from the pulling machine is divided into three parts, one will form the centre and two will form the 'flaps'. The flaps are kneaded and spread thinly and evenly before being placed directly onto the letters, these form the space between the casing and letters, they are then wrapped around the stiffened centre. The casing is then kneaded and evenly rolled out, using a rolling pin, this is then wrapped around the assembled 'boiling', which is one very large bar of rock that is still pliable and warm. This is then placed into a 'batch roller', which has several tapered rollers and heaters. The rollers keep the boiling of rock round and the heaters keep it just soft enough to work.

A craftsman known as a 'Sugar boiler' then proceeds to 'spin out' the boiling onto a long flat surface, known as a 'slab', where a 'rollers' make sure it is kept rolling until it has 'set' hard enough to maintain its round shape. Once set the strings of toffee are cut to length and wrapped in clear paper with a label, known as a 'view' as it usually has a view of a landmark.

The whole process of making lettered rock is done by hand by skilled workers. Smaller sticks of rock, without letters or a 'view,' can be machine manufactured.

Literary and other references

In Graham Greene's novel Brighton Rock, the character Ida says, "It's like those sticks of rock: bite it all the way down, you'll still read Brighton."

British music-hall entertainer and film star George Formby helped write and perform the song "With My Little Stick of Blackpool Rock".

Brian May

Brian May

Brian Harold May, CBE is an English musician and astrophysicist most widely known as the guitarist and a songwriter of the rock band Queen...

, lead guitarist of the British rock band Queen

Queen (band)

Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...

 wrote the song "Brighton Rock", which appeared on Queen's 1974 album Sheer Heart Attack. It concerns a young couple's illicit weekend away without their parents' knowledge in a seaside town and became the basis for May's famous "Brighton Rock" guitar solos which became a standard feature of the group's live shows.

Other forms of rock

Rock is a different product from rock candy

Rock candy

Rock candy is a type of confectionery mineral composed of relatively large sugar crystals. This candy is formed by allowing a supersaturated solution of sugar and water to crystallize onto a surface suitable for crystal nucleation, such as a string or stick...

; it more closely resembles a harder candy cane

Candy cane

A candy cane is a hard cane-shaped candy stick. It is traditionally white with red stripes and flavored with peppermint or cinnamon; however, it is also made in a variety of other flavors and may be decorated with stripes of different colors and thicknesses...

.

Edinburgh rock

Edinburgh Rock

Edinburgh rock or Edinburgh Castle rock is a traditional Scottish confection, and is quite distinct from conventional rock. It consists of sugar, water, cream of tartar, colourings and flavourings...

 is another confection based on sugar and cream of tartar, made into sticks. It is friable

Friability

Friability is the ability of a solid substance to be reduced to smaller pieces with little effort. The opposite of friable is indurated....

 and flavoured, for example, with ginger

Ginger

Ginger is the rhizome of the plant Zingiber officinale, consumed as a delicacy, medicine, or spice. It lends its name to its genus and family . Other notable members of this plant family are turmeric, cardamom, and galangal....

 or lemon

Lemon

The lemon is both a small evergreen tree native to Asia, and the tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit. The fruit is used for culinary and non-culinary purposes throughout the world – primarily for its juice, though the pulp and rind are also used, mainly in cooking and baking...

.

Another distinctively Scottish form of rock is star rock

Star Rock

Star rock is a distinctive Scottish form of confectionery rock. It is also sometimes known as starry rock, or starrie. It is traditionally hand-made in Kirriemuir, Angus....

 (also sometimes known as starry rock), or "starrie", which is made in Kirriemuir

Kirriemuir

Kirriemuir, sometimes called Kirrie, is a burgh in Angus, Scotland.-History:The history of Kirriemuir extends to the early historical period and it appears to have been a centre of some ecclesiastical importance...

. It is sold in small bundles of pencil-sized sticks, and is less brittle than seaside rock.

External links

• How to Make Lettered Rock, BBC
• Blackpool Rock - How the letters are created