How to make horehound drops

Today I finished up making my horehound drops. It doesn't take two days, it just took me 2 days. =0)

 List of Ingredients

■2 cups of fresh horehound (include leaves, stems, and flowers) or 1 cup dried horehound
■2 1/2 cups water
■1/2 cup corn syrup
■3 c brown sugar
■1 teaspoon of butter
■1 teaspoon of lemon juice
■1 teaspoon of cream of tartar

First I harvested the last of my organic horehound. A bunch that would make about 2 cups when cut up.

Then I washed the horehound, removing any dead or yellow leaves, and cut it up with scissors. Next I got all of my ingredients together: Butter, corn syrup, cream of tartar, water, lemon juice, and brown sugar.

I poured the water on the cut up horehound, brought it to a boil and simmered for 10 minutes. Then I strained it a few times through a sieve covered with cheesecloth; into a medium stockpot.

Then I added the brown sugar, corn syrup, and cream of tartar. I brought it to a boil, and stirred frequently. I also attached the candy thermometer. When the mixture reached 240 I added the butter. Also at that point I pretty much stopped stirring except for a couple stirs here and there to make sure it didn't stick.

The next step is just waiting for the mix to get to 300. This took quite a bit longer than I expected. While I was waiting I buttered a pan (use alot of butter). Finally it reached 300 and I quickly added the lemon juice and poured the mix into the pan. It was HOT!

It started to cool down and I scored it a little. (that didn't really help, and next time I'll try wax paper on a cookie sheet) It was HARD to get out of that darn pan, hence the plan to use cookie sheets, or maybe even buy some molds next time.

Today I finally finished getting all the chunks of hard drops out of the pan, what a pain! I coated them with confectioner's sugar because they kept sticking to each other. That seemed to help quite a bit. Then I placed them in these jars for safe keeping.

Just an FYI, these are a little bitter.  I wouldn't call them candy, they are more medicinal cough drops, but horehound drops are very effective for soothing sore throats, asthma, coughs and help encourage mucous expulsion.