# Yellowman

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## Summary

Yellowman is a crunchy, golden honeycomb toffee from Northern Ireland, famous at the Ould Lammas Fair in Ballycastle, one of Ireland's oldest fairs.

## Description

Yellowman, or yellaman, is a golden, toffee textured sweet from Northern Ireland. It is a close relative of honeycomb toffee, and it is best known as the traditional treat of the Ould Lammas Fair in Ballycastle, County Antrim.
What is yellowman?
Yellowman is similar to honeycomb toffee, with its light, bubbly, crunchy inside. The difference is the rind: in yellowman, the solid outer part makes up at least half of it, and that rind is hard, with a texture close to rock. It is chewy and crunchy at the same time, and it is sold in rough, uneven blocks and chips rather than neat pieces.
How it gets its bubbles
Yellowman is made from golden syrup and sugar, boiled to a very high temperature: the hard crack stage, about 149 °C, the point at which boiled sugar becomes brittle when it cools. Then comes the trick. Vinegar and baking soda are added, and the two react, releasing carbon dioxide gas that fills the hot mixture with bubbles. As it sets, those bubbles are trapped, giving yellowman its airy, crunchy texture. It is the same chemistry behind honeycomb toffee and the fizz in sherbet.
The Ould Lammas Fair
Yellowman belongs to the Ould Lammas Fair, held in Ballycastle on the last Monday and Tuesday of August every year. It is widely considered the oldest fair in Ireland. Records go back to the 17th century: in 1606 Randall MacDonnell obtained a charter to hold six fairs a year, one of them on the last Tuesday in August, the same date as the modern fair.
At the fair, yellowman is sold alongside livestock and other traditional foods, including dulse, a type of edible seaweed. Yellowman and dulse are the classic pairing.
A taste of Ireland
Yellowman is one of Northern Ireland's few truly local sweets. For its close cousins, see honeycomb toffee and, for how to make the bubbly kind at home, how to make honeycomb toffee.

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