Comfits and those sugar plums

"Sugar-plum - A small round or oval sweetmeat, made of boiled sugar and variously flavoured and coloured; a comfit."

Historic Food.com

And they have nothing to do with plums - other than the shape perhaps. In this eighteenth century cartoon the two soldiers are both eating sugar plums - plum shaped confections that actually have at their core - several layers down - a seed or a nut, most likely a caraway seed which was apparently the most popular at the time. They were in fact ''a generic name for any large comfit". What these days an Australian would call a lolly and the English a sweet.

Sugar plums were just one of many 'comfits' which were the aforesaid seeds or nuts covered in layers of sugar and consumed, mostly at the end of a meal, and sometimes for medicinal purposes. Well the seed was supposed to settle the stomach, though you would have to wonder how when there were as many as forty layers of sugar around it. The descendants of these comfits today are hundreds and thousands, sugared almonds and liquorice torpedoes. But smarties and gobstoppers are also made the same way. And how was that?

"These tiny 'hundreds and thousands' were made by coating minute particles of orris root powder with layers of sugar syrup. Coatings were gradually built up by pouring a small quantity of hot syrup onto the seeds in the pan and allowing them to dry out between layers. This was a sticky and time-consuming job, as some comfits required up to thirty or forty layers of sugar, and had to be hardened in a stove between every eight coatings or so. Syrups were usually poured onto the comfits from a ladle, but a special funnel, known as a 'pearling funnel' or 'cot', with a spigot to control the flow, was also used."

There were basically two kinds - smooth coated and pearly ones which had a rougher look. The difference came from the density of the syrup I believe. The rougher ones were easier to make and therefore less expensive. But I'm guessing they were all pretty expensive, especially before the days when sugar was refined in England - which was the 16th century. Prior to that it was the food of the aristocrats.

"one of the most difficult and tedious methods in craft confectionery, requiring specialized equipment, careful heat control, and experience. Depending on the size of the finished product, a batch could take several days to complete. Not just anybody could make these candies. Until the advent of machine innovations, comfits or sugar plums were a luxury good, most likely to be found in an aristocrat's pocket or between courses at a banquet." Laura Mason

And here's another small coincidence. I am currently writing up, on my family history website the story of my great great great grandfather, who was a confectioner and pastry cook in early nineteenth century London. Exactly the time of that cartoon at the top of the page. I know he had a shop in Skinner Street, which exists no more, because it was demolished to make way for the Holborn viaduct, but central London anyway. He prospered. I do not know however, what he sold in his shop. I live in hope of eventually finding an advertisement but so far have had no joy on this front. He's sort of a favourite ancestor of mine because he is the first I came across in my family tree to have anything to do with food and cooking. Actually I have found only one more - a baker - his great grandfather I think. But you'd hardly call that a family of cooks. It must be a rare gene that pops up now and then. Or maybe it mostly travelled through the female line and that of course would not have shown up in any records however wonderful they were at cooking. Mostly women did not have 'careers'. They were too busy raising their dozens of children.

But back to comfits and sugar plums. Before I leave comfits I forgot to say that another favourite comfit was made from cinnamon sticks. Shaved flakes of cinnamon were enclosed in those layers of sugar which would have made them a different shape. Also liquorice - those torpedoes, and candied peels. The seeds most commonly used by the way were the above-mentioned caraway, plus fennel and aniseed - so all vaguely medicinal I guess.

The words 'sugar plum' became part of the vernacular though.

"In the 17th century, to have a “mouth full of sugar plums” meant that you spoke sweetly, but might have a deceitful hidden agenda; in the 18th century, “to sugar plum” was a verb, meaning to pet, fawn over, or make up to. In the 19th century, “plum,” all on its own, came to mean anything delightful and desirable—hence Tchaikovsky’s Sugarplum Fairy in the Nutcracker ballet." Rebecca Rupp - National Geographic

I think all of those references have disappeared. Even the sugar plum fairy - who still exists of course in the Nutcracker, is just a fairy. The sugar plum component is really just a nice sound. I doubt that anyone actually relates the name to plums, sugared or otherwise.

So what about actual sugar plums - plums coated in sugar that is?

"Candied and crystalised plums were made by confectioners, but in England they were never called sugar plums." Historic Food.com

Not that Historic Food.com tells us what they were actually called. These days the glories of the internet will give you actual recipes. I found two types of sugar plum recipes.

The first is a sort of throwback to the comfit concept, and seems to be largely North American. Well they have that poem 'Twas the night before Christmas', which contains the line

"The children were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of sugar plums danced in their heads."

I must say the dancing reference makes you wonder what came first, this poem or the sugar plum fairy. And nobody seems to know what the poem actually refers to.

Anyway I did find two modern recipes for things called sugar plums that sort of recall the original concept. They are basically a chunky paste of things like dried fruit and nuts, peels and seeds, flavoured with spices, which are then given a sugary coating. The authoritative one seemed to be from one Alton Brown, who I think is probably well-known, and the other is from a Canadian lady who thought his was not that tasty and offers another version. I'm not sure whether it's hers - A Canadian foodie or from one Alan Suddaby - whoever he is, but I offer it here for you to try next Christmas. - Alton Brown on the left and The Canadian version on the right.

But you can candy actual plums - well sort of - and the BBC has a fairly tempting looking crack at it. It's basically roasted plums in an egg white and sugar casing. Which doesn't appear to have clung to the whole plum. So really its just roast plums with a lot of sugar on top.

Or you can try that punnet of sugar plums in Woolworths.

I was going to add spoon sweets to this post but decided in the end that they were somewhat different and deserving of their own post one day.