SC - Re: Candied Ginger

[Elise Fleming]

I wrote:

> Thomas Dawson (1596) has it as part of the banquet (dessert) course. 
>My  assumption is that the candied version was used as a confection 
>just as  candied cubebs, cinnamon, nutmeg, anise and coriander seeds, 
>etc. were  used. 

Stefan li Rous responded: 

>I can see candied ginger. I've had that. A bit sharp but reasonable.
>Cinnamon, I can also see. Cinnamon and sugar go together. Are we
>talking about the powder scraped off the bark or the bark itself?

>I'm not sure what anise tastes like.

>But coriander seeds??? And cubebs???? I thought someone here had
>described cubebs as tasting similar to pepper. Blech.

>But perhaps you end up with something closer to modern rock candy
>with a slight tinge of color and flavor from the spices.

>Anybody here ever candied any of these spices?

The cinnamon should be the cinnamon sticks.  There are, I believe, 
paintings of them (longish, knobby, white things) in some of Clara 
Peeters paintings in the early 1600s.

One source I've read indicates that the larger spices (like cubebs) 
should be soaked in vinegar (or wine), presumably to soften them.  
Anise seeds, Stefan, are usually in the middle of those modern candies 
(comfits) that come at the end of an Indian (India, not American) 
dinner.  Cloves were also chewed upon to "sweeten" the breath.

I've candied caraway seeds and have a stock of other seeds I keep 
meaning to candy, but the process is long and tedious.  I always seem 
to find "something else to do" with my free days!

Alys K.


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