SC - Hauviette's Confits

[Philip & Susan Troy]

alysk at ix.netcom.com wrote:
> 
> Hauviette wrote:
> 
> >I had problems getting my confits to be large. I used aniseed, coriander,
> >ginger. but it must have taken a lifetime of dipping in the sugar syrup to
> >get them much bigger than their original size.
> >Anyone have any input here?
> 
> A lifetime is about right!  :-)  The recipe I used (Dawson?) mentions coating them
> many times (10??) and that there were varying conditions.  Ragged ones are irregular
> in size and shape, probably what most of us get.  IIRC, modern candied seeds (such as
> the ones in Indian restaurants) get up to 30 coatings, and they're still pretty tiny.
> It is a laborious and time-consuming job to make them oneself.  I don't believe they
> ever get terribly big, but the only way is to keep adding layer by layer and letting
> them dry in between times.

I believe it is Hugh Platt who speaks of caraway or coriander seed
confits reaching the size of peas. However, the process as described in
Ms. Harl. 2378, and also in Platt's "Delightes for Ladies" (1609) calls
for not so much a syrup as for gently melted sugar, a completely
anhydrous sugar syrup, which dries almost instantaneously as it cools.

I've never been able to get them very large either, though, as once they
reach a certain size (about that of Grape Nuts cereal -- you know, the
stuff Madeline Pellner Cosman makes frumenty out of) the extra sugar
seems to break off and form seedless confits of its own. Very strange.
 
Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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