SC - Kissing Comfits or Muscadines.

[Seton1355 at aol.com]

This comes from my Tudor list
Phillipa

<< 
 This recipe comes from "Dining with William Shakespeare" by Madge Lorwin.  
 The author has adapted Tudor recipes to modern measurements.  The original 
 was published in 1621 by John Murrell in "Delightfull daily exercise for 
 Ladies and Gentlewomen."
 
 3 tablespoons rose water
 1 teaspoon gum arabic powder
 3 eyedropper drops essence of ambergris
 2 eyedropper drops essence of musk
 4 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
 1 teaspoon powered orris root
 2 drops yellow food color (optional)
 2 drops blue food color (optional)
 
     Pour rose water into a saucer, add gum arabic and stir until the gum is 
 dissolved.  Add the ambergris and musk, set aside until needed.  Sift two 
 cups of the sugar and the orris root into a bowl,  Add the gum arabic 
 mixture, a tablespoonful at a time and work into the sugar until the paste 
is 
 smooth.
     For white pastilles, sprinkle the third cup of sugar on a large plate 
 and, with your fingers, work the paste into the sugar until it is smooth.  
 For colored pastilles, divide the white paste into two equal parts, add a 
 drop of food color to each part.  Blend in each of the colors and set one 
 aside covered (they dry out very quickly) while you work with the other.
     Sprinkle half the remanning sugar on a clean plate and work in until 
 smooth. Pat the paste into a square and cover it with a piece of wax paper.  
 Roll it out gently to a sheet about 3/8 inch thick.  Mark and cut off small 
 squares, triangles and rectangles with a knife.  Sprinkle a cookie sheet 
with 
 the remanning sugar and place the pastilles on it about an inch apart.
     When the pastilles have hardened, loosen them gently with a spatula 
(they 
 break easily) and store them in an airtight container.  You should be able 
to 
 get about four dozen pastilles from this recipe.  They will keep for six to 
 eight weeks.
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