SC - Violet Recipes

[alysk at ix.netcom.com]

Greetings.  Here are a bunch of violet gleanings from various
sources.  Note the use of gum arabic.  Many of the ones I didn't
copy are for violets solidified in a chunk of sugar, probably making
the violet unrecognizable since hot sugar and a delicate violet work
hazards on the flower.  -- Alys Katharine

Martha Washington's _Booke of Cookery_:

"To candy flowers in theyr naturall culler"  (#S85) – "Take ye flowers with theyr stalks, 
& wash them in rose water, wherein gum arabeck is dissolved. then take fine searced 
sugar, & dust it over them. & set them A drying in a sive, set in an oven. & (they will) 
glister like sugar candy."

"To candy violet flowers" (#S86) – "Take violets which are new & well cullered. weigh them, 
and to every ounce of flowers take 4 ounces of very white refined sugar, & dissolve it in 2 
ounces of water soe boyle it till it turn to sugar again, & scum it very often that it may be very 
clear, then take it of & let it coole. after, put in yr violet flowers, stiring them together till ye 
sugar grow hard to ye pan. yn put them in a box & keep them to dry in a stove.

_A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen_, printed by John Haviland, 1636.

"To candie all manner of flowers in their naturall colours" – "Take the Flowers with the stalks 
and wash them over with a little Rose-water, wherein Gum-arabecke is dissolved; then take fine 
searced Sugar, and dust over them, and let them a drying on the bottome of a Sieve in an Oven, 
and they will gilster as if it were Sugar-candie."

_The Ladies Cabinet_, 1655

"To candy all kinde of Flowers as they grow, with their stalks on." (#40) – "Take the Flowers, 
cut the stalks somewhat short, then take one pound of the whitest and hardest sugar you can 
get, put to it eight spoonfuls of Rose-water, and boil it till it will roul between your finger and 
your thumb; then take it from the fire, cool it with a stick, and as it waxeth cold, dip in all your 
Flowers, and taking them out again suddenly, lay them one by one on the bottom of a sieve; 
then turne a joyned stool with the feet upward, set the sieve on the feet thereof, cover it with 
a fair linne cloth, and set a chafingdish of coals in the middest of the stool, underneath the 
sieve, and the heat thereof will run up to the sieve, and dry your Candy presently; then box 
them up, and they will keep all the yeer, and looke very pleasantly."

_The Second Part of the Good Hus-wives Jewell_, Thomas Dawson, 1597.

"To make sirrope of Violets" – "First gather a great quantity of violet flowers, and pick them 
cleane from the stalkes and set them on the fire, and put to them so much Rosewater as you 
thinke good, then let them boile altogether untill the colour be forth of them then take them 
of the fire and straine them through a fine cloth, then put so much suger to them as you 
thinke good, then set it against the fire until it be somewhat thick, and put it into a violl glasse."

_A True Gentlewoman's Delight_, W.I., Gent., 1653

"To make Oyle of Violets." – "Set the Violets in Sallade oyle, and strain them, then put in other 
fresh Violets, and let them lye twenty dayes, then strain them again, and put in other fresh 
Violets, and let them stand all the year."