[Sca-cooks] Re: Candies and Sweets

[Elise Fleming]

Greetings.  Here is a list of candies and sweets (but no baked goods) used
for the "banquet" course or dessert, most of which were listed by Gervase
Markham in 1615 in _The English Housewife_.  Some on the list are from
Witteveen's article.  (See paragraph after the list.)  This might give you
a start.  Note that codiniacs/quiddony/quidenioc/quince paste are all the
same thing basically.  They just have different spellings.  There are more
items, but this is just from one source.  The wierd spellings (oringes) are
because that's the way it was spelled in Markham and I was copying the
items he listed.  The date is later than you wanted, but most of these
items existed in the late 1400s, although sugar paste probably didn't exist
in England at that time.  I don't know if it had developed yet in Italy.

anis vermeil (red-colored anise), Artificiall Fruites, candich (crystalized
sugar gobbets), Candied Citron, Candied Eringoes, Candied Oringes, chitron
(candied citron), Cleere cakes of Rasberies, codiniacs, coriander comfits,
cubeb comfits, cumin comfits, ginger comfits, pine nut comfits, large and
small dragees (round drops of sugar), fruit pastes (quince, peach, green
pippins), Manus Christi (boiled sugar gobbets with gold leaf added), Marble
Paste, marchpane (marzipan baked), marchpanes (baked marzipan, set on a
wafer, frequently decorated with comfits, or a shiny white icing), marzipan
(ground almonds mixed with sugar, rosewater, and egg whites), Muscadines
called kissing Comfites, noisette confites (candied filberts), sugared
nuts, orengat (orange peel candied in honey), Paste of Apricocks, Paste of
Gooseberies, Paste of pippins, Paste of Rasberies, peach paste, Quideniock,
quince paste, rose sugar (sucre rosat), red and white rusen (poured into
moulds, usually fruit shaped), succade (suckets): orange peel, lemon peel,
Succet of Walnuts, Lemon Sucket, dried and wet suckets, sugar  paste
"reliefs" or sculptures, Sugar cakes, violet sugar

A good reference is "Rose Sugar and Other Medieval Sweets" by Joop
Witteveen, in Petits Propos Culinaires (PPC) #20.  In the early medieval
period (1200s) he lists rose and violet sugar.  Comfits existed:
"sugar-preserved seeds and spices".  Comfits are mentioned in Le Menagier. 
The 14th century listing from household accounts in Holland include items
above.  If you want the items separated out, let me know.  Witteveen also
mentions Italian "zuccata" which he says is "candied pumpkin".  Pumpkin
wouldn't refer, however, to the New World item.

Alys Katharine