English Boiled Sweets 09/03/2010

The American description of boiled sweets – 'hard candy', gives a pretty good definition! They also have the category of 'soft candy' which covers all the fudges and toffees – all of which are also produced by boiling. However when us Brits say 'boiled sweet' we have clear image in our mind of a hard, often brightly coloured, some times clear, sometimes opaque, sometimes satin like gem of a sugar confection!

Old fashioned boiled sweets is an evocative phrase conjuring up images of jars of sugar jewels catching the sunlight that filters through the bow windows of a traditional sweet shop. But, exactly how old fashioned are old fashioned boiled sweets?

Evidence points back to ancient cultures such as the Egyptians enjoying sweetmeats like the original marshmallow but the expense of sugar meant 'sugar plums' were very much for the rich and for high days and holidays.

You may not believe it but the old fashioned boiled sweet is actually a 'super cooled liquid'. Sugar and water are boiled up to produce a clear glistening syrup, left to it's own devices this syrup will re-crystallise as it cools producing an opaque sweet. However it appears that by the 17^th Century, it was discovered that adding acid (lemon juice, vinegar, tartaric acid) to the syrup and cooling rapidly kept the hard brittle sweet beautifully clear and glass like. We still have taste for these sweet and sour combinations – think acid drops, pear drops and the Scottish soor plooms although the floral flavours also popular at the time are not so common now.

It was not until the happy combination of technology and affordable sugar (made from home grown sugar beet as opposed to transported from the West Indies) that the average Brit could indulge their sweet tooth in what we would now view as old fashioned boiled sweets. A huge success at the Great Exhibition of 1851 was a 'Drop' machine with interchangeable rollers to give a variety of shapes which introduced mechanisation of sweet making to an eager world! By 1865 Henry Weatherly had printed 'A treatise on the art of boiling sugar, crystallizing, lozenge-making, comfits, gum goods, and other processes for confectionery, etc.: in which are explained, in an easy and familiar manner, the various methods of manufacturing every description of raw and refined sugar goods' to an eager market (achieved at least 3 editions over the years!).

Fruit flavours were an instant success – think of those wonderful staples of the old fashioned sweet shop:- fruit drops, juicy apples, pineapple cubes. Medicinal or herbal sweets were also popular – the Victorians were great believers in self medication and many were a generation or less removed from their rural roots. Clove balls, cough candy, herbal tablets remain from those days – they may seem to be old fashioned sweets now but in only 150 years ago they were exciting and new. I have to say even now when I have cough or cold my first stop is to a good old fashioned boiled sweet like a mentholyptus – if nothing else the taste is so strong that it'll cut through even the most dulled taste buds!

Does Barley Sugar actually contain barley and since we stock sugar free Barley Twist, does this not contain sugar either?  Interesting questions and perhaps we need to go right back to the roots of etymology.  It is alleged that in actual fact we, the Brits, corrupted the Brûlé  of the French Sucre Brûlé or boiling sugar to barley, when the term was then re-exported to France the word was then translated back into French giving their sucre d'orge.  This slightly tortuous logic seems to indicate the use of barley for flavouring was led by the name of the sweet, cart before the horse anyone?

The flavouring was always minimal, barley water being boiled up with cane sugar, water and cream of tarter as early as the 17th C.  The Benedictine monks of Moret-sur-Loing (the town features a Museum dedicated to the confection) recorded a recipe by 1638.  The barley water itself was created by  boiling washed pearl barley and pouring of the resultant liquor, with or without citrus flavouring. Whilst Wimbledon would not be the same without the famous proprietary Robinson drink, not everyone is so keen on this liquid that was viewed as a suitable nourishment for children – one of the children's stipulations in Mary Poppins being that their nanny does not make them smell of the stuff!

In Victorian times, Barley Sugar Clear Toys were a special Christmas treat, shaped in metal moulds and even today both our modern take on these treats have attractive moulded shapes.  Traditionally, the sweets would be made in long strands which would then be twisted together and snipped to give manageable sized sweets – hence our sugar free barley sugar twist!  Whilst the Brits take a fairly relaxed view about whether our sweets contain barley or not (after all out coconut mushrooms are totally mushroom free) the Americans are a little more rigid about their definition. As a side note, the Australians allow Barley Sugars to be eaten during their fund and awareness raising 40 hr. Famine!

'A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down' sang Julie Andrews in her guise of Mary Poppins the archetypal nanny.  We are also all familiar with the phrase 'sugaring the pill' dating back to the time when doctors and chemist would make their own pills, including sugar to make the pill more palatable.  Before the advent of the National Health Service, only the very rich or the very desperate would call out the doctor.  Self medication and herbal medicines were the order of the day; when the industrial revolution forced hundreds of thousands from the land, access to hedgerow healing by the wise women of the village was no longer available.  Instead, the pharmacy, the quack doctor and the grocer had to be relied on for home curing illnesses and ailments.  Some of the original sweets of yesteryear included some very interesting ingredients that these days would require a prescription not a halfpenny at the candy counter! Army and Navy, also available in modern times as a sugar free sweet, actually included a derivative of opium, partly to sort out troops upset tummies, partially to clear their chests and partly to soothe their nerves.  Although Paregoric the opiate derivative and the former name of the Army and Navy sweet, is still available you would need to visit your doctor not your sweet shop to get hold of some. 

Menthol and Eucalyptus, shortened to mentholyptus,  are oils whose vapours have long been known to help sooth and clear throats and noses – but not for as long as you might think though!  The Eucalyptus tree is of course a native of Australia, and, although it's properties were quickly appreciated, it was not until 1851 that a commercial still was created to extract oil in commercial quantities.  Originally for the local Antipodean market, it was only in 1865 that this wonderful oil started being exported to the snuffle beleaguered England.  The anti-septic, decongestant properties act well in tandem with Menthol, a substance that has both counter irritant and analgesic qualities.  Derived from mint plants it is believed that menthol was first discovered over 2000 years ago in Japan but was not identified and isolated in the west until the late 18th Century.

Either or both of these flavours are found in many cough and cold sweets in varying proportions depending on the manufacturers 'secret recipe'.  Pungent they may be but at the end of the day if your cold is heavy, a sledge hammer of a flavour is needed to get to those numbed taste buds.

Martin's No 10 Drops are alleged to have been created by a Boot's chemist in the inter war period and was named for the 10 ingredients it boasted. The recipe was designed to alleviate the throat and chest conditions suffered from many miners in the dusty harsh conditions in which they worked.  Boot's having originated in the City of Nottingham, was certainly in the heart of a major coalfield and would have had a good market for a successful sweet of this nature – even today they boast containing Vitamin C as part of their health promoting attributes.

A slightly more extreme claim was built into the 'Lung Healers', re-named as Lun Jeelers due to EC legislation.  The name, albeit a traditional one, on the basis of 'says what it does on the tin, or perhaps the sweet jar, could not be used unless such a claim could be substantiated!  A Yorkshire sweet, presumably they would also have been popular with the Yorkshire Coal field miners, not to mention the cotton mill workers in neighbouring Lancashire.  Consumption was a constant fear, spitting blood – go fetch yourself some Lung Healers!  Nowadays they more realistically help soothe the symptoms of colds.

Cough candy tends to feature aniseed, a warming and soothing flavour and the very process of sucking a sweet and soothing the throat will help sooth a tickly cough. Indeed there is a whole range of mixed sweets containing aniseed flavouring described as either winter mixture or winter warmers. Barnips are a traditional and  interesting combination of liquorice and menthol, also available as a modern sugar free sweet  - a sure found winner when it comes to tickly throats. Allegedly consumed in quantities by choirs and choral societies they are also held to help clear the chest – presumably so the choir can belt out those big notes when needed!

Mint and Aniseed sweets, the sugar free version is indistinguishable from the original,  were expected to sweeten your breath and sort out your digestion! In the days before either affordable or in many places accessible dental care, sweet breath became increasing rare with age as teeth deteriorated.  Nowadays, with our enthusiastic consumption of garlic, they are equally popular for different reasons – plus, although they may seem an unlikely combination of flavours, they just work together!  Clove balls were also designed to help cope with the results of little or no dental care.  Although clove oil is toxic to humans when consumed in large quantities, a little applied to a cracked tooth will numb the pain. The flavour of the neat oil is almost unpleasantly strong so sucking a sweet containing clove oil was expected to help solve your tooth ache problems – temporarily at least!

Rhubarb and Custard 29/03/2010

Have you noticed how the best puddings of the winter and the best puddings of the summer actually produce two of the best sweets around? 

Rhubarb and Custard will warm the cockles of your heart when placed steaming on your table after a robust winter roast dinner and this flavour is recreated in a beautiful bi-coloured sweet.  These bite sized bursts of flavour capture this classic combination of sharp and mellow tastes, not only in pocket size portions but, in their sugar free version, in tiny size calorie values.  Rhubarb, whilst we prepare and present it as a fruit, is of course nothing of the sort being of course the stems of the rhubarb plant.  Rhubarb itself originates from Siberia and found the cold wet winters of Yorkshire ideal conditions to grow in.  So much so that the 'Rhubarb Triangle', 30 square miles in an area originally bounded by Wakefield, Bradford and Leeds, became famous in the late 19th and early 20th Century. Today the produce of the reduced 'Rhubarb Triangle', 9 square miles in size has been awarded Protected Designation of Origin status by the E.U.  Not to many miles to the East of the   Rhubarb Triangle existed the equally famous Liquorice Fields of Pontefract famous of course for Pontefract Cakes.  Sadly time has now left no liquorice grown in the area although much liquorice confectionery  is still created in the town.  Hopefully this new protected status will ensure the Rhubarb Triangle avoids the obsolescence visited upon the liquorice fields. What is it about this small area that has produced two such iconic British products?

The 'forced' rhubarb that made this area famous was allowed to grow unharvested in fields for two years with liberal dosings of horse manure, night soil and waste from the nearby cotton mills. The roots, having been frosted, would be moved in November, into pitch dark sheds and grown on in heated black out conditions.  So stringent was the regime that traditionally the stalks were picked by candle light to avoid the risk of upsetting the plants.  The rhubarb that resulted from this would be smooth and crimson, bitter-sweet and acid– truly a thing of beauty.  In a time of limited fresh winter foods, Rhubarb was king from Christmas until Easter. A rhubarb train was laid on by The Great Northern Railway to get the rhubarb down to London and from then some even travelled as far as Paris. Just before the second war, when rhubarb production was at it's peak, up to 200 tons of rhubarb a day was transported this way,. However in 1962, the growers responded to a rail strike by finding alternative transport and the service was withdrawn shortly after.

I believe it is this bitter-sweet aspect of the rhubarb that makes it such a fabulous flavour for a sweet.  So many traditional sweets juxtapose this mixture of almost acid flavours; think of all those citrus sweets, including the slightly bizarre but non the less popular pink grapefruit – also available in sugar free!  Acid drops themselves are possibly the archetypal bitter sweet combination – almost mouth puckering but not quite.  The blending with the almost unctuous custard flavour produces that beautifully balanced combinations of flavours that is the rhubarb and custard sweet.

Satisfying the other end of the season is the strawberries and cream combination, with less bite than that of rhubarb and custard but a true fruit flavour, the taste of summer is encapsulated in this sweet also available in a sugar free version.  Whilst rhubarb and custard provokes thoughts of snug dining rooms and generous portions, strawberries and cream evokes sunny gardens, al fresco dining and dappled shade.  Something of interest about this seasonal fruit is the actual name.  Is it called strawberry after the straw that is strewn around the plants to keep the fruits of the ground, the straw like runners that propagate the plants, a corruption of strewnberry due to the amount of berries strewn around the plants or, really far fetched, due to the seeds that look like chaff on the outside of the berry – in which case why not chaff berry?

Whilst the Yorkshire tykes had their mouth puckering rhubarb, the gentler types of the Hamble Valley in Hampshire were famous for their slightly tart but ultimately sweet strawberries.  As with the rhubarb triangle, the advent of the railways, in the 1860s, made it possible for these delicate fruits with their short shelf life to access the hungry markets of London. So economically vibrant was this business that Swanwick station, built in 1888, was provided with extra long platforms to facilitate loading. Even with these extra long platforms the pressure was such that queues op horses and carts would back up for up to a mile in peak times. From the end of May for 6 or 7 weeks onwards this was one of the busiest stations in the country with up to 20,000 berries a day being sent up to the 'big smoke' to bring a touch of summer freshness to the sweltering city inhabitants.  A back breaking, labour intensive process, pickers were expected to harvest 12lbs per day. As air freight became widespread these beautiful Hampshire fruits could not compete with the cheaper, earlier ripening fruits that started being imported in the 1960s. Much of the fields disappeared bowing to the combined pressure of housing needs and diminishing returns from the soft fruit industry. The 'Strawberry Specials' run from Swanwick are now a thing of the past but a Sugar free Strawberries and Cream sweets, gentle on the taste buds bud with that little bit of tartness, are available as a guilt free sweet is little bit of nostalgia on the tongue!