THE CONFECTIONER.
1. The Confectioner makes liquid and dry confects, jellies, marmalades, pastes, conserves, sugar-plums, ice-creams, candies, and cakes of various kinds.
2. Many of the articles just enumerated, are prepared in families for domestic use; but, as their preparation requires skill and practice, and is likewise attended with some trouble, it is sometimes better to purchase them of the confectioner.
3. Liquid and dry confects are preserves made of various kinds of fruits and berries, the principal of which are,—peaches, apricots, pears, quinces, apples, plums, cherries, grapes, strawberries, gooseberries, currants, and raspberries. The fruit, of whatever kind it may be, is confected by boiling it in a thick clarified syrup of sugar, until it is about half cooked. Dry confects are made by boiling the fruit a little in syrup, and then drying it with a moderate heat in an oven. The ancients confected with honey; but, at present, sugar is deemed more suitable for this purpose, and is almost exclusively employed.
4. Jellies resemble a thin transparent glue, or size. They are made by mixing the juice of the fruits mentioned in the preceding paragraph, with a due proportion of sugar, and then boiling the composition down to a proper consistence. Jellies are also made of the flesh of animals; but such preparations cannot be long kept, as they soon become corrupt.
5. Marmalades are thin pastes, usually made of the pulp of fruits that have some consistence, and about an equal weight of sugar. Pastes are similar to marmalades, in their materials, and mode of preparation. The difference consists only in their being reduced by evaporation to a consistence, which renders them capable of retaining a form, when put into moulds, and dried in an oven.
6. Conserves are a species of dry confects, compounded of sugar and flowers. The flowers usually employed, are,—roses, mallows, rosemary, orange, violets, jessamine, pistachoes, citrons, and sloes. Orange-peel is also used for the same purpose.
7. Candies are made of clarified sugar, reduced by evaporation to a suitable degree of consistence. They receive their name from the essence, or substance, employed in giving them the required flavour.
8. Sugar-plums are small fruits, seeds, little pieces of bark, or odoriferous and aromatic roots, incrusted with hard sugar. These trifles are variously denominated; but, in most cases, according to the name of the substance inclosed by the incrustation.
9. Ice-cream is an article of agreeable refreshment in hot weather. It is sold in confectionary shops, as well as at the public gardens, and other places of temporary resort in cities. It is composed, chiefly, of milk or cream, fruit, and lemon-juice. It is prepared by beating the materials well together, and rubbing them through a fine hair sieve. The congelation is effected by placing the containing vessel in one which is somewhat larger, and filling the surrounding vacancy with a mixture of salt and fine ice.
10. Cakes are made of a great variety of ingredients; the principal of which are, flour, butter, eggs, sugar, water, milk, cream, yeast, wine, brandy, raisins, currants, caraway, lemon, orange, almonds, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, and ginger. The different combinations of these materials, produce so great a variety of cakes, that it would be tedious to detail even their names.
11. The confectioner, in addition to those articles which may be considered peculiar to his business, deals in various kinds of fruits and nuts, which grow in different climates. He also sells a variety of pickles, which he usually procures from those who make it a business to prepare them.
12. Soda-water is likewise often sold by the confectioner. This agreeable drink is merely water, impregnated with carbonic acid gas, by means of a forcing-pump. The confectioners, however, in large cities, seldom prepare it themselves, as they can procure it at less expense, and with less trouble, ready made.
13. Sometimes, the business of the pastry-cook is united with that of the confectioner, especially with that branch of it which relates to making cakes. Pies and tarts consist of paste, which, in baking, becomes a crust, and some kind of fruit or meat, or both, with suitable seasoning. The art of making pies and tarts is practised, more or less, in every family: it is not, therefore, essential to be particular in naming the materials employed, or the manner in which they are combined.
