Sugar Plum : A dragee (word coming from the Latin tragemata meaning " treats ") is a confectionery made of one almond (called " core ") coated with sucre hardened, smoothed, white or colored; the almond can be replaced by a hazelnut, a pistachio, nougatine, doughalmond, chocolate or liquor.
History of the dragee: The almond coated with miel was already a delicacy very popular with the Greeks and Romans. The dragee as it exists today is mentioned for the first time in 1220, in the archives of the city of Verdun. At that time, apothecaries (with which confectioners were still confused) coated certain spices with honey (anise, coriander, fennel), known as "room spices", which were consumed to purify the breath or as a digestive.
Cane sugar having been introduced in Europe, the first real dragees appeared; their kernel was an almond or a seed of pumpkin or cucumber, covered with hardened sugar.
In 1660, Colbert noted that there was a "great trade in dragees" in Verdun: they were offered, in particular, during baptisms royals. Today, the city has remained the “city of sugared almonds”; the “shell of Verdun”, made of chocolate and fitted with a wick that is lit, releases dragees and cotillion accessories by exploding.
Until 1850, dragees were made by hand, in suspended basins that were rotated so that the sugar regularly covered the almonds. It was in 1850 that the first mechanical turbine was invented. Since then, the process has been perfected (spraying sugar syrup under pressure on the kernels, drying with forced air). Often offered on the occasion of a Baptism, An communion, marriage, the dragees are usually blue, pink, white, they are filled: thealmond is replaced by liquor or chocolate. The sugar-coating process is the same, whether it is sugar-coatedalmond, hazelnut or pistachio, nougatine dragees or dragees Filled ; only the filling changes. The most famous almonds are of Italian origin (the swallowed, flat and regular), Spanish (Planets), slightly domed, being less regular. They are placed in a turbine, wetted three times with a mixture of gum arabic and sugar, dried, then covered with a concentrated sugar syrup; they are then blanched (in a sugar syrup added withstarch), then smoothed and possibly colored. The sugared almonds chocolate in nougat in melting, almond paste or liquor are made on cast or molded cores; the best-known specialties include the " Provence olives », the " pebbles » and " pebbles » various, the liqueur eggs and Flavigny anise.
"Silver Pearls" » are obtained by coating a sugar core with a solution made from gelatin, then with pure silver. As for soft dragees (also called "cold dragees" or "Julien dragees"), in the shape of beans or peas (Arpajon goatherds, Soissons beans), they have a core of cooked sugar, light or beaten, coated with diluted glucose, then icing sugar.
Recently, sugared almonds have been added to restaurant menus and not just to the dessert menu since they are found on meat in sauce or roast, with some game.
See Condensed milk coffee.
See as well Sugar Plum under Mouth slang.
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