Confectionery : Une confiserie est un patented made of sucre qui est vendu dans un store du même nom et fabriqué par un confectioner.
The term "confectionery" applies not only to sweets, treats and candy, excluding products in chocolate, which are a particular branch of confectionery (see Chocolat), mais aussi au store du confectioner et à l’ensemble des techniques artisanal ou industrial du job du sucre.
Au Quebec, le terme confiserie est peu utilisé et est remplacé par « candy ". The confectionery (store) is often called bonbonnerie.
Il existe une très grande variété de confiseries allant des bonbons aux chocolates and candied fruits, cotton candy, barley sugar, Flavigny anis and Turkish delight.
There are several categories of confectionery products:
– bonbons de sucre cuit : bonbons acidulés, cartons, pop rock, barley sugar, lollipop, apple sugar, Cambrai nonsense ;
- caramel, fudge et toffee ;
- chocolates et scams ;
- chews ;
- urethane et licorice : gums (gum balls, liquorice gums), pectoral pastes (liquorice paste, jujube), liquorice (hard, soft);
- fondants : bonbons fondants, fondants à l’eau, sucre de conserve, papillotes, papillottes lyonnaises ; fourrages divers de bonbons,
- jelly confectionery : marshmallows soft meringages, Marshmallows ;
- dragees and sugar-coated candies: with Almonds, silver, chocolate, tender;
- pralines ;
- nougat et touron ;
- pellet and tablets;
- fruit paste ;
- almond paste (calissons d'Aix) and Marzipan.
Ingrédients servant à la confection des confiseries : De nombreuses matières premières entrent dans la fabrication des produits de confiserie : le sucre, le sirop de glucose and inverted sugar, miel, milk, fat animal and plant, fruits (qu’ils soient frais, en conserve, surgelés ou en pulpe), le cocoa, Dried fruit, gum arabic, pectin, starches and l'starch, gelatin, the juice of licorice, certains acides (citric, lactic,…), the natural aromatic products or synthesis and colorants authorized and codified (see List of food additives).
History of confectionery: To know the history of sugar itself and not of its practical use (see Sugar).
Les Perses semblent avoir été les premiers à mettre au point, au Ve siècle, la fabrication de sucre solide en pain.
Antiquity only knew the sweet taste through the basic ingredients of the diet: mainly honey. The latter lent itself to many culinary uses and was used, in particular, to candy various fruits to ensure their conservation. Gluttony was not, however, absent from this practice which foreshadows the sweets of which the Middle Ages was a great fan. The use of sugar in the field of candy was done very slowly.
The art of the confectioner is very old. Its development followed the discovery of raw materials: thus, we first used the miel to coat seeds and fruits, and to make sweets comparable to those in the Middle East. Cane sugar was introduced to Europe by the Crusaders in the Middle Ages. Until the end of the XNUMXth century, apothecaries and confectioners competed for the privilege of preparing and selling sugar-based products, but the latter ended up establishing themselves as a full corporation. The invention of sugar beet, in the XNUMXth century, gave a revival of activity to the profession. Nowadays, this brings together in France nearly two hundred and fifty manufacturers (small family firms and large industries) who, as a general rule, do not manufacture the same types of boiled sugar products, gums and caramels, sugar-coated products and chewing gum are highly mechanized sectors, while the fruit paste, almond paste, iced chestnuts are manufactured by smaller, even artisanal companies. In addition, certain specialties are still the prerogative of specific regions.
A luxury commodity, it only succeeded, because of its price, in completely replacing honey during the Renaissance. But from this period, the discoveries of confectionery would be inseparable from its development.
The Arabs were undoubtedly the first to develop recipes for sweets with a taste end, only based on sugar (which differentiates them from other desserts). A cookbook, originating in Baghdad and dated 1226 reveals that their recipes, already numerous, attest to a great know-how and constitute a first sketch of the art of the confectioner.
For a long time, confectionery was linked to the medicine of the apothecary. Hippocrates, then Dioscorides and Galen in his footsteps, recommended medicines from various products, and we find traces of recipes for sweets in "antidotaries", as well as in texts dated from the early Middle Ages, Cs or sorts. nougats for example.
La confiserie aujourd’hui : La confiserie est accessible à tous dans tous les pays occidentaux. On trouve des produits tant industriels qu’artisanaux, et biens des pâtissiers savent encore aujourd’hui réaliser nougats et fruit jellies. It is a product that is consumed regularly in many families, mainly by children who are very serious fans of it, but they are not the only ones. However, confectionery remains festive products, consumed on specific occasions, such as Easter ou Halloween.
In France, the average consumption of confectionery is estimated at 3,3 kg per year and per capita (in Europe, only Italians consume less). The vast majority of confectionery products are the subject of so-called “impulse” purchases - in particular by children - which occur throughout the year.
Some of them are however rather consumed on the occasion of festivals (baptisms, Communion, Easter, Holidays): this is the case in particular for sugared almonds, candied chestnuts, papillotes, candied fruits.
In the kitchen with the playfood trend (See Play food), some sweets have entered the restaurant in original and sometimes innovative dessert recipes. See amazing. Other sweets are sure to follow.
See Confectioners' Truce.
See as well Confectionery under Mouth slang.