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.
[Illustration: DISTILLER.]