 Confection label, showingSanta Claus on sleigh with reindeer (1868) | |
| Type | Dragée orcomfit |
|---|---|
| Main ingredients | fruit, nuts, and sugar |
Sugar plums are a type ofdragée or other hard candy made into small round or oval shapes.[1] Theplum in the name of these confections does not always meanplum in the sense of the fruit, but rather their small size and spherical or oval shape. Traditional sugar plums often contained no fruit, instead being made mostly of pure sugar.[2] These candies werecomfits, and often surrounded a seed, nut, or spice.[3]
The menu forHenry IV of England's 1403 wedding feast included sugar plums, which were probablyfruit preserves orsuckets.[4][page needed]
A cookbook from 1609,Delights for Ladies, describes boiling fruits with sugar as "the most kindly way to preserve plums."[5] The termsugar plum was applied to a wide variety of candied fruits, nuts, and roots by the 16th century.[4][page needed] In this period, sugar plums were often made from unripe fruits, often still with their stones, as ripe fruits were more difficult to candy; the namesugar plum may have referred to pieces of wire inserted into the fruit for decoration and ease of handling[clarification needed].[4][page needed]
The termsugar plum came into general usage in the 17th century. During that time, adding layers of sweet which give sugar plums andcomfits their hard shell was done through a slow and labor-intensive process calledpanning. Before mechanization of the process, it often took several days, and thus the sugar plum was largely a luxury product. In fact, in the 18th century the wordplum became British slang for a large pile of money[6] or a bribe.[7]
In hisCompleat History of Drugs (1712),Pierre Pomet attributed medical benefits to sugar and provided instructions for making sweets, but dismissed sugar plums as "frivolous".[4][page needed] By the 1860s manufacturers were using steam heat and mechanized rotating pans, and it was then available for mass consumption.[2]
Today, some candy manufacturers have takensugar plum literally, creating plum-flavored, plum-shaped candies and marketing them assugar plum candy.[citation needed]
Another 21st-century take on thesugar plum instructs home cooks to combine dried fruits andalmonds withhoney and aromatic seeds (anise,fennel,caraway,cardamom), form this mixture into balls, then coat in sugar or shredded coconut.[8]
Sugar plums are widely associated withChristmas, through cultural phenomena such as the Sugar Plum Fairy inThe Nutcracker (composed byTchaikovsky, 1892), as well as the line, "The children were nestled all snug in their beds/While visions of sugar plums danced in their heads," from the poemA Visit from St. Nicholas (1823), better known as"'Twas the Night Before Christmas," byClement C. Moore.
Sugar plums have also gained widespread recognition through the poem "The Sugar Plum Tree" byEugene Field. The poem begins "Have you ever heard of the Sugar-Plum Tree? 'Tis a marvel of great renown!"[9]Sugar Plum Fairies were a Norwegian folk and pop band formed in 2000.
