The Complete Confectioner (1800)/Dragees

DRAGEES.

To make French Dragees.

Take any quantity of almonds, put them a short time in the oven to dry; then put them in the tossing-pan over a small fire, and keep stirring them till they are warm; take a quarter of a pound of gum-arabic, which dissolve on the fire with a little water; when the gum is dissolved, add to it a little clarified sugar, and boil them together a short time; then put some of that mixture in the tossing-pan with your almonds, keep stirring till the almonds are dry; when dry, add a little gum to them, and do the same till they are dry again, and continue so doing till you have used all your gum; then add as much clarified sugar as will cover the almonds, and boil it a little; stir your almonds till you see they are well covered; you must take care to stir them continually, and to keep always an equal fire under your tossing-pan; when you see the almonds are well covered, take a little clarified sugar light, that is, where there is more water than sugar, diminish your fire, and give your almonds three or four washes over with sugar in moving them, to make them slip to and fro in the pan; you may even sleek them in the pan with your hand till they begin to be dry; then continue to sleek them with the pan; and take them off and set them in the stove to dry.

To make Coriander Dragees.

Take any quantity of coriander seeds, put them in the tossing-pan over the fire, and let them warm; when they are warm, throw in about half a glass of vinegar, stir them well till they are dry; have clarified sugar, which boil in another pan, and proceed as directed for the almonds, till you see the corianders are covered to the size you want to have them; when that is done, take the corianders out from the pan, wash them well and put them in again, and stir them well till they are all warm, then have clarified sugar, which boil to the first degree; when this is done, put it in an instrument of copper, made on purpose for the operation, and at the bottom of which there is a little hole, hang it up by a pack-thread string, that the sugar may fall from about a yard height into the pan where the corianders are; while the sugar falls into your pan keep stirring well your corianders, till you see they are well pearled over or rough and grainy; when they are sufficiently so, take them out and place them in the stove to finish drying.

To make Cinnamon Dragees.

Take any quantity of cinnamon, put it to soak in water for one day, then take it out and cut it length-ways into small fine pieces; put it in your pan and just heat it over a gentle fire, then take clarified sugar, which must be warm, and put a little of it in your pan; then stir it about with your hands, that those bits should not stick to each other till it is dry; give your cinnamon thus two or three bodies by keeping stirring with your hands till it is pretty well covered; afterwards continue to add sugar to it occasionally till you have brought it to the size you would have it; then proceed for the rest as directed for the coriander, till it has done pearling, when you may put it in the stove to finish drying.

To make Cardamum Dragees.

Take any quantity of cardamums, put them in the oven to dry; when they are well dried, take them off the fire, and pick all the seeds out of them; clean them well, and part all the grains, for they frequently stick together; when the seed is well cleaned, put it in the preserving pan; and, except the gum, which you will not have occasion to make use of it, proceed as before directed for the almonds.

To make Caraway Seed Dragees.

Take any quantity of caraway, put it in the preserving pan, and when it is quite warm put in clarified sugar a little at a time, stirring it occasionally till it is of what size or bigness you wish to have it; then proceed as directed for the almonds, with respect to the managing of them from that time to the putting of them in the stove to dry.

To make Violet Dragees.

Take one ounce of gum-dragon, which set to soak in half a pint of water, for twenty-four hours; then pass it through a cloth, and put it in the mortar; first pound it alone to make it whiten, then add to it some powdered sugar, and continue to pound it in, adding sugar at intervals, till your paste rises very high, and sticks to your powder; then take it off and put it in a bowl, cut a bit of it, and fill it with powdered sugar till you can handle it without its sticking to your fingers; then add to it violet powder, and take a bit with your fingers, which roll and dress of the size of half a corn of rice; put the other in a pot to keep it moist, and that which you worked, as directed, place in the stove to dry, keep it stirring for fear they should stick one to another, but the fire must be very gentle; when they are well dried, put them in the preserving pan over a slow fire, and when warm put some clarified sugar in the preserving pan with a spoon, an stir them continually till they are dry, then add another spoonful of sugar, dry it again, and repeat it till your dragees are brought to the size that your wish to have them; and proceed as directed for the almonds.

To make Coffee Dragees.

Take paste, made in the same way as for the last dragees, or which you have remaining, fill it with powdered sugar; take some ground coffee and mix with it; then with your fingers roll some bits of it to the size of coffee beans, put them in the stove to dry; and when dry, give them the sugar as directed for the violet dragees.