Comfits and Sweets

Ordering Information.

The medieval feast customarily ended with spiced wine, sweet wafers, and comfits - spicy morsels such as crystallized ginger and sugared nuts. Such sweetmeats were also the usual snacks on festive or amorous occasions.

0600 SUGARED FENNEL SEEDS

These little comfits offer the sweet licorice flavour of fennel complemented by a coating of multicoloured sugar. They are the closest equivalent currently available for the 'red anise in comfit' often called for as a garnish in medieval recipes. A fine 'sally-forth' at a feast, or as a nibble at any time.

25 g	.35
500 g	4.50

0610 CRYSTALLIZED GINGER

Sliced and candied in sugar, this comfit is sweet and full of flavour. Take care, though - it is also powerful (but oh so good). Nibble this rather than munching.

25 g	.40
500 g	6.50

0620 LICORICE STICKS

These are actually the roots of the licorice plant, which when chewed give a sweet licorice flavour. The natural sweetening agent in licorice is, in relation to calories, many times sweeter than sugar, so one may have a sweet mouthful without worrying about one's weight. Chaucer depicts licorice as an effective breath sweetener.

25 g	1.40
500 g	18.30

0630 CANDIED VIOLETS

A flower with a flavour, sugar-coated. Good for eating out of hand or for decorating cakes and subtleties. (25 grams will include about 35 pieces, some petals and some whole flowers)

25 g	4.90
500 g	88.20

0640 CANDIED ANGELICA

These thick hollow stems of the anglica herb, candied in sugar, have a texture and taste somewhat like glacé cherries, with an interesting "herby" undertone. The beautiful translucent emerald green stems can be sliced in rings or opened out, flattened, and cut to shape, making a wonderful decoration for cakes, cookies, and other sweets. Each piece is about 5 inches long by about 1 inch diameter. A package weighs 90-100 g (shipping weight 100 g), and contains from 2 to 5 pieces, depending on their size.

90-100 g package	4.75
1 kg box	44.00

0650 HAW FLAKES

I don't know how ancient these are, but they are tasty (and somewhat habit-forming). Tiny wafers, about the size of a dime, of the sweetened fruit of the Chinese hawthorn, pressed and dried like fruit leather. These come in a paper tube about half the size of a roll of Life-Savers; there are ten such tubes in a package. Try them! You'll be back for more. (Shipping weight 125 grams per package.)

package of 10 rolls	1.25
10 packages	11.25

Ordering Information.

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