Tag Archives: Facts

Nonpareils are not just decorative, but fun too!

• Nonpareils are edible, ornamental items used typically on confectionery and sweet food items, and are popular on desserts and children’s party foods, such as buttered bread or cupcakes.
• ‘Nonpareils’ are also known as ‘sprinkles’, ‘hundreds and thousands’ and ‘100s & 1000s’, particularly in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
• Nonpareils are very small, spherical in shape, and coloured brightly in numerous colours.
• ‘Nonpareils’ sometimes describes confectionery items, like chocolate discs, or ‘freckles’, that are covered with hundreds and thousands.
• Nonpareils originated as early as the 1690s, and are used in a recipe from the United States in the early 1700s, for the purpose of decorating a wedding cake.

• Nonpareils are generally made from sugar, starch and colour, and are difficult to replicate in household kitchens, requiring much skill and equipment.
• Nonpareils were originally a neutral white in colour and coloured ones were available in the early 1800s in the United States.
• Nonpareils became less popular in the mid 1900s, due to the introduction of the softer, rounded rectangular prism replacements called ‘sprinkles’ or ‘jimmies’.
• The word ‘nonpareils’ originates from the French word meaning ‘having no equal’ and the confectionery has its origins in sugar coated seeds and nuts known as ‘comfits’.
• Nonpareils are commonly available in supermarkets and grocery stores, though they have been available commercially as early as the 1840s.

Bibliography:

Nonpareils, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonpareils

What are nonpareils?, 2014, WiseGEEK, http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-nonpareil.htm

I. Day, Sugar-Plums and Comfits, 2003, Historic Food, http://www.historicfood.com/Comfits.htm

Candied fruit prevents fruit from spoiling – and tastes good too!

• Candied fruits are food items, in particular fruit, that have been preserved by a sweetener, usually sugar.
• ‘Candied fruit’ is also known as ‘crystallised fruit’, ‘frosted fruit’, ‘glacé fruit’ and ‘glazed fruit’, although the candying processes may vary among the terms.
• Candied fruit is typically candied by letting fresh or rehydrated fruit boil, and then sit in sugar syrup, and the sugar content of the syrup is gradually increased each day.
• Candied fruit can take from a few days to many months to become completely candied, and dried fruit will achieve this outcome faster.
• The candied fruit method causes the water to be extracted from the fruit and replaced with sugar, and this creates a type of pressure that repels some microorganisms that helps to preserve the fruit.

• Cherries are the most commonly candied fruit, and other fruits include oranges and their peel, mandarins, figs, melons, and pineapples, and lemon peels, chestnuts and ginger are also often candied.
• Candied fruit is typically sold and stored in airtight containers, so moisture cannot spoil the fruit, and it is popularly used in desserts and baked goods, most notably in fruitcake.
• Candied fruit is said to have originated from the Middle Eastern Arabs, as an important banquet food, which spread into Europe most likely in the 1500s.
• Of all candied fruits, limes are one of the most difficult to successfully candy due to the chemicals in the rind, and usually the process is only achieved in commercial settings.
• Candied fruit is approximately 80% sugar, and usually contains small amounts of fibre and manganese.

Bibliography:
Candied Fruit, 2011, Cooks Info, http://www.cooksinfo.com/candied-fruit

Candied Fruit, 2013, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candied_fruit

What is Candied Fruit?, 2014, WiseGEEK, http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-candied-fruit.htm

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