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Angelica, Candied
Take the plant in April: boil it in salt and water until it is tender. Remove and drain it well, scrape the outside, and dry it in a clean cloth. Place it in a syrup, and allow it to remain there for three or four days, closely covered. The syrup must be made from the same weight of sugar that there is of fruit, allowing half a pint of water to a pound of sugar, and must be boiled twice a day, and poured over the fruit until it is nearly all absorbed; after which it should be put into a pie-dish, and placed near the fire. Time to make, about ten days.
A slow sugar-preserve of angelica stems, made by the old method of repeatedly reboiling one syrup rather than stepping up through several. Nothing here is difficult, but the ten days are not padding — the sugar has to move into the stalks gradually or they collapse.
- What part of the plantUse the young, hollow leaf stalks and tender flowering stems of Angelica archangelica, cut before the plant flowers and while still soft enough to snap. Older stems are woody and fibrous and no amount of syrup will fix them; the root and seed are used for flavouring spirits, not for candying.
- Be certain of your plantAngelica has several deadly relatives in the same family, including water hemlock and cowbane, which favour the same damp ground. If you are not confident identifying it in the field, buy nursery-grown angelica or garden it yourself.
- "Fruit" means the stemsThe recipe slips into calling the angelica "fruit"; the word was often applied loosely to anything being preserved in syrup. Weigh the prepared stalks after scraping, and match that weight in sugar.
- The syrup, in modern measureEqual weights of sugar and angelica, with half a pint of water per pound of sugar — about 10 fl oz (285 ml) of water to 1 lb (450 g) sugar.
- Why it is boiled twice a dayEach reboil evaporates water and concentrates the syrup a little, so the sugar strength climbs in small steps and the stems candy through instead of shrivelling. Drain the syrup off, bring it to a boil, pour it back hot over the angelica, cover, and repeat. This is the hinge of the recipe; skipping days gives limp, hollow stalks.
- Salt in the blanching waterThe initial boil in salted water softens the stalks and makes the outer skin easy to scrape. The recipe asks only for 'tender' — test with a knife point and stop as soon as they yield, since young stems need little.
- "Placed near the fire"This is a warm drying spot, not baking. An oven at its lowest setting with the door ajar, around 120-150F, or a dehydrator, will dry the sticky surface in a few hours until they are tacky rather than wet.
- Keeping the colourThe bright green of commercial candied angelica comes from added colouring. Home-made pieces dry to a dull olive or brown-green; this is normal and does not mean anything has gone wrong.
- StorageOnce surface-dry, roll the pieces in caster sugar and keep them airtight in a cool cupboard. Well candied, they hold for a year; any weeping or fermenting smell means the sugar never got high enough.
Angelica was grown in northern and central Europe as much for medicine as for the table, and its reputation as a defence against plague and infection is traditional rather than documented — the name is usually explained as a reference to an angel revealing its virtues. Candying was the standard way of preserving it, and the French town of Niort in Poitou built a small industry on the trade, supplying the green sticks that pastry cooks used to draw stems and leaves on iced cakes and to stud puddings and cassata. Cassell's places the entry among its alphabetical reference notes, and the household that grew its own plant in the kitchen garden could reasonably expect to make its own. The technique is a simple one — one syrup, reboiled and poured back day after day.