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Candies and Candy Making: Pastils
Or pastils may be dropped on a sheet of stiff paper and left two hours to set firmly. Then the paper may be turned over a sieve and the bottom moistened with a soft brush dipped in water. Loosen the drops if necessary with a knife, and let them fall in the sieve. Then move the sieve gently back and forth, over a slow fire, until they are dry. Pastils may be kept in closely stoppered glass bottles or fruit jars to exclude air and moisture. Use the above directions for all of the following recipes:
Peppermint Pastils. - Four drops of essence of peppermint, 1/2 ounce of water, 3¼ ounces of sugar.
Raspberry Pastils.-Half an ounce of raspberry juice, 31 ounces of sugar. Or a little less of the raspberry juice may be found sufficient in some cases. 1 Currant Pastils. - Half an ounce of red currant juice, 4 ounces of sugar.
Rose Pastils. - !our drops of essence of roses, 4 drops of prepared cochineal, ounce of water, 31 ounces of sugar.
Orange Pastils. -The juice of 2 oranges strained, ounce of orange sugar, 3½ ounces of sugar.
Ginger Pastils. - One teaspoonful Jamaica ginger, 1 ounce of lemon juice, 34 ounces of sugar.
Clove Pastils. - Four ounces of oil of cloves, ounce of water, ounce of sugar.
A set of variations on one technique: a stiff sugar paste, flavoured and dropped in small rounds, then dried until hard. The proportions are all built on the same ratio, roughly half an ounce of liquid to three and a half ounces of sugar.
- The ratio is the whole recipeThe ratio is close to the whole recipe -- roughly half an ounce of flavouring liquid (1 tablespoon) to 3½ ounces of sugar (a scant half cup) gives a thick, barely pourable paste, though the currant, ginger and orange versions depart from it. Too much liquid presumably keeps the drops from setting; the raspberry recipe alone hints at this, allowing that "a little less of the raspberry juice may be found sufficient."
- Weights, not volumesThe sugar is almost certainly by weight, and the liquids most likely fluid ounces, though the book does not say so: 1 fl oz is 2 tablespoons, ½ fl oz is 1 tablespoon. Use a scale for the sugar rather than guessing.
- Essence means concentrated oilEssence means a druggist's preparation -- "essence of peppermint" and "essence of roses" of the period were alcoholic solutions of the essential oil and considerably stronger than modern supermarket extracts. Four drops of ordinary extract will taste of almost nothing, so flavour to taste.
- The clove quantity as printedFour ounces of oil of cloves is not a confectionery measure; clove oil is a strong irritant to mouth and gut in bulk, and this figure is hundreds of times what the other flavourings call for. The clove line is garbled throughout (the water and sugar amounts are missing). Do not attempt the clove variation from the numbers given here.
- Prepared cochinealA red colouring made from dried scale insects, sold ready-dissolved by druggists. It is still available as carmine or E120; any red food colour serves the same purpose in the same drop quantities.
- Orange sugarNot a commercial product but sugar rubbed hard against the zest of an orange until it is coloured and fragrant, then scraped off. Grated zest worked into the sugar does the same work.
- Jamaica gingerProbably the druggist's strong alcoholic extract of ginger, sold as a medicine, though the term was also used for ginger of Jamaican origin as a ground spice; the recipe does not specify. If using ground ginger, reduce accordingly.
- "Over a slow fire"For drying only, not cooking; the aim is to drive off surface moisture without melting the drops, with the sieve kept moving. Very gentle heat, or simply a warm dry room, will do it. Sieving them dry keeps the undersides from staying tacky.
- Storage and yieldStorage -- Airtight glass is not fussiness: the recipe's instruction to exclude air and moisture matters because pastilles draw damp from the air and go sticky in a humid kitchen.
Pastilles began as apothecary work rather than confectionery — small medicated lozenges, sucked slowly so that peppermint, ginger, clove or liquorice could act on the throat and stomach. The vocabulary in this set gives the origin away: essence of peppermint, prepared cochineal and Jamaica ginger were all associated, at least traditionally, with the druggist's counter rather than the grocer's, and Jamaica ginger in particular was a standard household remedy for indigestion. By the late nineteenth century the line between the two trades is often said to have blurred, and books like this one file pastilles among the candies while keeping the pharmacy's habit of measuring flavour in drops. The fruit-juice versions, using nothing but strained currant, raspberry or orange juice and sugar, are the closest thing here to a plain sweet.