effects of other foods and enhance the digestive process A number of soothing medicinal sweets remain popular to this day, including lozenges, pastilles, and comfits Confectionery for Pleasure It’s thought that the first nonmedical confection in Europe may have been made around 1200 by a French druggist who coated almonds with sugar Medieval recipes from the French and English courts call for sugar to be added to fish and fowl sauces, to ham, and to various fruit and cream-egg desserts Chaucer’s Tale of Sir Topas, a 14th-century parody of the chivalric romance, included sugar in a list of “royal spicery,” along with gingerbread, licorice, and cumin By the 15th century, wealthy Europeans had come to appreciate the purely pleasurable virtues of sugar and its ability to complement the flavors of many foods The Vatican librarian Platina wrote around 1475 that sugar was being produced in Crete and Sicily as well as India and Arabia, and added, The ancients used sugar only in medicines, and for this reason make no mention of sugar in their foods They certainly missed out on a great delight, since nothing given us to eat is so flavorless that sugar cannot make it savory… By melting it, we make almonds…pine nuts, hazelnuts, coriander, anise, cinnamon, and many other foods into beautiful things The quality of sugar then almost crosses over into the qualities of the things to which it clings in the confection Food Words: Sugar and Candy Our language bears the traces of sugar’s passage from India through the Middle East to Europe The English word sugar comes from the Arabic imitation of the ... being produced in Crete and Sicily as well as India and Arabia, and added, The ancients used sugar only in medicines, and for this reason make no mention of sugar in their foods They certainly missed out on a great delight, since nothing given... By melting it, we make almonds…pine nuts, hazelnuts, coriander, anise, cinnamon, and many other foods into beautiful things The quality of sugar then almost crosses over into the qualities of the things to which it clings in the. .. of the things to which it clings in the confection Food Words: Sugar and Candy Our language bears the traces of sugar’s passage from India through the Middle East to Europe The English word sugar comes from the Arabic imitation