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Steampunk Confectionery "Sweets!"

Started by eggberta echegaray, March 30, 2007, 11:47:41 PM

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eggberta echegaray

What do you consider to be Steampunk Confectionery? My first thought on this would have to be Bassett's Licorice Allsorts!  :P

http://www.cadburyschweppes.com/EN/Brands/About/Confectionery/factsheet_bassetts.htm


"She's got a touch of Tuesday Weld and has the right dynamics for the new frontier"

eggberta echegaray

I'm replying to my own post! hehe! Whooo! What about Mr.Willy Wonka?
He was a genius confectionarist, eventhough he is a fictional character...
ice cream that never melts, small candy eggs that hatch chocolate birds that move and chirp? And...of course...the all time famous Wonka Bar! mmm....yummy Steampunk Sweets!  ;D

"She's got a touch of Tuesday Weld and has the right dynamics for the new frontier"

promethium

as it so happens i am at this very moment watching the gene wilder version and wishing i had a purple velvet frock coat. indeed well said, and as for my personal taste chocolate truffles... they go very well with an ice cold martini in my opinion the very height of decadance

eggberta echegaray

Quotechocolate truffles... they go very well with an ice cold martini in my opinion the very height of decadance
ahhh yes...mmm...very decadent indeed!
"She's got a touch of Tuesday Weld and has the right dynamics for the new frontier"

Vincent Théière

I have a favourite sweets shop that sells delightful truffles and the like, I've eaten plenty of chocolate in my life and they are seriously the best I've tasted.  Especially nice alongside a nice cup of tea.  But I'm a bit of a dandy, the tough mechanics among us may think differently. :P

WisconsinPlatt

mmmmm...Bassett's....long time...

Although I happened upon the Liquorice Altoids finally and was pleasantly surprised.  All the taste, none of the black gummy stuff stuck to your teeth.   ;D

Flynn MacCallister

Why, liquorice bootlaces and peppermint humbugs, of course!

Although, if you are feeling terribly fancy, some wonderful little pieces of chocolate art in a lovely bonbonniere would surely be quite splendid.

Charlie Mortdecai

Standard issue in these parts are Uncle Joe's Mint Balls

http://www.uncle-joes.com/

Although some prefer to suck a Fisherman's Friend

http://www.fishermansfriend.com/

Charlie

eggberta echegaray

#8
I must say...I never was quite particular about sucking on a Fisherman's Friend!  :o Absolutely dreadful taste! Although, I am intrigued about Uncle Joe's mint balls. I take it the chap on the tin's picture, is "Uncle Joe". He looks like a rather cheerful chap...I suppose I would be cheerful as well, with people sucking on my minty balls.  ::)

"She's got a touch of Tuesday Weld and has the right dynamics for the new frontier"


Caffeinated Gent

Quote from: Lasairfion on April 01, 2007, 08:52:49 PM
I mentioned this elsewhere, but here's the link: http://www.mrsimmsoldesweetshoppe.com/

Two other online favourites are:
http://www.aquarterof.co.uk/ and
http://www.mrsbrowns.co.uk/acatalog/index.html

Aaaaah, the classics!

Tablet! Soor Plooms! Rhubarb and Custards! Barley Sugar! Cough Sweets!

I can't get enough!

For a few months here, we had a traditional sweet shop - a proper traditional sweet shop. It was great.

Mr. Sable

I would think those rock candy rods and the crystaline sugar on a stick that come from the apothecary jars would be something very appropriate for the era.
"I discovered when you dig up a dead body here, it's a crime...  When you do it in another country, it's called 'archaeology'."

Saint

I second that notion! But then again... I'd second any notion that had anything to do with raw crystallized sugar on a stick.


Edisonade

Not being a licorice fancier, the majority of old-timey candy is rather off-limits to me.  That said, any kind of hard candy that comes in a paper wrapper seems appropriate, as does uncolored rock candy and malted milk balls (my personal favorite).  I'm not sure about the vintage of the milk balls, but something about fermented candy seems pretty old school.

Esher

Has anyone had coconut tobacco? Jeese that stuff is like crack. Can't find it any more tho. It was just shredded coconut with the brown stuff on it.
"Good health is merely the slowest possable rate at which one can die."

heavyporker

Doesn't maple sugar candy count as steampunk?

I'd think that at the very least, cog-shaped molds could be made for a nice batch of maple sugar candy.


*drools*
I hope you all enjoyed Air Kraken Day

Tinkergirl

#17
Someone wanted coconut tobacco?  The site "A Quarter Of" (referencing the amount that you'd likely ask for in an old fashioned sweetie shop with jars behind the counter) has simply oodles of old-style sweets.  Some of the people at my work go quite silly for them and end up having whole giant boxes delivered.

Edit:  Oops!  Both Lasairfion and Dohicky beat me to the "A Quarter Of" reference.  Still - what a sweetie shop!

clockwork creation

I am a freak in control not a control freak

Matthias Gladstone

I'm shocked! no mention of the humble aniseed ball yet. Like absinthe in a sweet (but sadly free of wormwood and alchohol)
-Matt
Southampton University Steampunk Society:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/184948814914233/

clockwork creation

Quote from: Matthias Gladstone on November 17, 2008, 04:04:36 PM
I'm shocked! no mention of the humble aniseed ball yet. Like absinthe in a sweet (but sadly free of wormwood and alchohol)
-Matt


amen to that old boy
I am a freak in control not a control freak

Matthias Gladstone

I hate to ask this, but did anyone else snort sherbert when they were at school? I remember we had a competition one day, and we did thus. My friend won by snorting a heady mix of cinnamon and ginger.
I ask as for us, we were doing it as "snuff" rather than "cocaine" (hence darker coloured spices)
-Matt
Southampton University Steampunk Society:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/184948814914233/

Monti Christo

From "London Labour and the London Poor" by Henry Mayhew. Of the customers of the sweet-stuff street sellers:

"Boys and girls are my best customers, sir, and mostly the smallest of them; but then, again, some of them's fifty, aye, turned fifty; Lor love you. An old fellow, that hasn't a stump of a tooth in front, why, he'll stop and buy a ha'porth of hard bake, and he'll say, 'I've a deal of the boy left about me still.' He doesn't show it, anyhow, in his look. I'm sometimes thinking I'll introduce a softer sort of toffy - boiled treacle, such as they call Tom Trot in some parts, but it's out of fashion now, just for old people that's 'boys still'.

He goes on to mention peppermint rock, ginger drops, and brandy-balls. There is also a write-up on cough drops and medical confectionary, and of ices and ice creams.

I learned confectionry as part of becoming a pastry Chef. For Victorian era candy, think hard candies, toffies, and the like. Chocolate, although available, was not known in the form we know today until late in this period. It would more likely have been served as a drink.

Confectionry is as much a science as it is an art. Most of the candies mentioned above can be made with sugar, water and flavouring. It's knowing how heat affects sugar that allows you to manipulate it into the desired form.
"Well a process man am I and I'm tellin' you no lie
I work and breathe among the fumes that tread across the sky
There's thunder all around me and there's poison in the air
There's a lousy smell that smacks of hell and dust all in me hair" -Great Big Sea

Mercurielle

I'd never even heard of "coconut tobacco" and thought it might just be toasted coconut, but after that link I truly feel that I've been missing out!  It sounds wonderfully delicious and I'm not very prone to eating sweets.  Has anyone tried Grays Tea Cakes (http://www.aquarterof.co.uk/-p-227.html), they sound wonderful!

I do like butterscotch buttons, hard toffees, ginger and anise hard candies, when it comes to confectionery sorts.  Coco Rouge (http://cocorouge.com/), here in Chicago has wonderful hand made chocolates as well.  It appears their site is currently down, unfortunately, but they do offer online ordering usually.  Candies nuts are very good as well, especially almonds or walnuts.   :)

CaptainFynnOMalleyEsq.

Ooooh, Fry's chocolate cream, Glacier Mints, Parma Violets, Mint Imperials, Cinder Toffee, and Sugar Mice! Not all quite so victorian, but hey, they're old fashioned.

They also happen to be my favourites, all sugary and lovely. Cinder Toffee straight from the pan is particularly delightful, since its still warm and gooey on the inside.

*Drifts into reverie*
"Steam engines don't answer back. You can belt them with a hammer and they say nowt."
- The great Fred Dibnah