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