Aieve Snack Coater Panning Attachment for KitchenAid - amzn.to/49lfgQ9 Thanks to DoorDash for sponsoring this video! DoorDash is your door to more. Get almost anything delivered at doordash.yt.link/JZndXJE, and use TASTINGHISTORY2024 to get 50% off up to $10 on your first order of $15 or more.
When i worked in a chocolate factory, to cover fruit and nut, we used to keep them in the pan and use maltodextrin powder instead of your sugar/starch. Also we thinned out the sugar solution so it was more of a liquid than a syrup. This made it easier to coat without the fruit/nut clumping... Many thanks for reminding me of a great job that i had
as we all are now...or at least the type that takes days vs months. seriously months? wtf...why? how can that possibly be worth it? how can it take that long? how many more ingredients are there vs these that somehow require several months? who was buying them and for how much in today's money? do you know how many things you can make to ingest in that time? you can make and age mead in that time... literal fermentation made safe for getting intoxicated can be made in that time span. this vs getting drunk,what do you choose... especially in those days.
He has just the right amount of honesty, human, well spoken, but not overly dismissive or snarky. It’s great. He also is clearly intelligent and explains the lessons well (while citing all the sources of his research); his passion for the topic of cooking really shows! We benefit, like the plum-eater themselves, from the final product without the muss or fuss!
I think that you can get absolutely everything for your Kitchen Aid, if you are willing to pay for it. Maybe boutique candy makers use them for small batches. Probably things less involved than these sugar plums.
@@Hrafnasil I highly recommend it! They are not cheap, but they last a life time. I'm a high level home cook and I don't know what I would do without mine. It has a little rotor on the front that goes directly to the drive shaft and I'm serious when I say you can get almost anything you can think of to clamp on there.
I love those old timey cookbooks that send you on a wild goose chase by telling you to refer to another recipe, then that recipe sends you to another recipe, and so on. It's like a culinary choose-your-own-adventure book.
Cookbooks had import library before programmers did. Had a book like that which at least structured recipes in a good way, one is supposed to try the basic recipes first then advanced recipes subbed a basic recipe mention with page where you'll find it
It's like troubleshooting a computer issue, you go to one site and fix one problem which causes another problem which needs you to find another info site and so on, forever.
I imagine this is due to changing tastes. Plain sugar is cheap now, so doing this isn't going to impress anyone because we're all used to the taste of sugar.
It’s like making puffed pastry from scratch versus getting it from a roll or a can from the grocery store. Cut down on prep time so you can enjoy your recipe and your company.
@@krdiaz8026 He mentioned at the start that even back when they were popular, nobody made them at home because of the sheer amount of time and labor involved.
@@screamingcactus1753 No, I meant, if you sold these today, only a few people would buy them, likely only to know what they taste like, because plain sugar doesn't impress us anymore considering that even the poorest families can buy sugar. Contrast this to high quality chocolate which is also time consuming to make from scratch (the top chocolateries will not use ready made chocolate which you will just need to melt, but will roast their own cacao beans, grind them, etc.) People still buy expensive chocolate because high quality chocolate - at least in some countries - is still relatively inaccessible to most people. Sugar can be refined in the countries that produce it, and these countries tend to have low minimum wages, then shipped abroad in large quantities. This keeps the price low. High quality chocolate must be made fresh from the cacao beans, and cacao is more difficult to produce compared to sugar cane. This keeps the price high. (Although if you live in a country which produces cacao, you can get high quality chocolate for relatively cheaper than in Europe.) And that is why the amount of labor for sugar plums does not justify making it today. In the Victorian times, sugar was expensive. Europe didn't produce sugar and had to import it via slow-moving ships. Only the rich had desserts and cakes and things like that regularly. So, the amount of sugar in a sugarplum was considered extravagant and fit for the holidays.
Find it so funny that basically the only thing never in sugar plums was plums. That's the English language for you! Love the video, can't wait for the next one.
@@corrinsheart I love anime too but this is like seeing a reference to God and saying "just like in Shin Megami Tensei!", you gotta hide your power level among the normals bro
@ ik I’m aware of the irl references in anime, and don’t worry. I used to be way cringier and more insufferable in middle school when it came to anime😂
Me before clicking on the video: "Oh, this could be fun to make for Christmas." Me after watching the video: "I think I'll just go buy some candy coated nuts..."
It's the same expression many of us men have had in the summer after a shower, drying our own sugar plums. "Well..... this is just a _tad_ humiliating."
Noting that M&Ms are essentially sugar plums is amazing. My children will be happy to note they've already been dreaming of sugar plums without knowing it...
It's interesting because here in Denmark the Jordan almonds are commonly sold during the holidays and we call them King almonds (Konge mandler) there are also Queen almonds but they are coated in chocolate before the sugar coating Perhaps sugar plums are called plums because plums have a seed in the middle and are round and sweet?
Max your make up is flawless. I cannot at all see the spot on your head where you must have pounded it against the table while you were making this dish. God bless you.
O.M.G! I just discovered that my favorite candy as a kid in the '60s were sugarplums! At the candy counter of one particular store we sometimes visited (Gem in Syracuse NY) I would buy polished hard white candy balls with a pistachio inside. Now I know how to make them, not that I will, but at least I have 3 new names to search for them by. Thanks, Max!
Max: No one in their right mind would make this at home.... Also Max: But that's perfect, because I'm not in my right mind. 😂 And that's why we love you Max. Thanks for being you
I’m so glad to be here early. I just bought Almond paste and Marzipan in a tube when I went grocery shopping and I have no idea what I’m going to do with them, I just have a feeling that I’ll watch a video of yours and need it one day 😂
@@Chocobo0Scribe Same. I was at first mildly disappointed. But then I realized that the true joy lies in figuring out what's at the center. A cherry? A shelled nut? Or the pit of an apricot -.-
My goodness, I can't even imagine the hours of research and cooking you put in to be able to share this with us. Fascinating! The recipe is sooo...sugary, I was afraid you might faint plum away after the first bite. Glad you made it. If anyone else would like to support this channel or any other channel you appreciate, just click on the three bullet points to the right of the word “download” below the video, and you can donate beginning at $2.00. Happy holidays to all!
Because of the Norman Invasion, English does that a lot. Animals on the hoof and produce in the garden have a name from the native Anglo-Saxon language base because the serfs did the work while food served at the table has names from the French that the Norman nobility used because they were the ones who could afford this diet (like dried fruit in winter). So sheep/mutton, cow/beef, pig/pork, grape/raisin, plum/prune, etc. Edit typo
@@wartginThat's... actually both really logical and REALLY interesting! It gives me a new perspective to see so much by. I mean, I'm a little disappointed I never thought of this myself, because it seems pretty self evident once I actually DO THINK about it 😅😅 Thanks!
The latin word "prunus" means plum, and peaches, apricots, cherries, nectarines, plums and almonds are all members of the Prunus genus, so even in botany everything is a plum.
Thanks for a rather exhaustive discourses on sugar plums. There has always been a certain mystique about this confectionery and I appreciate the time and energy put into this presentation. Merry Christmas
We appreciate that Jose takes the time to type in ACCURATE REAL Closed Captions. Many are not using them, but for d/Deaf and hard of hearing it really relaxes the mind to not have to guess what the garbled mess of auto captions meant by looking at lips. That is so interesting that you found a device to coat nuts and fruits at home. Besides trying to make sugarplums (you should just sell these so we do not have to make it) it will be handy to make Jordan almonds and chocolate covered raisins, I bet.
Max, I have been watching your videos for a few years now, I would like to say that you produce wonderful content most charmingly. Not only are they informative but are fun to watch, Merry Christmas from Austria
Sugar panning is still used for a wide range of candy, Sugared almounds, Gob stoppers, Skittles, m&ms, Jellybeans. M&m's only have a few coatings, when you make jelly beans you chuck in loads of sugar between coats to make the shell softer. The pans in the factory are huge! When you make your syrup add the flavour after you have boiled the syrup otherwise most of the flavour is lost. I'm english and we always called it a dragée pan. To polish them Carnauba wax is now used as it is vegan but its also the wax thats used in automobile waxes. Back in Victorian times sugar was very expensive, and because the process took a long time if you offered your guests a large pile of sugar plums you had to be wealthy to have the sugar and the labour to make them.
Even earlier, sugar would have been nearly-exclusive to princes and the like. In the medieval period, the most you could hope for was honey and fruits when it came to sweetening things.
Yeah, it wasn’t until 1801 when the first factory producing sugar from sugar beets was built. It took until 1840 for just 5% of the world’s sugar to come from sugar beets. Sugar beets can grow in much colder environments than sugar cane, making it much more accessible. Today, about 20% of the world’s sugar comes from beets. It’s almost as high as 60% in the US.
i believe in him because he posted a video about having done it....that's my source of confidence. like when youtubers claim they're in danger and might die(while nothing serious happens) yet the video is uploaded... obviously they are quite fine and made it. or when they say "I'll let you guys see it first" as if they aren't seeing the game before it's edited and uploaded and thus literally impossible for us to see it before them even if they say so to the camera.
@@nozrep Think of it as a sweet+sour type of thing. And if the "plum" portion can be herbs/spices... I'm guessing the Romans would have gone crazy for silphium.
Great video. Loved that you cited your historical sources and had good graphics of book pages, and artwork showing sugar plumbs. Very informative. Great title, "Tasting History."
🤣😂🤣😂 "Why am I doing this to myself?" I recognize this, and I think I can even answer it. I consulted with my cat, and he agrees. The answer is, "Because... insatiable curiosity." Thank you for the sugarplum demonstration.
Italian here! Confetti are still used to this day, and are mostly given during social events as gifts to whoever attends, usually in a white or semitransparent cloth bag called a "bomboniera". Confetti are mostly only served for weddings or religious occasions such as confirmations and they pretty much never vary, a white candy that tastes like almonds with a sugar coating.
I just find it interesting that here in America, "confetti" refers to pieces of colored paper that are usually thrown in the air or that come out of a party popper to celebrate something. My guess is that the practice of throwing colorful candy in the air eventually turned into something simpler and more lightweight, which is how we started using paper?
My mom's favorite cook book was an original Betty Crocker Cookbook - it had a hard bound cover that was yellow with red letters - she bought it back in the 50s and still used it up until she passed in 1996 - my older sister has the cook book now - and uses many of the old recipes
12:05 In the Netherlands sugar coated anise seeds are known as 'muisjes', little mice. They are traditionally eaten on Dutch crispbakes when a baby is born. They also get crushed again, so you get an anise and sugar powder which is also used as a bread topping, known as 'gestampte muisjes' (crushed little mice).
@@Zippythewondersquirrel I think mostly because they are small oval shapes. But sometimes the stem of the anise seed sticks out like a little tail. Maybe that had more often in the past with slightly different production technique?
My grandmother used bees' wax and corn starch (and maybe a bit of confectioners' sugar - sorry, a very old and faded memory of her doing it) for the polishing layer of sugar plums (which she called "Christmas comfits").
In the UK (at least) there is a confection sold called Smarties®which are essentially chocolate dragees. Having coated the chocolate with layers of sugar (the outermost are coloured), they are polished with a tiny quantity of carnauba wax - at least that was the case when on a factory tour some fifty years ago I saw this process done, with maybe a hundred pounds of matt-finish smarties tumbling in a large copper drum, to which the wax formulation was added to bring out the shine. I guess a nice hard beeswax would work in a more domestic setting!
As a child, in the 1950's we would buy "Jawbreakers " at the candy store. they always had a seed in the center , fennel , I think, or Aniseed . Your story reminded me . thanks !
Oh wow, I never knew that about them having seeds in the middle. They came out gobstoppers when I was still in school, so I had those over the original jawbreakers. Those were basically a jawbreaker with a smarty in the middle.
When I was a child there was a bumpy round Mexican candy, Colacion Dulcr con Anisthat I loved. They had an anise seed in the middle. They were a holiday candy and came in varieties that were pastel or brighter colors. I loved then. I have not had them since we moved out of Texas when I was 12 years old, over half a century ago, good grief. Lol
This reminded me of the candy "Boston Baked Beans" which are peanuts covered with a sugary candy coating. The company that makes them (Ferrara) was formed by Italians who used to make "confetti" candy for weddings.
Boston Baked Beans always confused me as a kid, I couldn't figure out how beans were candy. I hadn't thought about that in ages. Thank you for the memory.
Remember that the earlier name of the company -- "Ferrara Pan Candy" -- declared right up front that they made "pan candy". It was my great affection for "Lemonheads" and "Atomic Fireballs" that led me several years ago to investigate how panned candies were made, so of course I had to watch this video. I guess my "visions of sugar plums" are the times I think wistfully of eating about half a bag of those addictive "Atomic Fireballs", only to remember that a binge like that has nearly put a chemical burn through my cheek on a couple of occasions. 😵💫
man, i enjoy these so so much. I used to cook professionally and learning the intricate history is just so cool. Sugar plums have been so much more interesting than I couldve imagined. I dont think anybody else wouldve known (unless theyve watched this) how historic they are, and i love this new information ive gained. Hopefully i can bring it up now and then in my life haha very cool to learn about the confetti as well!
I imagine giving the exact details of the person in the testimony was their way of saying "this person is real I swear; you can even go ask them about it! Now buy our very real medicine candy," 😅 Basically giving a sense of validity to their claim, even if the family wasn't real, someone could look at the description and go "Oh that sounds like a real family, and they swear by this medicine you say?"
Wow! Buckets of work, no wonder children just; dreamed of sugar-plums, because mom, in her right mind, wasn’t going to take this on. Even a candy store would be hesitant to take on this project.
In Greece during the weddings we throw rice and koufeta at the newlyweds. Which I just realized is a Greeke-fied version of the word confetti. They are almonds that are sugar panned in various colors, usually pink and white here.
We do the same in Bulgaria. But we use rye or wheat corns instead of rice and add small coins to the mixture. The colored candy used has soft colors like a very soft whitish yellow, pink and blue, but all ways in a very light baby like color. I wonder how much this is a symbol for prosperity for the newly weds as farmers (wheat), and entrepreneurs (money) and the candy is for the future babies being born (sweets).
The English word for making something Greek is "Hellenized" (US spelling, UK spelling is Hellenised) for future reference. It's not a word you come across very often in everyday English, but you may find it useful.
Right! Never realised that. I am just happy they dropped the "throwing confetti at the married couple". At our wedding our friends went to the supermarket and bought something like 5 kgs of rice. It would have really hurt, were it confetti😅
The connection between confit, confetti, and Japanese konpeito kinda blew my mind. I've heard of all those things but never considered that they were etymologically related
Yeah I side eyed that book pretty hard when he showed it 😂 I am certain he spends enough time reading historic sources that he knows this already though.
They sell cheap testing kits, it's worth a look. Off note you can check if it's green uranium glass with a UV light. Antique stores sell some interesting stuff lol.
Sugared almonds are a classic Christmas treat in Sweden! We call it burned almonds and you just need sweet almonds, sugar and water to make them. Traditionally it's made on a big round metal thing that I don't know the name of but they're very delicious and you can make them at home. They're a must for christmas markets
16:16 In Greece," Confetti" (we say Κουφέτα) are still a tradition in weddings!We don't throw them to the couple,we just offer them to the attendants. They are almonds coated in thick layers of sugar. Modern ones can have layers of oreo or chocolate bellow the final layer,which is always sugar! I ve encountered them in Turkey , where they are still eaten as a snack and not reserved for occasions and i thought they might be their thing I had no idea this was an old European dessert! Your research and commitment is amazing!
When my Yiayia and pappou lived in Houston they used to keep a bowl of Jordan almonds on the mantel...got really nostalgic affiliations. I think they're also considered an Easter candy by some Greek-Americans
Same in Italy, not only after wedding (well, mainly), but sometimes after degrees as well: people offer small confetti pouches, oftentimes accompanied by a small figurine representing the event or something related, and they're called "bomboniere"
In Mexico they are also sold in specialty stores from Spain. They come in see through tubes wrapped in red string. Same stores sell fancy marzipan figures like ducks and hearts. Those come in wood boxes that are also wrapped with a red string and a little metal clasp. My grandpa took me to that store yearly to buy these and we had to wait till Christmas to receive them as he bought them for stocking stuffers for all the grandkids. I assume they are more common in Spain.
I'm from the UK and for some reason you only really see them at Christmas, we call them "sugared almonds" or by the French word "dragees." I love them and wish they were available all year but they generally only appear in the run up to Christmas along with marzipan fruits, lebkuchun, crystallised ginger, speciality pannetones and other more traditional British and European sweets.
If you check out Italian bakeries or pastry shops...they usually have them all year because they are used for weddings, baptisms etc...The Italians call them bonbonniere. In Toronto many Italian pastry shops have them . Good luck. I love them too 🙂@@littleboots9800
I first saw the title of this vid and thought "Hey, a recipe for sugar plums? I might try to..." "I'm going to make one that only takes DAYS to make." ...And with that, I can at least say thank you for going through the work on this and showing where the heck the term "Sugar Plum" came from.
It looks like a precise, laborious, advanced confectioner kind of thang. After the first stage, I knew I would never, ever make these. But bravo Max, and it was fascinating and wonderful watching ❤
15:54 It's not that the paper wasn't allowed to publish the word. It's not censored. The poem itself refrains from using it. "I'll swear not for a sugar plum." Sure, it may be that the writer intentionally decided to add this because the word couldn't be printed, but we cannot be sure.
Yes, this kind of self-censorship is normal in the 18th and 19th centuries, sometimes for profane words, other times for the names of public figures being attacked. Contemporary readers could easily infer the meaning from the context. It was often used for comic effect, as in this case.
Tbh max I’m having the worst day. Crying my eyes out. Sad and feeling betrayed. Then here you come with your charm talking about sugarplums. And suddenly I’m feeling okay even if it’s just for 21 minutes and 55 seconds. I been watching you since you first made honey beer. I remember going to your page and you have maybe 4 or 5 other videos. I was like damn I guess I gotta wait until next week after bingeing all 6 videos you had at the time. I’m so happy to still be here cheering you on. Going to buy myself a cookbook for Christmas. Thank you
I appreciate Max admitting that there were failures and much swearing. So many cooking shows make everything look so easy and approachable for everyone, regardless of how often you cook, but they have lots of prep and pre-made steps, so it does seem easy, but then if you try yourself you have just a mess, tears, an empty belly, and ptsd. 😅 I enjoy this channel so much as someone with chronic pain, because I feel like I can live it through you. The only really "fancy" thing I enjoy making are Christmas cookies, apple pie with walnut strussel, and cheesecake (which I've only made once), but I haven't physically been able to make any of them the past few yrs, which makes me sad. So I shall watch you and be content with my holiday failures. ❤
BAHAHAHAHAHAH oh my god! yes! I wanted make Seitan chicken. I had no idea how cleverly and vercously I could call things. I'm sure I made my ancestors proud...especially since my grandmama probably would've made even a sailor blush when her cooking went wrong.
8:56 why can I not imagine Max swearing like, at all haha?? He always seems so calm and collected, I can't imagine him saying anything more than "Gosh darnit!" You're too wholesome, Max! 😂
11:4916:14 In Poland, we call small round candies "drażetki" which is clearly derivative of dragie (as ż is pronounced zh). They are very often either a powdery filling or a nut, coated in hard sugar shell.
Oh yes somone below has a degree pan. And I remember a similar process of coating almonds my granny did where she called some part of it dredging. Or that's how I heard it as a child. I thought it was the sifting but must be the coating.
I had never seen that attachment until yesterday. Today there's a RUclips video in my recommendations that uses it. I will continue to resist the temptation to buy one.
I'm of British descent, first-generation Canadian. My mother, who is a spry 87, makes many British/Scottish sweets and delicacies, but never sugar plums. What a fascinating culinary history lesson! Just sent this video to her. She called this morning and is currently baking the best shortbread on the planet, complete with thistle pattern from her well-used clay shortbread pan, to be included in our Christmas parcels. She will love this!❤
You could use the pannng attachment to make the caraway comfits for the Jane Austen breakfast buns too. Or just buy the candied seeds online. More fun to make them!
We still have Liquorice Comfits in England. They used to put them in the bottom of those crane machines at seaside amusement arcades, so at least you won something.
This is your BEST video yet. Your raw emotional honesty combined with the constant smile and style, makes this so much more than a recipe or a history lesson; but a lived experience we all now can share without losing a weekend.
When you said "comfits," I immediately thought of Alice in Wonderland, when she gave them out following the race all the animals ran to dry off after falling into the lake made of her tears. Now I know how to pronounce it! 😂 "'But who is to give the prizes?' quite a chorus of voices asked. 'Why, SHE, of course,' said the Dodo, pointing to Alice with one finger; and the whole party at once crowded round her, calling out in a confused way, 'Prizes! Prizes!' Alice had no idea what to do, and in despair she put her hand in her pocket, and pulled out a box of comfits, (luckily the salt water had not got into it), and handed them round as prizes. There was exactly one a-piece all round." - Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
@@Liimiinaa The smaller animals choked on them, the larger ones complained they couldn't taste them (too big for the small animals, too small for the large ones).
I'm a German native speaker. "Zuckererbsen", to this day, refers to regular peas that you cook and put salt on. They are called "sugar peas" because upon cooking the peas develop a mild sweetness. That's all.
I don‘t think ETA Hoffmann thought of peas but the smallish round and very firm dragees made of sugar and spices (violets, anis). They look like dried peas. Search for Anis de Flavigny. The vegetable, what is called Zuckererbse, would never do any harm to a mouse.
I saw the title and thought "hey, that sounds cool, I should make them to take to the family for xmas!" Then I saw the video........ You're a braver man than me 🙂
Yeah, I’m going to a costumer’s meetup this Saturday. I started to consider trying to make these but . . . no. Absolutely not. They’re getting sugar cookies instead.
How fun! Congratulations on the tv show! We'll watch it for sure. Your book will make a great gift for my sister who's a homemaker and LOVES your channel.
This was one of the funniest videos you've done. The comment about insanity made me laugh out loud, it was completely unexpected. And Jose's captions "smaller crunch" when you tried the hazelnut one, got me again. Love to you both!
What a nightmare of a preparation! Thanks for falling on that sword, Max, and for enlightening me on something I had been curious about in the background of my mind!
not me saying I'd make this for a Christmas dinner this weekend, getting cheered on in a group chat and then immediately taking it ALL back 🤧 guess some tasting history videos must remain entertainment and information only
Much gratitude for your laborious efforts to make these sugar plums. After watching the process, I cannot see myself attempting this. For holiday parties, I use fresh bing cherries that I pit but leave the stems on. Inside the pitted cherry, I put a pistachio nut inside. Then i drizzle a platter with melted dark and white chocolate. After tempering in the refrigerator, done. I also do something similar with dried apricots and marzipan inside. The pistachio is meant to fool the eater that I had left the pit inside but it is an edible pistschio nut. Very elegant served on a platter and a lot less effort than historical sugar plums!!! Happy Holidays!
Wow that’s clever! I’m a notorious prankster, I can only imagine the agita I’d invoke if I made these cherries and my family/friends assumed you just bite into them and they bite through what they assume to be a stone - they’d probably be unnecessarily nursing their jaw and threatening me with dental bills.
A Chinese restaurant in Toronto, the Sai Woo, used to give good customers a box of sugar plums that were just candied plums, all wrapped individually in purple paper. Came with a bamboo slat calendar.
You are amazing! I love that you’d be so dedicated to making sugarplums. Wow how did people ever make these before modern technology! These look delicious
18:50 These are called Koufeta in Greek! Theyre traditionally almonds (nowadays chocolate) covered in white or light colored sugar and are offered to guests after a wedding or baptism!
My Lord, this has to be one of the most complex and time consuming recipes in the history of this chanel. Well done good Sir (takes hat off and bows down)
The menu for Henry IV of England's 1403 wedding feast included "sugar plums", which were probably fruit preserves or suckets. Sucket comes from the word succade, which refers to a kind of dried fruit.
FYI - The little round silver balls for decorating cookies and cakes are called dragees. Basically, little fancy sprinkles. -- Max, you did a great job painstakingly making sugarplums so we don't have to. Lol! I'll bet they were delicious though. Once, i made marshmallows from scratch, which took a long time, and they were tasty. Merry Christmas to you and your family from Texas. 😊❤😊❤
Hello fellow Texan! Yes, when I hear the term dragée, I immediately think of those little silver balls we used to use to make the eyes in gingerbread men when I was a girl.
There are still some varieties of those still done today, but they don't use the name sugar plums anymore. The most common one is the Jelly Bean (gelatin core), but I saw some almonds, peanuts and hazelnuts ones too. They are made using the same technique of layers of sugar around a core (most of them with less layers but all of them flavored). Also, the gum arabic is often replaced by some starch and emulsifying agent such as lecithin.
Aieve Snack Coater Panning Attachment for KitchenAid - amzn.to/49lfgQ9
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Thank you.
So Sugar Plums are just proto-Jawbreakers.
@ in the description- Aieve Snack Coater Panning Attachment for KitchenAid - amzn.to/49lfgQ9
When i worked in a chocolate factory, to cover fruit and nut, we used to keep them in the pan and use maltodextrin powder instead of your sugar/starch. Also we thinned out the sugar solution so it was more of a liquid than a syrup. This made it easier to coat without the fruit/nut clumping... Many thanks for reminding me of a great job that i had
So not candy made with lead as a sweetener. ?
"I'm not going to spend months making candy. I'm going to reserve that time for decomposing fish sauce!"
Didn't he joke about making a 10 year ninja recipie too?
Mmmm, roman nước chắm
Gotta have the right priorities huh
😆 Oh yes! Much more enjoyable & with a more appealing fragrance.
@@hollieginoza7935he needs to make a time machine so I could make it 10 years ago
* You are filled with the power of finally knowing what a sugar plum is.
With great power comes diabetes it turns out.
as we all are now...or at least the type that takes days vs months.
seriously months? wtf...why? how can that possibly be worth it? how can it take that long? how many more ingredients are there vs these that somehow require several months? who was buying them and for how much in today's money? do you know how many things you can make to ingest in that time? you can make and age mead in that time... literal fermentation made safe for getting intoxicated can be made in that time span.
this vs getting drunk,what do you choose... especially in those days.
Aw, you beat me to it!
you DO need to be VERY determined to make these darn things from scratch 😭
Probably just tastes like disappointment, like Turkish Delight
Max Miller was slumped all exhausted in his bed,
While nightmares of sugar-plums danced in his head;
there was vomit on his sweater already
🤣🤣🤣
😅🤣😂🤣😅!!!!@
Max Miller was slumped all exhausted in his bed,
While nightmares of hardtack danced in his head;
*clack clack*
Whose max miller?
“Are they worth the work? No they are not.” 😂 thank you for doing the hard work and history lesson.
He has just the right amount of honesty, human, well spoken, but not overly dismissive or snarky. It’s great. He also is clearly intelligent and explains the lessons well (while citing all the sources of his research); his passion for the topic of cooking really shows!
We benefit, like the plum-eater themselves, from the final product without the muss or fuss!
The fact that Kitchen Aid has a panning attachment means you are not the only one who's crazy enough to make candy at home!
I make candy all the time but nothing that needs a panner but thanks to Max here now I have to get one.
I think that you can get absolutely everything for your Kitchen Aid, if you are willing to pay for it. Maybe boutique candy makers use them for small batches. Probably things less involved than these sugar plums.
Instantly put KitchenAid higher up on my list of new food processors that will replace my old one when it dies.
@@Hrafnasil I highly recommend it! They are not cheap, but they last a life time. I'm a high level home cook and I don't know what I would do without mine. It has a little rotor on the front that goes directly to the drive shaft and I'm serious when I say you can get almost anything you can think of to clamp on there.
For the love of god someone let Clair Saffitz know about that attachment lol.
I love those old timey cookbooks that send you on a wild goose chase by telling you to refer to another recipe, then that recipe sends you to another recipe, and so on. It's like a culinary choose-your-own-adventure book.
Yes, it must have been how someone got the idea to write a story about rabbit holes
Cookbooks had import library before programmers did. Had a book like that which at least structured recipes in a good way, one is supposed to try the basic recipes first then advanced recipes subbed a basic recipe mention with page where you'll find it
"In and out, 20 minutes max ..." vibes 🤣
books be like: do your own research
It's like troubleshooting a computer issue, you go to one site and fix one problem which causes another problem which needs you to find another info site and so on, forever.
“Are they worth the work? No, they are not.” Hilarious 😆
We appreciate you, Max, and all that you do
I imagine this is due to changing tastes. Plain sugar is cheap now, so doing this isn't going to impress anyone because we're all used to the taste of sugar.
It’s like making puffed pastry from scratch versus getting it from a roll or a can from the grocery store. Cut down on prep time so you can enjoy your recipe and your company.
@@krdiaz8026 He mentioned at the start that even back when they were popular, nobody made them at home because of the sheer amount of time and labor involved.
@@screamingcactus1753 No, I meant, if you sold these today, only a few people would buy them, likely only to know what they taste like, because plain sugar doesn't impress us anymore considering that even the poorest families can buy sugar.
Contrast this to high quality chocolate which is also time consuming to make from scratch (the top chocolateries will not use ready made chocolate which you will just need to melt, but will roast their own cacao beans, grind them, etc.) People still buy expensive chocolate because high quality chocolate - at least in some countries - is still relatively inaccessible to most people. Sugar can be refined in the countries that produce it, and these countries tend to have low minimum wages, then shipped abroad in large quantities. This keeps the price low. High quality chocolate must be made fresh from the cacao beans, and cacao is more difficult to produce compared to sugar cane. This keeps the price high. (Although if you live in a country which produces cacao, you can get high quality chocolate for relatively cheaper than in Europe.)
And that is why the amount of labor for sugar plums does not justify making it today. In the Victorian times, sugar was expensive. Europe didn't produce sugar and had to import it via slow-moving ships. Only the rich had desserts and cakes and things like that regularly. So, the amount of sugar in a sugarplum was considered extravagant and fit for the holidays.
Find it so funny that basically the only thing never in sugar plums was plums. That's the English language for you! Love the video, can't wait for the next one.
I know! Everything dried was called a plum. "We went to visit grandma and found she had turned into a plum!" 😂
Kinda reminds me of 'sweet meats'
Plum pudding also has no plum.
@@bjumorrisdatter904 Everything except dried plums, which are called prunes.
Ah, it's the thing that got you like an alchemist trying to create the Philosopher Stone.
Turning base metals to gold probably requires at least a couple more layers of sugar.
Not enough pee.
Fullmetal Alchemist fans: 😬🫣
Sorry, every time I hear/read Philosophers Stone I think of FMA
@@corrinsheart I love anime too but this is like seeing a reference to God and saying "just like in Shin Megami Tensei!", you gotta hide your power level among the normals bro
@ ik I’m aware of the irl references in anime, and don’t worry. I used to be way cringier and more insufferable in middle school when it came to anime😂
Me before clicking on the video: "Oh, this could be fun to make for Christmas."
Me after watching the video: "I think I'll just go buy some candy coated nuts..."
I know I think about that bag of Jordan almonds I inhaled last Christmas like they just grow on trees…..
Me too. I am in the midst of Christmas baking and thought oooo this looks interesting. Ummmm ... No. I need a nap now.
Jordan almonds aren't _that_ expensive.😊
No wonder we never see Sugar Plums anymore!!!!
Ditto lol
When you try to sleep after all that work, the “visions of sugar plums dancing in your head” won’t be so pretty
😂😅😊
visions of sugar plums dancing in the panning tumbler
Sugar plums dancing in the tumbler and the pudding singing in the copper, how festive! @@octochan
Priceless comment! Hilarious!
Do you think confectioners of the age joked about that line like modern lawyers talk about law dramas?
13:56 i absolutely lost it when he innocently said _"seems unnecessary"_ in a concerned tone. dude is genuinely sorry to this poor kid
The look on your face while using the hairdryer just screamed, "I can't believe I'm actually doing this."
😂
It's the same expression many of us men have had in the summer after a shower, drying our own sugar plums. "Well..... this is just a _tad_ humiliating."
@@V.i.c.o.d.y.n Idk, I kind of enjoy drying my sugar plums.
@@GeneaVlogger Let me clarify "when someone walks in on you". Just locking eyes with a silent sigh.
Exactly! 😅
Noting that M&Ms are essentially sugar plums is amazing. My children will be happy to note they've already been dreaming of sugar plums without knowing it...
Skittles are basically sugar plums without the core.
It's more of a letdown in my opinion. But I'd do anything to avoid making actual victorian era sugar plums. Good for you
If sugar plums need a core, then wouldn't only Peanut M&M's qualify as a sugar plum?
@@muggin Isn't the chocolate the core, with the candy coating around it?
@@muggin
M&Ms have more cored varieties; such as almond and brownie batter.
It's kinda disturbing that they had to tell you their purging sugar plum was made "entirely without mercury".
Right? So were the ones before filled with mercury?
@@TastingHistorythat’s a scary thought☹️
Dr. Rush’s Thunderclappers come to mind.
They used some form of Mercury to cure syphilis in those days
@TastingHistory Probably for colour - mercury can be used to make a brilliant red dye.
It's interesting because here in Denmark the Jordan almonds are commonly sold during the holidays and we call them King almonds (Konge mandler) there are also Queen almonds but they are coated in chocolate before the sugar coating
Perhaps sugar plums are called plums because plums have a seed in the middle and are round and sweet?
Cherries *and* hazelnuts drying/toasting in your oven together? Egadz man! Your kitchen must have smelled divine!
Egadz??
@@SaxonRanger94 Like Gadzooks but smarter😂
@ 🤷🏼♂️
I'm sure he enjoyed the lingering aroma as he spent hours cleaning a completely sugar-bespattered kitchen...
Bah humbug!
Max your make up is flawless. I cannot at all see the spot on your head where you must have pounded it against the table while you were making this dish. God bless you.
Men don't wear make up
@@DuncanL7979actors do. Sadly, there is only one word that women coined for such cosmetics, we have to share
@@DuncanL7979 are you ten years old
@@DuncanL7979ur mom does
@@tartaglia. Yes she does.
This video started and I said, out loud: "Max, you look exhausted, what happened?"
Now I know: sugar plums happened
Ok, so I’m not the only one who thinks Max looks tired in this one. He’s probably mentally exhausted from all the work.
I always wondered what they were
O.M.G! I just discovered that my favorite candy as a kid in the '60s were sugarplums! At the candy counter of one particular store we sometimes visited (Gem in Syracuse NY) I would buy polished hard white candy balls with a pistachio inside. Now I know how to make them, not that I will, but at least I have 3 new names to search for them by. Thanks, Max!
Max: No one in their right mind would make this at home....
Also Max: But that's perfect, because I'm not in my right mind.
😂 And that's why we love you Max. Thanks for being you
@belovedchaos1 Well said.
I’m so glad to be here early. I just bought Almond paste and Marzipan in a tube when I went grocery shopping and I have no idea what I’m going to do with them, I just have a feeling that I’ll watch a video of yours and need it one day 😂
I'm not even in the left mind,I'm.... where are we?
"Not in my right mind" culinary achievement unlocked!
Concerned for this fello
You know what, I always assumed that sugar plums were just that- plums that had been sugared, like you see with apricots and other fruit.
That would make more sense 😄
Or just really sweet plums. Maybe they bred a really sweet version and named them accordingly. 😂
I always thought they were just crystallized plums, like crystallized ginger or pineapple
@ they actually have done that! They’re very modern but there is now a variety of plum called a sugar plum.
@@Chocobo0Scribe Same. I was at first mildly disappointed. But then I realized that the true joy lies in figuring out what's at the center. A cherry? A shelled nut? Or the pit of an apricot -.-
I would’ve lost my mind making these, so thank you for your sacrifice
A Christmas hero. Imagine some poor grandpa unknowingly promising to make these for his granddaughter.
@@SatansSimgmaThat’s a very funny image 😂
My thought as well! Thank you for taking another one for the team!
My goodness, I can't even imagine the hours of research and cooking you put in to be able to share this with us. Fascinating! The recipe is sooo...sugary, I was afraid you might faint plum away after the first bite. Glad you made it. If anyone else would like to support this channel or any other channel you appreciate, just click on the three bullet points to the right of the word “download” below the video, and you can donate beginning at $2.00. Happy holidays to all!
me coating my benadryl in sugar and gum arabic hoping that ill see the Sugar Plum Fairy instead of The Hat Man
LMAOOOOO
Seriously take dextromethorphan instead and thank me later.
@@GeistInTheMachine hahahaha im from england we dont even have benadryl
@@mibber121 LMAO
@@GeistInTheMachinerobo tripping is wild. did it once as a teenager and never again
its funny that they referred to any dried fruit as a plum but a dried plum is a prune! haha
Because of the Norman Invasion, English does that a lot. Animals on the hoof and produce in the garden have a name from the native Anglo-Saxon language base because the serfs did the work while food served at the table has names from the French that the Norman nobility used because they were the ones who could afford this diet (like dried fruit in winter). So sheep/mutton, cow/beef, pig/pork, grape/raisin, plum/prune, etc.
Edit typo
Ha!
Good point! 🤣
@@wartgin
Wow!
Fascinating!!
Thank you. ❤
I didn't know any of that!
@@wartginThat's... actually both really logical and REALLY interesting! It gives me a new perspective to see so much by. I mean, I'm a little disappointed I never thought of this myself, because it seems pretty self evident once I actually DO THINK about it 😅😅
Thanks!
The latin word "prunus" means plum, and peaches, apricots, cherries, nectarines, plums and almonds are all members of the Prunus genus, so even in botany everything is a plum.
1:25 "Nobody in their right mind would make these at home because they are lot of work. But guess what? I'm not in my right mind." 😂
That goes hard 🔥
I could totally tell by your expression @TastingHistory that you'd been through some stuff for this one. Thank you ❤
Need that quote with image of Max holding the hair dryer
Not something you wanna hear before taking a tab or some shrooms 😂
Thanks for a rather exhaustive discourses on sugar plums.
There has always been a certain mystique about this confectionery and I appreciate the time and energy put into this presentation.
Merry Christmas
Would you like sugar with that sugar? The recipe: Yes.
With a side of sugar, please.
Ah, but is there mercury in it?
Acting as if that's not what most candy is.
@@Midge5184 And I'll have a side of sugar too with my side sugar.
@@TurnipStewdios Yes!
Everyone needs to like and subscribe purely for Max's dedication ... and Jose's patience and tolerance.
And the cleaning!
Mostly the cleaning 🥲
😂 @@KetchupwithMaxandJose
You guys really are the best. Thanks for being so awesome!
And Hard Tack🎉
We appreciate that Jose takes the time to type in ACCURATE REAL Closed Captions. Many are not using them, but for d/Deaf and hard of hearing it really relaxes the mind to not have to guess what the garbled mess of auto captions meant by looking at lips.
That is so interesting that you found a device to coat nuts and fruits at home. Besides trying to make sugarplums (you should just sell these so we do not have to make it) it will be handy to make Jordan almonds and chocolate covered raisins, I bet.
Once again, for the second week in a row, there is an advertisement right over the closed captions! Grrrr.
Please get your KitchenAid Design Series Ever… off my closed captions!
@@StephtheGDif you click on the three stacked dots on the top fight of the ad you can choose to “dismiss” it and it goes away
Ublock Origin @@StephtheGD
I love when we get proper closed captions us deaf peeps are never really thought about often
Max, I have been watching your videos for a few years now, I would like to say that you produce wonderful content most charmingly. Not only are they informative but are fun to watch, Merry Christmas from Austria
Sugar panning is still used for a wide range of candy, Sugared almounds, Gob stoppers, Skittles, m&ms, Jellybeans. M&m's only have a few coatings, when you make jelly beans you chuck in loads of sugar between coats to make the shell softer. The pans in the factory are huge! When you make your syrup add the flavour after you have boiled the syrup otherwise most of the flavour is lost. I'm english and we always called it a dragée pan. To polish them Carnauba wax is now used as it is vegan but its also the wax thats used in automobile waxes. Back in Victorian times sugar was very expensive, and because the process took a long time if you offered your guests a large pile of sugar plums you had to be wealthy to have the sugar and the labour to make them.
Even earlier, sugar would have been nearly-exclusive to princes and the like. In the medieval period, the most you could hope for was honey and fruits when it came to sweetening things.
Yeah, it wasn’t until 1801 when the first factory producing sugar from sugar beets was built. It took until 1840 for just 5% of the world’s sugar to come from sugar beets.
Sugar beets can grow in much colder environments than sugar cane, making it much more accessible. Today, about 20% of the world’s sugar comes from beets. It’s almost as high as 60% in the US.
And tablets in pharmaceuticals
You made garum, so you can make sugar plums. We believe in you!
What about garum-flavored sugar plums?
Don't kill Max, he's hiding so much pain @@shaventalz3092
i believe in him because he posted a video about having done it....that's my source of confidence.
like when youtubers claim they're in danger and might die(while nothing serious happens) yet the video is uploaded... obviously they are quite fine and made it.
or when they say "I'll let you guys see it first" as if they aren't seeing the game before it's edited and uploaded and thus literally impossible for us to see it before them even if they say so to the camera.
@@shaventalz3092 aye now there’s a horrifying idea😂 ancient roman vinegar fish sauce (garum) flavored sugar plums. yikes!
@@nozrep Think of it as a sweet+sour type of thing. And if the "plum" portion can be herbs/spices... I'm guessing the Romans would have gone crazy for silphium.
The image of you, standing in an exploded kitchen, holding a hair dryer on a running KitchenAid -- priceless. I literally LOLed.
Great video. Loved that you cited your historical sources and had good graphics of book pages, and artwork showing sugar plumbs. Very informative. Great title, "Tasting History."
🤣😂🤣😂 "Why am I doing this to myself?" I recognize this, and I think I can even answer it. I consulted with my cat, and he agrees. The answer is, "Because... insatiable curiosity." Thank you for the sugarplum demonstration.
Sugar tripled plus hairdryer. Goodbye 19th century.
Italian here!
Confetti are still used to this day, and are mostly given during social events as gifts to whoever attends, usually in a white or semitransparent cloth bag called a "bomboniera".
Confetti are mostly only served for weddings or religious occasions such as confirmations and they pretty much never vary, a white candy that tastes like almonds with a sugar coating.
Sounds like Jordan almonds, which are given out at American weddings.
We call them sugared almonds in the UK, I've never heard the term Jordan almond till this video
I just find it interesting that here in America, "confetti" refers to pieces of colored paper that are usually thrown in the air or that come out of a party popper to celebrate something. My guess is that the practice of throwing colorful candy in the air eventually turned into something simpler and more lightweight, which is how we started using paper?
Like sugared almonds in the UK at weddings
And the Sugar plum fairy from the nutcracker mentioned at the beginning of the video is "fata confetto" in the italian version of the ballet
Your eyes being red tells me everything i needed to know about the extremely tedious and time consuming process lol
I thought he was high but being tired makes sense too lol
This dude looks higher than a kite. Like… red and glossy to the max lol bro… visine. Holy cow
And all this time I thought his eyes were red cuz he was actually making sugar plum edibles.
That is from him smoking weed😂😂😂😂
My mom's favorite cook book was an original Betty Crocker Cookbook - it had a hard bound cover that was yellow with red letters - she bought it back in the 50s and still used it up until she passed in 1996 - my older sister has the cook book now - and uses many of the old recipes
the thousand yard stare every time he mentions the time taken
Man's experiencing his PTSD arc.
12:05 In the Netherlands sugar coated anise seeds are known as 'muisjes', little mice. They are traditionally eaten on Dutch crispbakes when a baby is born. They also get crushed again, so you get an anise and sugar powder which is also used as a bread topping, known as 'gestampte muisjes' (crushed little mice).
Oof dark
Mmmmm. Mice.
Love that stuff! Pink and white sugar. I never knew why it was called mice!
@@Zippythewondersquirrel I think mostly because they are small oval shapes. But sometimes the stem of the anise seed sticks out like a little tail. Maybe that had more often in the past with slightly different production technique?
My grandmother used bees' wax and corn starch (and maybe a bit of confectioners' sugar - sorry, a very old and faded memory of her doing it) for the polishing layer of sugar plums (which she called "Christmas comfits").
Where was your grandmother from?
Bees' wax still shows up on fruits and candies.
I mean, beeswax is edible. It could have been much worse!
In the UK (at least) there is a confection sold called Smarties®which are essentially chocolate dragees. Having coated the chocolate with layers of sugar (the outermost are coloured), they are polished with a tiny quantity of carnauba wax - at least that was the case when on a factory tour some fifty years ago I saw this process done, with maybe a hundred pounds of matt-finish smarties tumbling in a large copper drum, to which the wax formulation was added to bring out the shine. I guess a nice hard beeswax would work in a more domestic setting!
That sounds pretty close to the shell coat of a lot of different candies.
I am a foodhistorian and my patience would be non excisting for this. Big thanks for your efford. You are a hero
As a child, in the 1950's we would buy "Jawbreakers " at the candy store. they always had a seed in the center , fennel , I think, or Aniseed . Your story reminded me . thanks !
Oh wow, I never knew that about them having seeds in the middle. They came out gobstoppers when I was still in school, so I had those over the original jawbreakers. Those were basically a jawbreaker with a smarty in the middle.
I remember that! I think it was a fennel seed.
It was a caraway seed
When I was a child there was a bumpy round Mexican candy, Colacion Dulcr con Anisthat I loved.
They had an anise seed in the middle. They were a holiday candy and came in varieties that were pastel or brighter colors. I loved then. I have not had them since we moved out of Texas when I was 12 years old, over half a century ago, good grief. Lol
Woah that's so interesting
This reminded me of the candy "Boston Baked Beans" which are peanuts covered with a sugary candy coating. The company that makes them (Ferrara) was formed by Italians who used to make "confetti" candy for weddings.
Boston Baked Beans always confused me as a kid, I couldn't figure out how beans were candy. I hadn't thought about that in ages. Thank you for the memory.
I hate to admit it but those are one of my favs!
I love Boston Baked Beans candy!
Remember that the earlier name of the company -- "Ferrara Pan Candy" -- declared right up front that they made "pan candy". It was my great affection for "Lemonheads" and "Atomic Fireballs" that led me several years ago to investigate how panned candies were made, so of course I had to watch this video. I guess my "visions of sugar plums" are the times I think wistfully of eating about half a bag of those addictive "Atomic Fireballs", only to remember that a binge like that has nearly put a chemical burn through my cheek on a couple of occasions. 😵💫
I love those
As a guide working in a Historic Site talking about the traditions of Victorian Christmas, these videos help me tremendously! Thank you so much Max!
man, i enjoy these so so much. I used to cook professionally and learning the intricate history is just so cool. Sugar plums have been so much more interesting than I couldve imagined. I dont think anybody else wouldve known (unless theyve watched this) how historic they are, and i love this new information ive gained. Hopefully i can bring it up now and then in my life haha
very cool to learn about the confetti as well!
Getting doxxed for having worms is being added to my nightmare rotation.
I imagine giving the exact details of the person in the testimony was their way of saying "this person is real I swear; you can even go ask them about it! Now buy our very real medicine candy," 😅 Basically giving a sense of validity to their claim, even if the family wasn't real, someone could look at the description and go "Oh that sounds like a real family, and they swear by this medicine you say?"
😂😂😂
Careful when you buy de-wormer at the drugstore then. Some places have it on the shelf next to the Band-Aid display.
Wow! Buckets of work, no wonder children just; dreamed of sugar-plums, because mom, in her right mind, wasn’t going to take this on. Even a candy store would be hesitant to take on this project.
Probably an early example of bulk batches being the only way to be profitable...
In Greece during the weddings we throw rice and koufeta at the newlyweds. Which I just realized is a Greeke-fied version of the word confetti. They are almonds that are sugar panned in various colors, usually pink and white here.
In the UK there are often sugared almonds at wedding receptions, in various colours, though we don't throw them. I wonder if we did in the past?
Jordan almonds is what we call those in the States. :)
We do the same in Bulgaria. But we use rye or wheat corns instead of rice and add small coins to the mixture. The colored candy used has soft colors like a very soft whitish yellow, pink and blue, but all ways in a very light baby like color. I wonder how much this is a symbol for prosperity for the newly weds as farmers (wheat), and entrepreneurs (money) and the candy is for the future babies being born (sweets).
The English word for making something Greek is "Hellenized" (US spelling, UK spelling is Hellenised) for future reference. It's not a word you come across very often in everyday English, but you may find it useful.
Italian weddings too. Always feared breaking a tooth on one.
i love plums. i grew up with the best santa rosa plum tree in my backyard. i love all fruits but plums hold a special place in my heart.
May all my fellow Tastorians have visions of sugar plums this Christmas season
Now that we know what they are, we certainly will 😂😂😂
Sugar plums are like a 1800s version of jawbreakers
Having risked my teeth on a good number of jordan almonds, can confirm XD
Skittles, too.
How cool would a full sized candied, pitiless plum feel at the end of your jawbreaker?
Exactly. Aka hard candies
I love that we get the word confetti for little bits of thrown paper from the sweets that Italians used to throw! It makes perfect sense.
What about throwing rice? 😅
Right! Never realised that. I am just happy they dropped the "throwing confetti at the married couple". At our wedding our friends went to the supermarket and bought something like 5 kgs of rice. It would have really hurt, were it confetti😅
rather have candy coated pine nuts or almonds tbh.
The connection between confit, confetti, and Japanese konpeito kinda blew my mind. I've heard of all those things but never considered that they were etymologically related
Now I want to find out if jimmies (sprinkles for the rest of you) are related.
This takes me back! Old-fashioned gob-stoppers in the UK: multi-layer hard candy balls with an aniseed in the middle.
Nice touch with the green shirt and red apron
Thank you 😊
I had to go back and look.
I'm glad you brought it up.
Very festive!
Also, very understated red and green. ❤️ 💚 ❤️ 💚 ❤️
Max's face while using the hair dryer lol "Swearing...lots of swearing...it was a long weekend..."
Poor Max 😂 and poor José lol
the recipe book that you show: it's possible that the green paint used on the book cover contains arsenic. You should look up The Poison Book Project.
Yeah I side eyed that book pretty hard when he showed it 😂 I am certain he spends enough time reading historic sources that he knows this already though.
I would still check it out for arsenic and heavy metals
They sell cheap testing kits, it's worth a look.
Off note you can check if it's green uranium glass with a UV light. Antique stores sell some interesting stuff lol.
You and literally every other commenter is "book smart". Couldn't help myself.
and asbestos 😂
Sugared almonds are a classic Christmas treat in Sweden! We call it burned almonds and you just need sweet almonds, sugar and water to make them. Traditionally it's made on a big round metal thing that I don't know the name of but they're very delicious and you can make them at home. They're a must for christmas markets
16:16
In Greece," Confetti" (we say Κουφέτα) are still a tradition in weddings!We don't throw them to the couple,we just offer them to the attendants.
They are almonds coated in thick layers of sugar. Modern ones can have layers of oreo or chocolate bellow the final layer,which is always sugar!
I ve encountered them in Turkey , where they are still eaten as a snack and not reserved for occasions and i thought they might be their thing
I had no idea this was an old European dessert!
Your research and commitment is amazing!
When my Yiayia and pappou lived in Houston they used to keep a bowl of Jordan almonds on the mantel...got really nostalgic affiliations. I think they're also considered an Easter candy by some Greek-Americans
Same in Italy, not only after wedding (well, mainly), but sometimes after degrees as well: people offer small confetti pouches, oftentimes accompanied by a small figurine representing the event or something related, and they're called "bomboniere"
In Mexico they are also sold in specialty stores from Spain. They come in see through tubes wrapped in red string. Same stores sell fancy marzipan figures like ducks and hearts. Those come in wood boxes that are also wrapped with a red string and a little metal clasp. My grandpa took me to that store yearly to buy these and we had to wait till Christmas to receive them as he bought them for stocking stuffers for all the grandkids. I assume they are more common in Spain.
I'm from the UK and for some reason you only really see them at Christmas, we call them "sugared almonds" or by the French word "dragees."
I love them and wish they were available all year but they generally only appear in the run up to Christmas along with marzipan fruits, lebkuchun, crystallised ginger, speciality pannetones and other more traditional British and European sweets.
If you check out Italian bakeries or pastry shops...they usually have them all year because they are used for weddings, baptisms etc...The Italians call them bonbonniere. In Toronto many Italian pastry shops have them . Good luck. I love them too 🙂@@littleboots9800
I first saw the title of this vid and thought "Hey, a recipe for sugar plums? I might try to..."
"I'm going to make one that only takes DAYS to make."
...And with that, I can at least say thank you for going through the work on this and showing where the heck the term "Sugar Plum" came from.
Nah I am good. Fun vid though
@@isaacgraff8288Samesies.
Right! I thought, this might be great for my holiday party- thanks Max for doing the research so we know the effort required!😊
Max is a brave, hardworking man
It looks like a precise, laborious, advanced confectioner kind of thang. After the first stage, I knew I would never, ever make these. But bravo Max, and it was fascinating and wonderful watching ❤
"Fair Amount of Swearing"
Can we Get The Uncut Version??😂😂😂???
Yes please. 😂
@darkshinethakid4463 Yes!
Maybe we should get together and buy him a parrot ... as our spy.
@@p.s.shnabel3409 The first thing the parrot learns to say would be clack-clack...
I'm sorry but I cannot ever picture our sweet innocent angelic Max using raunchy language
Thanks Mr. Miller! All the best of the season to You and your Family. Best wishes with lots of Love from London, Ontario, Canada.
15:54 It's not that the paper wasn't allowed to publish the word. It's not censored. The poem itself refrains from using it. "I'll swear not for a sugar plum." Sure, it may be that the writer intentionally decided to add this because the word couldn't be printed, but we cannot be sure.
Yes, this kind of self-censorship is normal in the 18th and 19th centuries, sometimes for profane words, other times for the names of public figures being attacked. Contemporary readers could easily infer the meaning from the context. It was often used for comic effect, as in this case.
Max: "I am NOT in my right mind."
Us: "We knew that at Garum!" LOL!
Thank you Max Miller, for your perseverance!
Great show!❤
Tbh max I’m having the worst day. Crying my eyes out. Sad and feeling betrayed. Then here you come with your charm talking about sugarplums. And suddenly I’m feeling okay even if it’s just for 21 minutes and 55 seconds. I been watching you since you first made honey beer. I remember going to your page and you have maybe 4 or 5 other videos. I was like damn I guess I gotta wait until next week after bingeing all 6 videos you had at the time. I’m so happy to still be here cheering you on. Going to buy myself a cookbook for Christmas. Thank you
Head up
@@TastingHistory Rgr !
Hope you feel better! Hugs from someone also having a bad day.
Tits up😂
❤
Oh, that transition into the sponsor was GOOD! Damn. The talent 👏🏻 👏🏻
Max's segues into ads are always so smooth. None of this, "And, now a word from our sponsor" for him!
I appreciate Max admitting that there were failures and much swearing. So many cooking shows make everything look so easy and approachable for everyone, regardless of how often you cook, but they have lots of prep and pre-made steps, so it does seem easy, but then if you try yourself you have just a mess, tears, an empty belly, and ptsd. 😅 I enjoy this channel so much as someone with chronic pain, because I feel like I can live it through you. The only really "fancy" thing I enjoy making are Christmas cookies, apple pie with walnut strussel, and cheesecake (which I've only made once), but I haven't physically been able to make any of them the past few yrs, which makes me sad.
So I shall watch you and be content with my holiday failures. ❤
BAHAHAHAHAHAH oh my god! yes! I wanted make Seitan chicken. I had no idea how cleverly and vercously I could call things. I'm sure I made my ancestors proud...especially since my grandmama probably would've made even a sailor blush when her cooking went wrong.
8:56 why can I not imagine Max swearing like, at all haha?? He always seems so calm and collected, I can't imagine him saying anything more than "Gosh darnit!"
You're too wholesome, Max! 😂
I mean he was basically a professional actor for disneyland before this iirc
11:49 16:14 In Poland, we call small round candies "drażetki" which is clearly derivative of dragie (as ż is pronounced zh). They are very often either a powdery filling or a nut, coated in hard sugar shell.
Small ones are "drażetki", big ones - like sugar plums - are called "draże".
And seems also to be derivative of dredging which is something you do with sugar like coating.
Oh yes somone below has a degree pan. And I remember a similar process of coating almonds my granny did where she called some part of it dredging. Or that's how I heard it as a child. I thought it was the sifting but must be the coating.
I had never seen that attachment until yesterday. Today there's a RUclips video in my recommendations that uses it. I will continue to resist the temptation to buy one.
I'm of British descent, first-generation Canadian. My mother, who is a spry 87, makes many British/Scottish sweets and delicacies, but never sugar plums. What a fascinating culinary history lesson! Just sent this video to her. She called this morning and is currently baking the best shortbread on the planet, complete with thistle pattern from her well-used clay shortbread pan, to be included in our Christmas parcels. She will love this!❤
11:21 think I'm gonna start saying "the punck vanisheth" whenever I'm about to leave some place.
They had to go to the toilet ❌
The punck vanisheth✅
Highly appropriate given the username 😁
😂 Thanks, Satan?
You could use the pannng attachment to make the caraway comfits for the Jane Austen breakfast buns too. Or just buy the candied seeds online. More fun to make them!
That’s what inspired me to make these.
We still have Liquorice Comfits in England. They used to put them in the bottom of those crane machines at seaside amusement arcades, so at least you won something.
This is your BEST video yet.
Your raw emotional honesty combined with the constant smile and style, makes this so much more than a recipe or a history lesson; but a lived experience we all now can share without losing a weekend.
When you said "comfits," I immediately thought of Alice in Wonderland, when she gave them out following the race all the animals ran to dry off after falling into the lake made of her tears. Now I know how to pronounce it! 😂
"'But who is to give the prizes?' quite a chorus of voices asked.
'Why, SHE, of course,' said the Dodo, pointing to Alice with one finger; and the whole party at once crowded round her, calling out in a confused way, 'Prizes! Prizes!'
Alice had no idea what to do, and in despair she put her hand in her pocket, and pulled out a box of comfits, (luckily the salt water had not got into it), and handed them round as prizes. There was exactly one a-piece all round."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
So, Alice felt discomfited until she put her hand in her pocket and found her comfits.
I love this part of the book because the animals all start choking on the comfits.
@@Liimiinaa The smaller animals choked on them, the larger ones complained they couldn't taste them (too big for the small animals, too small for the large ones).
I love that poem, "The Sugar Plum". Such absolutely inspired wordplay in every line.
I'm a German native speaker. "Zuckererbsen", to this day, refers to regular peas that you cook and put salt on. They are called "sugar peas" because upon cooking the peas develop a mild sweetness. That's all.
I don‘t think ETA Hoffmann thought of peas but the smallish round and very firm dragees made of sugar and spices (violets, anis). They look like dried peas. Search for Anis de Flavigny. The vegetable, what is called Zuckererbse, would never do any harm to a mouse.
I think at the time it could have been a double meaning? There are similar things in English and Dutch!
@@frauleintrude6347 lol, I hope gor the Germans they tasted better than anis de Flavigny. These things taste vile!
This has genuinely bothered me for SO LONG especially since I've never found pictures on the internet, thank you so much!!
I saw the title and thought "hey, that sounds cool, I should make them to take to the family for xmas!" Then I saw the video........ You're a braver man than me 🙂
Yeah, I’m going to a costumer’s meetup this Saturday. I started to consider trying to make these but . . . no. Absolutely not. They’re getting sugar cookies instead.
How fun! Congratulations on the tv show! We'll watch it for sure. Your book will make a great gift for my sister who's a homemaker and LOVES your channel.
This was one of the funniest videos you've done. The comment about insanity made me laugh out loud, it was completely unexpected. And Jose's captions "smaller crunch" when you tried the hazelnut one, got me again. Love to you both!
What a nightmare of a preparation! Thanks for falling on that sword, Max, and for enlightening me on something I had been curious about in the background of my mind!
not me saying I'd make this for a Christmas dinner this weekend, getting cheered on in a group chat and then immediately taking it ALL back 🤧
guess some tasting history videos must remain entertainment and information only
Your patience is out of this world.
Much gratitude for your laborious efforts to make these sugar plums. After watching the process, I cannot see myself attempting this. For holiday parties, I use fresh bing cherries that I pit but leave the stems on. Inside the pitted cherry, I put a pistachio nut inside. Then i drizzle a platter with melted dark and white chocolate. After tempering in the refrigerator, done. I also do something similar with dried apricots and marzipan inside. The pistachio is meant to fool the eater that I had left the pit inside but it is an edible pistschio nut. Very elegant served on a platter and a lot less effort than historical sugar plums!!! Happy Holidays!
Wow that’s clever! I’m a notorious prankster, I can only imagine the agita I’d invoke if I made these cherries and my family/friends assumed you just bite into them and they bite through what they assume to be a stone - they’d probably be unnecessarily nursing their jaw and threatening me with dental bills.
The word is Christmas
"[smaller crunch]" for the subtitle when eating the hazelnut was excellently done, Jose.
❤❤
A Chinese restaurant in Toronto, the Sai Woo, used to give good customers a box of sugar plums that were just candied plums, all wrapped individually in purple paper. Came with a bamboo slat calendar.
used to?
You are amazing! I love that you’d be so dedicated to making sugarplums. Wow how did people ever make these before modern technology! These look delicious
The self-references in old cookbooks always remind me of the “Choose Your Own Adventure” books.
Luckily culinary adventures are *less* likely to end in death :)
18:50 These are called Koufeta in Greek! Theyre traditionally almonds (nowadays chocolate) covered in white or light colored sugar and are offered to guests after a wedding or baptism!
My Lord, this has to be one of the most complex and time consuming recipes in the history of this chanel. Well done good Sir (takes hat off and bows down)
The menu for Henry IV of England's 1403 wedding feast included "sugar plums", which were probably fruit preserves or suckets. Sucket comes from the word succade, which refers to a kind of dried fruit.
FYI - The little round silver balls for decorating cookies and cakes are called dragees. Basically, little fancy sprinkles. -- Max, you did a great job painstakingly making sugarplums so we don't have to. Lol! I'll bet they were delicious though. Once, i made marshmallows from scratch, which took a long time, and they were tasty. Merry Christmas to you and your family from Texas. 😊❤😊❤
Hello fellow Texan! Yes, when I hear the term dragée, I immediately think of those little silver balls we used to use to make the eyes in gingerbread men when I was a girl.
I couldn’t place where I knew the name from. Thank you!
"Are they worth it? No they are not." Love the honesty and history! ♡
The nutcracker and the eggnog riot are my favorite Christmas stories
The Christmas Truce is another great one.
There are still some varieties of those still done today, but they don't use the name sugar plums anymore.
The most common one is the Jelly Bean (gelatin core), but I saw some almonds, peanuts and hazelnuts ones too. They are made using the same technique of layers of sugar around a core (most of them with less layers but all of them flavored). Also, the gum arabic is often replaced by some starch and emulsifying agent such as lecithin.