Confectionery shop

“ In the shop itself there was continually a crowd coming in to buy cakes or other things, for the counter was also covered with delightful wonders, and the old gentleman pastry-cook and great cake-maker himself walked about in the middle of the shop, dressed in his best, with a large red rose in the button-hole of his coat, smiling and rubbing his hands together, and chatting with all the children that came in, and sometimes going to the door and giving a handful of sugar-plums to children outside who had no money to buy anything. ”

“ It was Christmas week, and East Cyrus was making ready for the festival. The butcher's shop was hung with turkeys and chickens, and bright with green of celery and red of cranberries and apples. The dry-goods store displayed in its window, beside the folds of gingham and "wool goods" and the shirt-waist patterns, a shining array of dolls and sofa-pillows, pincushions and knitted shoes ”

“ There was a grocer not above selling orange marmalade, brown sugar, and Durham mustard. I remember buying a penny cake of chocolate of him one morning; but I find the shop now expanded into a magnificent emporium, where are sold wines, and spirits, sweetmeats and preserves, liqueurs and condiments, Bayonne ham, Narbonne honey, Bologna sausages, Russian caviare, Iceland moss, clotted cream, and terrines of pâté de foie gras. ”

“ Mothers who formerly were all too often required to gratify their children's longing for candies that told a story—candies modeled or otherwise decorative—by giving them boughten confectionery that contained plaster of Paris, aniline dyes and other ingredients equally harmful, can now in their own kitchen from nourishing and harmless vegetables fashion sweets that are just as beguiling to childish eyes. ”

“ A WORD TO PARENTS AND TEACHERS. Why will New York women be eternally munching cake and confectionery? What is more disgusting than to see a lady devouring at a sitting, ounces of burnt almonds, and sugared wine and brandy-drops, or packing away, in her rosy mouth, uncounted platesful of jelly-cake or maccaroons? “But shopping is hungry business;” that is true, and many a shopper comes hungry distances to perform it; but are cake and confectionery wholesome diet between meals? and is not ice-cream at such a time rank poison? Call for a sandwich or a roll, and you may not be considered suicidal. ”

“ Here were fascinating shops, with windows delightfully full of tempting wares, also a caterer’s shop, where one could choose between cakes and ice cream, or candy and soda water.
The twins were allowed fifty cents apiece each week for spending money. ”

“ Two of the principal houses manufacture daily between them four thousand pounds of candies, at prices varying from 14 cents to 50 cents per pound, the average being about 20 cents." The coloring matter of foreign candies is generally showy, and of a poisonous nature. That of American manufacture is not of such brilliant and permanent colors, but more regard is paid to health in the selection of coloring matter. At confectioners' in London, classes of young ladies are taken and taught the art of making confectionery. ”

“ Candy Manufacturers. "There are three hundred confectionery manufacturers and retail dealers in New York city. Twelve establishments are devoted exclusively to the manufacture of candies. In some, as many as a hundred hands are employed in busy times. During the busy season, there are engaged in the manufacturing houses about five thousand persons of both sexes, though a very much larger number, probably some thousands, are indirectly supported by it, the paper-box makers being generally busily employed, and many children gaining a livelihood by hawking candies through the streets. ”

“ Notwithstanding its advantages, vegetable [iii] candy is no harder to make than is any other good candy. For success in any sort of cookery, much hard work is necessary; slipshod methods and intuition can not produce food that is up to standard. Of even greater force is this rule when applied to the most delicate brand of cookery—the making of confectionery. ”

“ They are now conducting their interests under the name of the Model Bakery and Confectionery, Incorporated, and they have a splendidly equipped establishment, in which are found all of the latest improved machines that are used in connection with the mixing of bread, cakes and other bakery goods. The most sanitary conditions prevail in the establishment and the excellence of the product is such as insures a very gratifying patronage. ”

“ Of the entire make of confectionery in Canada, at least two-thirds of it may be written down under the name of boiled sugar. They are undoubtedly the chief features with both manufacturers and retailers, embracing, as they do, endless [Pg 5] facilities for fertile brains and deft fingers for inventing novelties in design, manipulation, combination, and finish. Notwithstanding the already great variety, there is always daily something new in this department brought into market. ”

“ Rigby’s Reliable Candy Teacher.—There is a considerable call amongst workers in this country for reliable recipe books in connection with the confectionery trade. There is such a constant change taking place in the methods of manufacture, and so rapid is the introduction of new lines and variations of old lines, that it is a difficulty with a number of workers to keep up with them. ”

“ Confectioners offer a tempting supply of naulets—little delicate cakes—with a sugar figure of Christ on top, pretty boxes made of chocolate containing candy in the form of fruits, vegetables, musical instruments, and even boots and shoes, and all manner of quaint, artistic sugared devices, to be used as gifts or table decorations.
Early in December, wooden booths and [122] open-air stands are erected throughout the shopping districts for the sale of Christmas goods. At night they are lighted, and through the day and evening they are gay with shoppers. ”

“ There are candy and cocoanut cakes for those who have a sweet tooth, and many a shop-boy invests in these on his way to or from Brooklyn to the New York store where he is employed; or the father of a family, on his way to his Brooklyn home, thinks of the little ones awaiting him, and indulges in a purchase of what he knows will be sure to be accept- able to them. ”

“ Contemporaneously and side by side, all the way down, the statutes provide for different rates of duty on the varieties of sugar and on confectionery, as well as on chocolate. Confectionery and chocolate are uniformly recognized as being different articles for the purpose of duties. ”

“ In these countries it is the custom to serve sweetmeats at every meal—dulces, as they are called—preserved fruits of the richest sort, jellies, and confections of every variety and description. Many of these are made by the nuns in the convents, and are sold to the public either through the confectionery stores or by private application. A South American housewife, instead of ordering jams and preserves and jellies from her grocer, or putting up a supply in her own kitchen during the fruit season, patronizes the nuns, and gets a better article at a lower price. ”

“ Now that the use of vegetable bases is reduced to principles, the amateur confectioner need have no difficulty in working out in candy attractive and novel designs suitable to all special days and uses. And the best of it is—thanks to such a humble vegetable as the potato—she can follow her own ideas and fashion in confectionery a pattern that is all her own. Moreover, she can take comfort in the thought that in her product there is none of the highly injurious ingredients unfortunately all too common in some decorative candies. ”

“ And this appetite is very generally retained even to an advanced age, so that all the cents of the children, and many of the dollars of those more advanced in life, go to the candy-shops and confectioneries. Add to this the numerous balls, marriages, and other festive occasions, particularly the parties in private houses, at which pyramids, temples, and other architectural and artistic works, founded on rocks of candied sugar, and bonsbons, are never wanting, we can readily imagine that in this country the confectioner's trade is a flourishing and brilliant business. ”

“ Kept in a chamber heated from 90° to 100° F., the sugar gradually crystallizes on the strings and the sides of the mould, and when sufficient has been deposited the remaining liquor is drained off, and the crystals are removed and dried by heat. Machinery, often of elaborate character, is now extensively employed in almost all branches of the confectionery trade. ”

“ They must take us as we are, and just put up with what we are accustomed to,’ and she looks so majestically at the girl she’d never dare remember all the polishing up of the old silver, and the eggs and cream ordered, and the saffron cakes bought at the shop. ”

“ Not only are home-made confections cheaper than commercially made ones, but they usually contain more wholesome materials, so it is to the housewife's advantage to familiarize herself with the making of this food. Recipes are given for all varieties of confections, including taffies, caramels, cream candies, and the confections related to them. Fondant making is treated in detail with illustrations showing every step and directions for making many unusual kinds.
Though beverages often receive only slight consideration, they are so necessary that the body cannot exist very long without them. ”

“ It may be presumed these people make no mystery of their several arts in manufacturing, by their choice of situation for carrying on their trades. The confectioner, for instance, prepares his dainties in despite of dust and flies, and pass by at what hour of the day you please, his stoves are hot, and the sugar simmering with ghee sends forth a savour to the air, inviting only to those who delight in the delicacies he prepares in countless varieties. ”

“ And when on top of that he went to look at the baker's shop in Rupert Street, over which he had lodgings in the eighties, and discovered that it had been turned into a dressmaker's, he grew very melancholy, and only cheered up a little when a lovely magenta fog came on and showed him that some things were still going along as in the good old days. ”

“ Our candy stores have multiplied, and while two generations ago the little candy stores sold candies practically entirely for children, eking out their trade with stationery and newspapers and school supplies, now candy stores dealing exclusively in confectionery are very common. There are several hundred stores in the United States that pay more than $25,000 a year rent, though they sell nothing but candy and ice-cream sodas. Corresponding with the increase in the sale of candy has come also the consumption of very sweet materials of various kinds. ”

“ He affected to dress like a person of rank; white gold laced suit of clothes, laced ruffled shirt, laced hat and feather, white silk stockings, with the addition of a fine white apron. Among his harangues to gain customers, take this as a specimen:— ‘Mary, Mary, where are you now, Mary? I live, when at home, at the second house in Little Ball-street, two steps under ground, with a wiscum, riscum, and a why-not. Walk in, ladies and gentlemen; my shop is on the second-floor backwards, with a brass knocker at the door. Here is your nice gingerbread, your spice gingerbread ”

“ And since no family will be surpassed by another, the most incredible extravagance not infrequently results from this unfortunate spirit of rivalry. Confectionery is often brought for a certain party expressly from France, fresh fruits from the West Indies, and the stairways and rooms are adorned with the most exquisite flowers which Europe can yield, while the guests are served on costly porcelain and massive plate. ”

“ Nearly all the small shopkeepers, fruit-dealers, and bar-keepers, sell candy and sugar-cakes, which they either prepare themselves or obtain from confectioners who not only carry on a wholesale business, but even send large quantities of their products to the country dealers. ”

“ The front shop-window was especially interesting to us children, for there were in it a few glass jars containing sticks of striped barley-candy, and red and white peppermint-drops, and that delectable achievement of the ancient confectioner's art, the "Salem gibraltar." ”

“ Making Candy, etc. Glucose or grape sugar now enters largely into the manufacture of many kinds of confectionery, and harmless vegetable colors are used. Manipulation breaks up the crystals of sugar and thereby renders it whiter, and the difference in the price of candies is now largely due to the amount of manipulation it receives. Few have an idea of the vast quantities of confectionery manufactured. It amounts to many hundred tons daily; much of it is made almost entirely by machinery, and the business is divided. ”

“ The shops are remarkably good, the confectioners' windows being very tempting with their array of airy-looking pastry, which is as nice as it is novel to us, accustomed to the more substantial and perhaps slightly heavy preparations of the kind in our own country. ”

“ As the evening advanced, their hilarity increased; p. 75strings of servants with heavily-laden trays were seen occasionally crossing the court-yard, bringing quantities of confectionery and other gifts of the friends and relations of the bridegroom, for it is always expected that everyone invited will contribute in some small way to set up the young couple in life. To this intent the presents comprise all sorts of articles, such as handkerchiefs, caps, scarfs, wax-tapers, coffee, sugar, sweet-meats, live fowls, wheat, tobacco, etc. Every one gives his mite ”

“ New candy factories are being erected in almost every town and city. American men and women are consuming larger quantities of chocolates, chewing gum and candies than ever before—they are paying high prices for the best sweetmeats, and expensive grades of confections are selling more rapidly than the cheaper grades. All of this means more business for the box-makers, and the box manufacturer who is in a position to make fine candy boxes as a specialty may have all of this class of work that he may care to produce. ”