Anise and Coriander Comfits
Small anise and coriander seeds patiently coated in hardened sugar — a crunchy confectionery-remedy taken at the end of the meal to aid digestion and freshen breath.
Small anise and coriander seeds patiently coated in hardened sugar — a crunchy confectionery-remedy taken at the end of the meal to aid digestion and freshen breath.
After a great feast, the stomach needs its comfort: here is my favorite remedy. Take anise and coriander seeds, and turn them endlessly in a basin of melted sugar until they are clothed in a white shell. Crunch a few after leaving the table: the breath becomes sweet and the belly calm. My doctors themselves recommended them — and I always kept a box on me.
- •Anise and coriander seeds — a handful (heart of the comfit, digestive virtue)
- •Sugar — several times their weight (coating)
- •Water — a little (coating syrup)
Anise and Coriander Comfits
Small anise and coriander seeds patiently coated in hardened sugar — a crunchy confectionery-remedy taken at the end of the meal to aid digestion and freshen breath.
Why this dish? At court, sugar-coated seeds were offered after the meal to “cheer the stomach and perfume the breath”; Catherine, a gourmand and as concerned with digestion as her entire century, adored them.
After a great feast, the stomach needs its comfort: here is my favorite remedy. Take anise and coriander seeds, and turn them endlessly in a basin of melted sugar until they are clothed in a white shell. Crunch a few after leaving the table: the breath becomes sweet and the belly calm. My doctors themselves recommended them — and I always kept a box on me.
Ingredients (period version)
- Anise and coriander seeds — a handful (heart of the comfit, digestive virtue)
- Sugar — several times their weight (coating)
- Water — a little (coating syrup)
Ingredients
- Green anise and coriander seeds — 50 g (aromatic center)
- Sugar — 200 g (coating)
- Water — 6 cl (syrup)
Method
- Make a thick syrup: heat water and sugar to about 110 °C.
- Put the seeds in a large warm pan or basin, off high heat.
- Pour the syrup in small ladles while stirring constantly to coat the seeds, which whiten and harden.
- Repeat the operation in several layers until you get round, dry comfits.
- Let cool and store dry in an airtight box.
How it was made : These candied seeds, ancestors of dragées and aniseed sweets, were both treats and remedies: the medicine of the time, inherited from Galen, saw anise and coriander as digestive aids and “cheerers” of the stomach.
The contemporary twist : Slip into a small candy box to offer at the end of the meal — a Renaissance version of today's mint candies.
Sources : Platina, De honesta voluptate et valetudine (c. 1474) · Bartolomeo Scappi, Opera dell'arte del cucinare (1570)
Catherine de Medici · Charactorium
