Do You Know What Sugar Plums Are?

I ran across an article today that I thought was interesting. I had always wondered what sugar plums were, but was content thinking they were plums soaked in sugar, much like strawberries are for shortcake. I was wrong.

So, in my quest to learn about everything animal, vegetable, and mineral. Here's a "vegetable" that fits in with the Christmas Season.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/13/sugar-plums_n_2272029.html?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl29%7Csec1_lnk1%26pLid%3D246860

Sugar Plums: What Are They, Anyway?

By Madeleine Crum Posted: 12/13/2012 11:21 am EST  |  Updated: 12/13/2012 12:17 pm EST

What Is It Anyway? is a series that examines the histories behind peculiar and obscure foods. Today, we're explaining sugar plums.

Clement Clark Moore's "A Visit from St. Nicholas," or, as you probably know the famous, charming poem, "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," paints an idyllic picture of Christmas Eve: new-fallen snow, bowlfuls of jelly, and... sugar plums? You've probably wondered why the children in Moore's poem dream of tart fruits instead of candy canes, cookies or pastries.

Wikipedia informs readers that sugar plums are candies made from any number of dried fruits, but, as this Atlanticarticle points out, this interpretation is entirely contemporary. While candy manufacturers today create sugar plum products--sugary candies with artificial plum flavoring--these treats were dreamed up after, and perhaps because of, Moore's poem. The sugar plums in "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" are something else entirely.

So, what are they, anyway?
In the dessert's heyday, "sugar plum" was a term commonly used to describe a comfit. Comfits are small items, such as seeds, nuts and spices, used as a base around which a sugary candy is made. Today, almonds are the most popular bases used for comfits. In the 17th and 18th centuries, sugar plums are often referred to as "large comfits." The Encyclopaedia of Practical Cookery, published in 1890, references French Sugar Plums, or comfits that are started with a piece of cinnamon.

History
Sugar plums are first mentioned in 1608 in Thomas Decker's Lanthorne and Candlelight, but not in the way that you might think. This mention was not referencing a food, but instead the following definition, according to theOxford English Dictionary (OED): "Something very pleasing or agreeable; esp. when given as a sop or bribe." The candies were first described about a half century later, in 1668. OED has since declared the term "sugar plum" obsolete.

Etymology
Why were candies that involved sugar, seeds and almonds, but no fruit, and certainly no plums, called sugar plums? There are a number of possible explanations. According to Etymonline, "plumb" was first used as a verb in the 14th century. At that time, the word meant "to immerse," and could explain why a candy that involved immersing a base in sugar would have such a name. Also, "plum" was recorded in 1780 as meaning "something desirable."

In popular culture
Aside from Clement Clark Moore's "A Visit from St. Nicholas," you've probably heard of sugar plums from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker," in which the Sugar Plum Fairy rules the Land of the Sweets while awaiting her prince's return.

How it all started...

I am on a never ending quest to try everything and know everything. Even though this is impossible, my hope is that it helps me to grow and expand my horizons. I love collecting hobbies and learning little bits of information. 
Very similar to my hobby collecting. I've always admired people that seem to know about everything. My grandfather was like that. He was amazing at games like trivial pursuit. I want to know about everything I can. I have so many questions and not enough answers. Hope you find this page equally as interesting. As always, I'm up for suggestions. I love doing research.

I should probably mention that this is my first blog, and that I'm really excited about getting started. So, since this is my first post, I thought it only fitting to share what made me want to start collecting hobbies and knowledge. 

"I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General" from Gilbert and Sullivan's 1879 comic opera The Pirates of Penzance. 

I am the very model of a modern Major-General,

I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral,

I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical

From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical.

I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical,

I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical,

About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news,

With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse.

I'm very good at integral and differential calculus;

I know the scientific names of beings animalculous:

In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,

I am the very model of a modern Major-General.

I know our mythic history, King Arthur's and Sir Caradoc's;

I answer hard acrostics, I've a pretty taste for paradox,

I quote in elegiacs all the crimes of Heliogabalus,

In conics I can floor peculiarities parabolous;

I can tell undoubted Raphaels from Gerard Dows and Zoffanies,

I know the croaking chorus from The Frogs of Aristophanes!

Then I can hum a fugue of which I've heard the music's din afore

And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore.

Then I can write a washing bill in Babylonic cuneiform,

And tell you ev'ry detail of Caractacus's uniform

In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,

I am the very model of a modern Major-General.

In fact, when I know what is meant by "mamelon" and "ravelin",

When I can tell at sight a Mauser rifle from a Javelin,

When such affairs as sorties and surprises I'm more wary at,

And when I know precisely what is meant by "commissariat",

When I have learnt what progress has been made in modern gunnery,

When I know more of tactics than a novice in a nunnery—

In short, when I've a smattering of elemental strategy—

You'll say a better Major-General has never sat a gee.

For my military knowledge, though I'm plucky and adventury,

Has only been brought down to the beginning of the century;

But still, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,

I am the very model of a modern Major-General.