The complete confectioner, pastry-cook, and baker : plain and practical directions for making confectionary and pastry, and for baking; with upwards of five hundred receipts consisting of directions for making all sorts of preserves, sugar-boiling, comfits, lozenges, ornamental cakes, ices, liqueurs, waters, gum-paste ornaments, syrups, jellies, marmalades, compotes, bread-baking, artificial yeasts, fancy biscuits, cakes, rolls, muffins, tarts, pies, &c. &c. With additions and alterations / by Parkinson, practical confectioner, Chestnut Street.

Parkinson, Eleanor

Date:: 1844

Credit: The complete confectioner, pastry-cook, and baker : plain and practical directions for making confectionary and pastry, and for baking; with upwards of five hundred receipts consisting of directions for making all sorts of preserves, sugar-boiling, comfits, lozenges, ornamental cakes, ices, liqueurs, waters, gum-paste ornaments, syrups, jellies, marmalades, compotes, bread-baking, artificial yeasts, fancy biscuits, cakes, rolls, muffins, tarts, pies, &c. &c. With additions and alterations / by Parkinson, practical confectioner, Chestnut Street. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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over with dry sugar ; and confiturier—confectioner, a maker or seller of comfits or other sweetmeats. The other branches are the Orna- mental and Soft Confectionary. The latter relates to everything connected with the oven, or all sorts of cakes and soft biscuits, and more particularly to the preservation of fruits; the other, as the name implies, to every description of ornaments necessary for the decoration of the table. Hard Confectionary still remains a distinct branch or trade of itself; in fact, many persons’ sole occupation is the making of lozenges and comfits, termed pan-work. Some also combine with these the different articles connected with sugar-boiling and preserving. The latter are in general blended together, and mostly practised by cooks and pastry-cooks; but the chief business of a confectioner is alone connected with the ornamental department, and everything necessary for the dessert. I have thought it requisite to mention this specifically, so as to prevent the occurrence of errors which parents and guardians of families often fall into respecting the nature of the business, and also with regard to the capacity of the child which they intend should be brought up to it. I have heard many say, “ Never mind; he is a stupid fool, and may do very well to make cakes.” If making cakes were the sole object he would have to accomplish, •perhaps he might do very well; but even this requires more ingenuity than is generally considered; and if the welfare of the child is studied, so as to enable him to obtain his livelihood in a respectable manner, they must find some means of enabling him to acquire a considerable deal more knowledge than is general with a common-place education, to enable him to compete with the talent at present in the labour-market. The person adapted for this business should be neat and cleanly in his habits, of a lively and ingenious mind, have a quick conception of design, a delicate taste, with a general knowledge of architecture, mythology, and the fine arts ; for they are as requisite in the con- struction of a Piece Montee, or an allegorical subject to embellish the table, as to an architect or sculptor in the construction of an ex- pensive building or monument. I do not mean to infer that his in- formation must be so extensive, or that he will be required to make the tour of Italy, Rome, and Greece, to study the original masters; but let him take Nature for his guide; and if he possess the rudi- ments or principles of the art of design, he cannot fail, with a little attention and perseverance, to become an adept in the higher or orna- mental branches of his business.

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