Humbug (sweet)
 | |
| Type | Confectionery |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | United Kingdom |
| Main ingredients | Sugar |
| Ingredients generally used |
|
Humbugs are a traditional boiled sweet (hard candy) available in the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, Canada, Australia, Zimbabwe and New Zealand. They are usually flavoured with peppermint[1] and striped in two different colours (often black and white). In Australia, the black-and-white-striped humbugs may be aniseed flavoured. Humbugs may be cylinders with rounded ends wrapped in a twist of cellophane, or more traditionally tetrahedral, loose in a bag.[1] Records of humbugs exist from as early as the 1820s, and they are referred to in the 1863 book Sylvia's Lovers as being a food from the North.[2] The etymology is unknown.
Manufacture
A mixture of sugar, glycerine, colour and flavouring is heated to 145 °C (293 °F). This mixture is then poured out, stretched and folded many times. The stripes originate from a smaller piece of coloured mixture which is folded into the main mixture. The mixture is finally rolled into a long, thin cylinder and sliced into segments.[3]
Bulls-eyes
A similar sweet is "bulls-eye" which has red-and-white or black-and-white stripes. These are peppermint-flavoured and are also known as Black Bullets in the UK as they are similar in size to smoothbore musket balls.
See also
- 1858 Bradford sweets poisoning
- Bêtise de Cambrai – French boiled caramel sweet
- Gobstopper
References
- ^ a b Davidson, Alan; Davidson, Jane; Saberi, Helen (2006). Jaine, Tom (ed.). The Oxford companion to food. OUP Oxford. ISBN 0-19-280681-5.
- ^ Ayto, John (1990). The Glutton's Glossary. Routledge. p. 144. ISBN 0-415-02647-4.
humbug sweet -bah.
- ^ Renton, Alex (10 September 2009). "Humbugs, mints, gums and our Top 20 sweets". The Times. Retrieved 25 January 2011.
