Sugar plum

Sugar plums are a type of dragée or other hard candy made into small round or oval shapes. The plum in the name of these confections does not always mean plum in the sense of the fruit, but rather their small size and spherical or oval shape. Traditional sugar plums often contained no fruit, instead being made mostly of pure sugar. These candies were comfits, and often surrounded a seed, nut, or spice. The menu for Henry IV of England's 1403 wedding feast included sugar plums, which were probably fruit preserves or suckets.[page needed] A cookbook from 1609, Delights for Ladies, describes boiling fruits with sugar as “the most kindly way to preserve plums.” The term sugar plum was applied to a wide variety of candied fruits, nuts, and roots by the 16th century.[page needed] In this period, sugar plums were often made from unripe fruits, often still with their stones, as ripe fruits were more difficult to candy; the name sugar plum may have referred to pieces of wire inserted into the fruit for decoration and ease of handling.[page needed]

Source: Wikipedia