Sugar Candy

sugar candy sugar in crystalline lumps deposited from a sugar solution. Formerly, when sugar was an expensive rarity, this was of great importance in the European kitchen and was regarded as a sweetmeat in its own right. A shortened version of the term has given the word candy, used in N. America to indicate sweets in general.

Both the etymology of the term ‘sugar candy’ and the methods given in early recipes for making it indicate an ancient origin. ‘Sugar candy’ can be traced back through Persian qand to Sanskrit khanda, meaning sugar in pieces. The fact that the word has such an ancient derivation shows just what a desirable and uncommon item sugar candy was as it travelled from culture to culture.