Sweet relief
Never tasted a babelutte or sunk your teeth into a cuberdon? Never heard of a Gents trientje, a sneeuwbal or a mokatine? If you thought Flanders had only chocolate to satisfy the sweet-toothed, think again: Flanders has an equally rich tradition when it comes to sweets.
Flanders’ long history of candy-making proves there’s more to the region than chocolate
The history of candy goes hand-in-hand with changes in the consumption and production of food in general. Although sugar derived from sugar cane has been around now for centuries, honey was the only sweetener available for a long time before that, combined with small amounts of liquorice.
“It is only after the Middle Ages that the first sugar confectionery emerges,” explains Yves Segers, head of the Centre for Agricultural History in Leuven. “Sugar confectionery was in fact nothing more than small forms made of sugar. Antwerp was one of the main ports, so the availability here of sugar cane rose sharply. But it remained a product for the nobility. Nevertheless, the confectionery made in Antwerp appealed to an international public.”
During the 18th century, German chemist Andreas Marggraf discovered a method to extract sugar from the sugar beet. It was the start of the slow democratisation of sugar, though it would be the end of the 19th century before candy became available to the wider public.
This period was also the breakthrough for industrial food manufacturing. “From 1890, the purchasing power of the common man rose significantly,” says Segers. “But candy remained a luxury, reserved for special occasions. It is only after the Second World War that sweets become a mass consumed item. A lot of novelties from the ’50s and ’60s come from the United States. Chewing gum for example, or candy made of gelatine.”
Sweet medicine
Mass consumption of sweets may be a recent phenomenon, but many recipes have a long history and are connected with a specific town or region. The mumbol, for example, is typical of the city of Hoegaarden, Flemish Brabant. This orange-coloured, square-shaped candy is made of sugar, mint oil and butter. It came into being alongside the sugar industry in the region. The sugar factories in Hoegaarden are long gone, but the mumbol remains.
Other recipes have their roots in pharmacy: Many traditional methods to produce candy are the same as those used by 19th-century pharmacists. Like the zure hosties, made of edible rice paper with a sharp sherbet filling. Pharmacists used the paper casting to mask the bad taste of medicinal herbs, but medicines have moved on, and the zure hostie has become a sweet.
Perhaps the best-known sweet to start out as medicine in Flanders is the borstbol, pillow-shaped sweets that bring relief to a sore throat. But most people will know it as a typical candy your grandmother would give you – provided you’d been good, of course.
Holy candy
Other local candy recipes have a totally different story. Some are eaten at special occasions or during specific religious celebrations. A good example is the suikerboon, which consists of an almond covered with a layer of coloured sugar glazing. When a baby is born, family and friends receive a decorated packet of suikerbonen from the proud parent.
Kerselare, a small village in East Flanders, has been attracting pilgrims for centuries. They all come to visit the chapel on Elendale Hill, where a miraculous statue of Our Lady stands. When returning home, the pilgrims take away not only the blessing of the Holy Virgin, but also a box of lekkies. The recipe for these sweets, made from sugar, candied syrup and honey with water, was developed by Maximiliaan Consael. Today, his offspring run a sweetshop called Jan van Gent, where the lekkies are produced. The sweets take their name from the verb lekken, which means “to lick” in the local dialect.
Speaking of names, there are some funny stories behind certain Flemish sweets. What about the totentrekker or the muilentrekker, meaning something like “face-puller”? These sweets are covered with generous amount of citric acid, enough to make your cheeks pull together when you put them in your mouth. Or the poepkes, shaped like half a cherry. A dirtier mind would say it looks like a bum – poepke in the Flemish dialect. Or what about the story behind the babbelaar? It is said that workers in a sugar factory chatted for too long and forgot about the sugar on the fire. The result of their neglect turned out to be quite tasty, and the babbelaar (“the chatterer”) was born. Intrigued by this lesser-known side of Flanders’ culinary traditions? Next time you visit a Flemish candy shop, look beyond the obvious chocolate. Sweet and tasty discoveries await.
Life is sweet
Is there a particular sweet that takes you back to your childhood? Chances are you’ll find it at the Sweet Candy exhibition in Brussels. With the help of artwork and olde-worlde artefacts – think candy boxes, candy dishes, cuberdon moulds, engravings and confectioners’ tools – the Brussels Museum for Mill and Food is bringing the history of confectionery to life. So whether it’s an Asian sesame crepe, Belgian cuberdon or babelutte, Montargis praline, cotignac from Orléans, Brazilian brigadeiros, lollipops, liquorice or Flumps that get your mouth watering, learn more with a series of demonstrations and hands-on workshops.
Deep purple
Conical shaped, with a deep purple colour. A hard shell, with a dark, syrupy filling. Meet the cuberdon, currently Flanders’ trendiest candy.
The cuberdon, also known as neuzeke, tsjoepke or Gentse neus because of its resemblance to a nose, is a typical sweet from East Flanders made by Confiserie Geldhof. The founder of the company, Antoine Geldhof, got the recipe from an old pharmacist named Vinck, who entrusted the recipe to him on his deathbed. Confiserie Geldhof has become famous because of the cuberdon, but it also produces a large selection of other sweets. The cuberdon has to be eaten fresh, otherwise the shell becomes too crispy. That’s why the sweet is only found in Belgium, and why Confiserie Geldhof has developed an array of products with the same taste as the cuberdon, from syrup to jenever. You can find cuberdons in candy shops across Flanders and Brussels, but possibly the most fun is to buy them from the open-air cart piled high with the triangle-shaped candy every weekend in Ghent’s Groentenmarkt.
Until 31 August
Sweet Candy! The sweet history of candy
Brussels Museum for Mill and Food, Windmolenstraat 21
