*** Know-how
Replacing the water in fruit with sugar: that's the whole secret of candying. I candy about 20 types of fruits, depending on the season: apricot, pineapple, angelica, citron fruit, cherry, lemon, clementine, black fig, Marseillaise fig, Barbery fig, chestnut, melon, mirabelle, orange, bitter orange, pear, and more.
The choice of fruit is of the utmost importance, and so I am uncompromising about their quality and freshness. I go directly to the farm, to small operations which use the seeds and plants of the original varieties, which lend themselves perfectly to the demands of candying. This is the case of the "Cremesine" pear, the "Prescott" melon, the citron fruit, the "archangel" angelica, and others. In this way I am guaranteered to obtain fruit of excellent quality, which has ripened just perfectly, cultivated without artificial products, picked by hand, and rapidly transported in my care to the workshop, where I immediately start the candying process.
After preparing and blanching the fruit, I soak them in syrups that are progressively more and more concentrated, I pass them over a flame, and I alternate this operation with rest periods. Over a period of three months, I renew this operation from 7 to 10 times, depending on the variety of the fruit.
The ancient method, which requires patience, knowledge, and experience, is the only method which can transfrom simple fresh fruit into delicious candied fruit.