Skip to main content
Dessert

Italian Gum Paste

A sweet paste made from gum-dragon, water, and powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Italian Gum Paste

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gum

  1. Scrape off any spots from the gum-dragon with a penknife.

  2. Place the gum in a pan and wash it with water twice.

  3. Add fresh water to dissolve the gum, covering it by 1 to 2 inches, and let it stand for 24 hours.

  4. Crush the gum with a spatula.

  5. Strain it thickly through a cloth, having two people wring the cloth.

Make the paste

  1. Pound the strained gum in a mortar.

  2. Add fine powdered sugar gradually until the paste is smooth.

  3. When the paste breaks while pulling, it is done.

  4. Store the paste in a pot covered with a wet cloth.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Gum-dragon
Forms the paste's body, giving it thickness and a pliable, stretchy texture when pounded.
Extremely fine powdered sugar
Sweetens the paste and stiffens it to a smooth, workable consistency.

The step that matters

Pounding in the sugar gradually until smooth. Adding sugar too quickly can leave the paste lumpy or grainy, since the gum needs time to absorb it evenly. Judging the break point while pulling shows when the paste has the right elasticity.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

White CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesSpice CakeSpice Cake344 recipes