# Sucket

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{{Short description|Medieval English sweet}}
[[File:Sucket Fork - James Wildgoose - ABDAG011055.jpg|thumb|right|18th-century sucket fork made by James Wildgoose of [Aberdeen](/source/Aberdeen).<ref>[https://emuseum.aberdeencity.gov.uk/objects/9338 Sucket Fork: Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums Collections]</ref>]]
'''Sucket''' or '''succat'''<ref>{{cite book |last=Hope |first=Annette |title=Londoners' Larder |publisher=Mainstream Publishing |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-84018-965-0 |location=Edinburgh |pages=300}}</ref> was a kind of confectionary or dessert popular in early modern England, frequently [served at banquets with other confectionary](/source/Confectionery_in_the_English_Renaissance). The word is related to ''[succade](/source/succade)'', which refers to a kind of dried fruit.

== Description ==
The dish was a sweetmeat involving sugar plums and dried fruit or peel in thick syrup flavoured with ginger and other spices.<ref>Wendy Wall, ''Recipes for Thought: Knowledge and Taste in the Early Modern English Kitchen'' (Penn, 2016), p. 74.</ref> The dried fruits themselves were called "suckets" or "dry suckets".<ref>Hannele Klematillā, 'Sucket', Darra Goldstein, ''The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets'' (Oxford, 2015), p. 662.</ref><ref>Frederick Furnivall, ''Robert Laneham's Letter'' (London, 1890), pp. 23 & fn., 70.</ref> Suckets were moulded to decorative shapes, and a red colour could be achieved by using the juice of barberries.<ref>[Hilary Spurling](/source/Hilary_Spurling), ''Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book'' (Salamander, 1986), pp. 199.</ref> The Elizabethan writer [William Harrison](/source/William_Harrison_(priest)) disapproved of sucket amongst a list of other "outlandish confections".<ref>Wendy Wall, ''Recipes for Thought: Knowledge and Taste in the Early Modern English Kitchen'' (Penn, 2016), p. 97.</ref>

[Hugh Plat](/source/Hugh_Plat) described a sucket made from lettuce stalks in his ''Delightes for Ladies'' (1602),<ref>Wendy Wall, ''Recipes for Thought: Knowledge and Taste in the Early Modern English Kitchen'' (Penn, 2016), p. 89.</ref><ref>[Hugh Plat](/source/Hugh_Plat), [https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1475-1640_delightes-for-ladies-to_platt-sir-hugh_1602/mode/2up  ''Delightes for Ladies'' (1602), A2v, C2v no. 32]</ref> with his recipe drawn from a work of recipes and domestic advice compiled from the 1550s to 1580s, now contained in the [British Library](/source/British_Library) in [Sloane MS 2189](/source/Sloane_Manuscript).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thick |first=Malcolm |title=The English Kitchen: Historical Essays |publisher=Prospect Books |year=2004 |isbn=1-903018-36-6 |editor-last=White |editor-first=Eileen |series=Leeds Symposium on Food History. 'Food and Society' Series |location=Totnes, Devon |pages=57–59 |chapter=A close look at the composition of Sir Hugh Plat's Delightes For Ladies.}}</ref> [Gervase Markham](/source/Gervase_Markham) published a recipe for suckets in ''[The English Huswife](/source/The_English_Huswife)'' (1615).<ref>Gervase Markham, [https://archive.org/details/b30333143/page/126/mode/2up ''Country Contentments, or the English Huswife'' (London, 1623), p. 124]</ref> A similar recipe was included in ''The Accomplish'd Ladies Delight, in Preserving, Physick, Beautifying, and Cookery'' (1675), a work published with an attribution to [Hannah Wolley](/source/Hannah_Wolley).<ref>[Hannah Wolley](/source/Hannah_Wolley), [https://archive.org/details/b30343112/page/32/mode/2up ''The Accomplish'd Ladies Delight, in Preserving, Physick, Beautifying, and Cookery'' (London: William Hunt, 1696), p. 32 no. 127]</ref> Markham also listed wet, then dry suckets in a sequence of banqueting dishes.<ref>Catherine Richardson, ''Shakespeare and Material Culture'' (Oxford, 2011), p. 133.</ref>

From the 16th century, confectioners in [Colchester](/source/Colchester) made sucket from the [sea holly](/source/Eryngium) that grew along the coast. [C. Anne Wilson](/source/C._Anne_Wilson) describes suckets made from such sources as valued as aphrodisiacs, and the industry as persisting into the mid-19th century.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=C. Anne |author1-link=C. Anne Wilson |url=https://archive.org/details/fooddrinkinbrita0000wils |title=Food and Drink in Britain: From the Stone Age to Recent Times |date=1976 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-1405-5101-3 |location=Harmondsworth, London |pages=315}}</ref> John Murrell's ''A Delightfull Daily Exercise for Ladies and Gentlewomen'' (1621) includes a method to sucket candy green lemons as a coridial for the stomach, and a recipe to sucket candy green ginger, green peaches, and apricots.<ref name=":0" /> Murrell suggested "succet of walnuts" for banqueting tables in English or Dutch fashion.<ref name=":0">John Murrell, [https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1475-1640_a-delightfull-daily-exer_murrell-john_1621/page/n81 ''A Delightfull Daily Exercise for Ladies and Gentlewomen'' (London, 1621), nos. 34–36]</ref> ''A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen'' (1654) gives a recipe for walnut sucket.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1641-1700_a-closet-for-ladies-_1654/mode/2up ''A Closet for Ladies'' (London, 1654), no. 49]</ref> A manuscript recipe book owned by Constance Hall in 1672, held by the [Folger Shakespeare Library](/source/Folger_Shakespeare_Library), gives a recipe for making a cake, adding fruit and suckets just before baking.<ref>Kristine Kowalchuk, ''Preserving on Paper: Seventeenth-Century Englishwomen's Receipt Books'' (University of Toronto, 2017), pp. 180, 352.</ref>

=== Sucket fork ===
As a dessert course, sucket was sometimes brought to the table in a silver sucket barrel and eaten with silver sucket forks. These seem to have been the earliest [table forks](/source/fork) used in England.<ref>Phillipa Glanville, 'Sucket fork', Darra Goldstein, ''The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets'' (Oxford, 2015), p. 661.</ref> Silver gilt sucket spoons and forks, and two conjoined sucket spoons and forks, appear in the [inventory of Henry VIII](/source/inventory_of_Henry_VIII).<ref>[David Starkey](/source/David_Starkey) and Philip Ward, ''Inventory of Henry VIII'', 1 (London, 1998), p. 43: C. J. Jackson, "The Spoon and its History", ''Archaeologia'', 53 (London, 1893), p. 128.</ref> Some sucket spoons have forks at the other end to the bowl.<ref>Arthur Collins, ''Jewels and Plate of Elizabeth I'' (London, 1955), pp. 430 no. 814, 433 no. 832, 584 no. 1558, 591-2 no. 1581.</ref>

The combination of fork and spoon in one utensil is described by food writer [Bee Wilson](/source/Bee_Wilson): with the fork end, sticky sweetmeats could be extracted from containers without dirtying the fingers, and with the other end, syrup could be spooned out. At times when confections became stuck in the teeth of diners, Wilson writes, the prongs were also convenient as toothpicks.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wilson|first=Bee|title=Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat|date=|publisher=Basic Books|isbn=9780465021765|edition=|location=New York|pages=255–256|language=|year=2012|author-link=Bee Wilson}}</ref> Consumption of wet suckets was not restricted to the table, and were sometimes sipped from small dishes while walking.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fletcher |first=Nichola |title=Charlemagne's Tablecloth: A Piquant History of Feasting |publisher=Saint Martin's Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-312-34068-1 |edition= |location=New York}}</ref>

As the term sucket became outmoded, the same confections continued to be made under names such as "conserve" and "preserve". Foods that would be understood as wet suckets continue to be sold in England, as jars of candied ginger that are imported from China.<ref>Laura Mason, "Candied fruit", Alan Davidson, ''The Oxford Companion to Food'' (Oxford University Press, 2014).</ref>

== Historical references ==
At the funeral of Abbot [John Islip](/source/John_Islip) at [Westminster Abbey](/source/Westminster_Abbey) in 1532, a banquet was served in a room over his chapel consisting of "spyced breade, suckett, marmylate, spyced plate, and dyverss sorts of wynes plenty". Suckets were also served at the funeral of [James Montague](/source/James_Montague_(bishop)), [Bishop of Winchester](/source/Bishop_of_Winchester), in 1618.<ref>Rudolph Ackermann, ''The History of the Abbey Church of St. Peter's Westminster'', 2 (London, 1812), p. 309.</ref>

In Scotland, [James V](/source/James_V) took barrels of "succatis" with him on sea voyages in the 1530s.<ref>''Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland'', 6 (Edinburgh, 1905), pp. lxii, 287.</ref>

Lady Yorke gave foodstuffs including four barrels of suckets to [Mary I of England](/source/Mary_I_of_England) as a [New Year's Day gift](/source/New_Year's_Day_gift_(royal_courts)) in 1557. The gift was delivered to the Queen's servant [Edith Brediman](/source/George_Brediman).<ref>[https://archive.org/details/illustrationsofm00nich/page/n389/mode/2up 'New Year's Gifts', ''Illustrations of the manners and expences of antient times in England'', p. 6]</ref> Lady Yorke also gave sucket to [Elizabeth I](/source/Elizabeth_I) in 1562. The gift was delivered to [Kat Ashley](/source/Kat_Ashley).<ref>Susan M. Cogan, "Flowers and gift culture at the Tudor and Stuart courts", Susannah Lyon-Whaley, ''Floral Culture and the Tudor and Stuart courts'' (Routledge, 2025), pp. 228, 230.</ref><ref>Elizabeth Goldring, Faith Eales, Elizabeth Clarke, Jayne Elizabeth Archer, ''John Nichols's The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth'', vol. 1 (Oxford, 2014), p. 244.</ref><ref>''John Nichols's The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth'', vol. 1 (Oxford, 2014), p. 244.</ref>

The household accounts of [Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester](/source/Robert_Dudley%2C_1st_Earl_of_Leicester) mention "green sucket".<ref>Simon Adams, ''Household accounts and disbursement books of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester'', p. 93.</ref> [Mary, Queen of Scots](/source/Mary%2C_Queen_of_Scots) ate sucket as a prisoner at [Tutbury Castle](/source/Tutbury_Castle) in 1586. An account for her food, now held by the [British Library](/source/British_Library), includes five ounces at sixpence the ounce.<ref>[British Library](/source/British_Library), [https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2022/11/mary-queen-of-scots-acquisitions.html Mary, Queen of Scots: two new acquisitions]</ref><ref>British Library, [https://searcharchives.bl.uk/catalog/032-004299242 Add Roll 77740/1] digitised, at membrane 3d.</ref><ref>British Library, [https://searcharchives.bl.uk/catalog/032-004299243 Add Roll 77740/2] digitised, at membrane 3d.</ref> Sucket was also regarded and used as a medicine, Mary's apothecary held a stock of "confitures, succattes, preserves, conserves and other medicinable drugges".<ref>Alexandre Labanoff, ''Lettres de Marie Stuart'', 7 (London: Dolman, 1844), p. 271.</ref>

The household accounts of [Francis Willoughy](/source/Francis_Willoughby_(1547%E2%80%931596)) at [Wollaton](/source/Wollaton_Hall) and Old Hall in [Nottinghamshire](/source/Nottinghamshire) for July 1587 mention a pound of sucket purchased for [half a crown](/source/Half_crown_(British_coin)) (2 [shilling](/source/shilling)s and 6 [pence](/source/penny)), approximately the same cost per pound as marmalade. Sweets called "confectes" were also bought for the visit of the new [Earl of Rutland](/source/John_Manners%2C_4th_Earl_of_Rutland).<ref>[https://archive.org/details/reportonmanuscri0000grea_d3m3/page/454/mode/2up ''HMC Report on the manuscripts of Lord Middleton'' (London: HMSO, 1911), p. 455]</ref> Marmalade and sucket were closely associated, and writers including [Gabriel Harvey](/source/Gabriel_Harvey) and [Thomas Walkington](/source/Thomas_Walkington) drew upon the valued, sweet aspects to use the phrase "marmalade and sucket" in marking prose as being of great quality.<ref>{{cite book |author=Wilson|title=The Book of Marmalade|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|date=|edition=Revised|first=C. Anne|year=1999|isbn=0-8122-1727-6|location=Philadelphia|author-link=C. Anne Wilson|orig-year=1985|pages=31, 41}}</ref> 

After the [baptism of Prince Henry](/source/masque_at_the_baptism_of_Prince_Henry) at [Stirling Castle](/source/Stirling_Castle) in August 1594, diplomats of the "[States of Flanders](/source/Dutch_Republic)", including [Walraven III van Brederode](/source/Walraven_III_van_Brederode), travelled to Newcastle, where the mayor [Lionel Maddison](/source/Lionel_Maddison) treated them to a banquet including [comfit](/source/comfit)s, dried fruit, dried sucket, and Spanish sucket.<ref>Richard Welsford, [https://archive.org/details/historyofnewcast03welf/page/90 ''History of Gateshead and Newcastle'', vol. 3 (London, 1890), pp. 91-3].</ref> A recipe book associated with [Prince Henry](/source/Henry_Frederick%2C_Prince_of_Wales) (the binding has his heraldry) includes a list of nine "Dryed suckette of sevrall sorts".<ref>Marissa Nicosia, ''Shakespeare in the Kitchen'' (Routledge, 2026): [https://iucat.iu.edu/catalog/15418688 Indiana University, Lilly Library, LMC 471 / LMC 2435] See external links.</ref>

During a break in his May 1616 trial, [Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset](/source/Robert_Carr%2C_Earl_of_Somerset) snacked on suckets given to him by the [Earl of Rutland](/source/Francis_Manners%2C_6th_Earl_of_Rutland).<ref>[David M. Bergeron](/source/David_Bergeron_(historian)), ''The Duke of Lennox, 1574–1624: A Jacobean Courtier's Life'' (Edinburgh University Press, 2022), p. 165: G. Dyfnallt Owen, ''HMC Report on the manuscripts of the Marquess of Downshire'', 5 (London, 1988), p. 509 no. 1083.</ref> The Countess of Olivares sent a gift of foodstuffs in three carts to [Prince Charles](/source/Charles_I_of_England) in 1625 including "sucketts and sweet meates".<ref>Norman Egbert Mcclure, ''Letters of John Chamberlain'', 2 (Philadelphia, 1939), pp. 549–550.</ref>

Captain [William Keeling](/source/William_Keeling) of the [East India Company](/source/East_India_Company) gave a quantity of dry and wet suckets as a parting gift to the King or Sultan of [Socotra](/source/Socotra) in August 1615.<ref>Michael Strachan and Boies Penrose, ''The East India Company journals of Captain William Keeling and Master Thomas Bonner, 1615-1617'' (Minneapolis, 1971), pp. 38, 103.</ref> [John Smith](/source/John_Smith_(explorer)) wrote of his voyages and colonial activities using sugar and sucket as a metaphor for colonial activity. He had been "a reall Actor" on the hunt for "chests of Sugar" and "Boats of Sugar, Marmelade, Suckets".<ref>[Lauren Working](/source/Lauren_Working), "James VI and I's Banqueting Houses: A Transatlantic Perspective", ''British Art Studies'', 29 (December 2025). {{doi|10.17658/issn.2058-5462/issue-29/lworking}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [https://foodhistorjottings.blogspot.com/2014/12/sucket-and-see.html Sucket and See: Food History Jottings]
* Cheng He, [https://www.epoch-magazine.com/post/multisensory-use-of-sugar-sculpture-in-renaissance-england "Multisensory Use of Sugar Sculpture in Renaissance England", ''Epoch Magazine'', 1 March 2025]
* [https://www.manuscriptcookbookssurvey.org/collection/Detail/manuscripts/471 Receipt book associated with Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales: Manuscript Cookbook Survey]
* [https://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/metsnav3/general/index.html#mets=https%3A%2F%2Fpurl.dlib.indiana.edu%2Fiudl%2Fgeneral%2Fmets%2FVAD5577&page=462 Receipt book associated with Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales: Indiana University, digitised at page 462]

Category:Confectionery
Category:Medieval cuisine

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Sucket](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucket) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucket?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.