A marron glacé (plural marrons glacés) is a confection consisting of a chestnut candied in sugar syrup and glazed.
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Candied chestnuts appeared in chestnut-growing areas North of Italy and South of France, shortly after the crusaders brought sugar back with them as one result of their endeavours. Sugar allowed that which honey couldn't . A candied chestnut confection was probably served around the beginning of the 15th century, among other places in Piedmont, a northwestern area of Italy close to the border of Switzerland and France.[1] But marrons glacés as such (with the last touch of 'glazing'), may have been created only in the 16th century.[2] Lyon and Cuneo dispute the title for the addition of the glazing, or icing, that makes the real Marron glacé.[2]
The only certainty on the matter of dates of appearance for the recipe, is that the first known records were written by French people, and that through these the marrons glacés gained their crown at the end of 17th century, in Louis XIV's Versailles court.[3] In 1667, le Sieur François Pierre La Varenne, ten years' Chef de cuisine to Nicolas Chalon du Blé, Marquis of Uxelles (not very far from Lyon and a chestnut-producing area), and foremost figure of the Nouvelle Cuisine movement of the time, published his best-seller book Le parfaict confiturier. In it he describes “la façon de faire marron pour tirer au sec” (“the way to make (a) chestnut (so as) to 'pull it dry'”); this may well be the first record of the recipe for “marrons glacés”.[3] “Tirer au sec” means, in a confectionery context, “to remove (what's being candied) from the syrup”. La Varenne's book was edited thirty times in seventy-five years.
Nevertheless that book was not mentioned (nor indeed any other) when the recipe applied to cocoa beans, was in 1694 passed on to Father Jean-Baptiste Labat, a French missionary in the Martinique. In that year Father Labat wrote in a letter, of a recipe for candied and iced cocoa beans which he had tasted when dining at a M. Pocquet's.[4]
Another early citation, still in French, is from 1690.[5]
Towards the end of 19th century, Lyon was brought low by the collapse of the textile market, notably silk. In the middle of an epidemic, Clément Faugier Ingénieur des ponts et chaussées, was looking for a way to revitalize the regional economy. In 1882 he and a local 'confiseur' set up in Privas, Ardèche, the first factory with the technology to produce marrons glacés industrially; many of the nearly twenty steps necessary from harvest to finished product are still accomplished manually. Three years later he introduced the crème de marrons de l'Ardèche, a sweetened chestnut purée made from “marrons glacés” broken during the production process, and a touch of vanilla.[3][6] (later came “Marrons au Cognac” in 1924, “Purée de Marrons Nature” in 1934, “Marrons au Naturel” in 1951, and “Marpom's” in 1994.)[7]
The French have two words for chestnut: châtaigne and marron. Both are the fruit of Castanea sativa. However, "marron" tends to denote a higher quality fruit that is more easily peeled.[8] Chestnuts are covered with a pellicle, or membrane, which closely adheres to the fruit's flesh and which must be removed because of its astringency. Some nuts clearly shows two cotyledons usually separated with deep grooves going nearly all the way through the fruit; this makes them too fragile for the necessary manipulations during the cooking process. There also are other grooves on the surface, which means more embedded pellicle that must be painstakingly removed. "Marron"-quality nuts do not have the separation into two cotyledons; it appears in one piece and it shows few very shallow grooves. Marron-quality nuts for marrons glacés may be three or four times more expensive than the châtaigne because they also have a lower yield.[9]
Marrons glacés may be eaten on their own. They are also the basis for many desserts, among which is the famous “crème de marrons”, flavoured with a hint of vanilla, and itself a staple ingredient for other desserts, such as the Mont Blanc (puréed with cream), ice creams, cakes, sweet sauce or garnish for other desserts ...
In the novel La dame aux Camélias (1848) by Alexandre Dumas, fils, marrons glacés are said to be the only type of confection that the principal character, the courtesan Marguerite Gautier, would eat. Her clients were expected to buy bags of them for her to enjoy.
In the short story "Reginald" (1901) by Saki, the narrator leaves Reginald "near a seductive dish of marrons glacés" at a garden-party in the vain hope that these delicacies will distract him from wrecking social havoc.
In the video game Final Fantasy XI, Marron glacé is used as mage's food, and is described as a traditional dessert of the country of San d'Oria.
On the 1971 King Crimson song "Ladies of the Road", from the album "Islands", Robert Fripp mentions "marron-glaced fishbones".