0 an old-fashioned sweet made of a nut, seed, or piece of dried fruit with a hard sugar covering: --
A late medieval recipe for comfits is based on anise seeds, and suggests also making comfits with fennel, caraway, coriander, and diced ginger.
Anise was used to flavor fish and chicken dishes, and its seeds were served as sugar-coated comfits.
Their origin is uncertain, but they may have evolved out of the pharmaceutical use of sugar, as they were a miniature version of comfits.
The picture shows blue-and-white porcelain dishes filled with comfits and sweetmeats.
The dragee is a direct descendant of the English comfit, which, sadly, is no longer with us.
UK Crowned with its frothy whip and scattered with coloured comfits, the trifle was a very pretty dish for a party.