In the "You Learn Something New Every Day" category

[feliciakw]

Edible ball bearings are not nonpareils; they are dragées. I call them "you know, those little silver balls." Or sometimes "those little things that look like BBs" or "those little ball bearings." Apparently, they have been removed from the shelves in the US because silver is toxic. Or something like that. Also, apparently they used to have mercury in the coating, but I've yet to substantiate this (though it wouldn't surprise me in the least). All I know is that I can't find them in town.

We discovered this when Geo tried to get some to put on my cake, but he couldn't find any. George is such a sweetie.

Comments

[kerravonsen]

Maybe they have different names in different countries?

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

AFAIK, they've always been dragees here. Nonpareils are the little colored sugar balls--which may be similar to what Australians put on 'fairy bread'.

Annoying that dragees have been taken off the market, though--it's not as though anyone actually eats them; those things will break your teeth!

[feliciakw.livejournal.com]

I could very well be mistaken. It seems that maybe (though I've not researched in depth) dragées are back on the shelves but labeled as non-edible/for decoration only. I just can't find any here. Of course, I can't find decent Irish creme coffee, either, so I shouldn't be surprised.

it's not as though anyone actually eats them; those things will break your teeth!

Indeed. Heh.

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

I used to put the dragees on camel-shaped cookies at Christmas, on the bridles and blanket-fringes. They were lovely, but nobody would eat them. :( Of course, this reminds me that I'm supposed to have done the letter-meme for D, months ago, and dragees was meant to be one of my words.

I have to ask, how are you getting the accent mark on dragees? I haven't found a way to do that on LJ.

[feliciakw.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't know if using a Macintosh makes a difference, but we're Apple snobs *g* here. If I hit the Alt/Option key and hit "e", it gives me the accent. Then I type the letter I want under the accent, and if it's a letter that will go under an accent, it appears. Thusly:

á é í ó ú

I can also do all sorts of nifty international letters and other characters, like the © character. Or if I wrote in French, I've got the ç character. I can do umlauts ü and tildes ñ, and Spanish exclamations ¡Hola! and questions ¿Qué? and even degrees notations. It's 23ºF right now.

It's just a matter of finding the right symbol. And I discovered that I can't to dashes over letters, like I needed for "in" in Latin over on Sarah's LJ.

So it's not an LJ thing, it's my computer. :-)

And I take it you're back on-line now? Yippee!

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's a Mac thing. Of course. :)

And yes, I'm lurking about, just haven't made any posts yet. I suppose everybody knows I'm here now, though, so perhaps it's time I admitted it. :)

[kerravonsen]

which may be similar to what Australians put on 'fairy bread'.

You mean Hundreds And Thousands?

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

Well, that's what I almost said, but I'm not sure. I think Hundreds and Thousands are long and narrow? Nonpareils here are small and round, about the diameter of a small pinhead. The long narrow things are usually labelled sprinkles. Though the labelling may have changed over the years; my last bottle of nonpareils is probably 20 years old. I've switched to mostly using sprinkles on the cookies, because they're softer, whereas the nonpareils are hard (though not as hard as dragees). But the nonpareils make lovely confetti cakes, which are nice for parties.

[kerravonsen]

Hundreds-and-Thousands are tiny, round and multi-coloured.

[kerravonsen]

Some pictures of cupcakes with hundreds-and-thousands on them:
http://www.nimbusfoods.co.uk/images/library/cake.jpg
http://photos.jibble.org/Cupcakes/Pink_Cupcake_With_Hundreds_And_Thousands_HA8V7537

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's them! Mystery solved! Thank you--I've been trying to work that one out for a couple of years now.

::makes addendum to mental US-Australian dictionary::

[feliciakw.livejournal.com]

Possibly. What I read today seemed to differentiate based on size. Nonpareils are really tiny; dragées are somewhat larger, ranging in size from slightly larger than a nonpareil to slightly smaller than a pearl. In addition to being sugar, they can also be sugar-coated almonds.

They sell the multi-colored, tiny nonpareils at our grocery, but not the larger silver dragées.

I remember the silver ball bearing things being fairly popular when I was a kid, and since confections and cake decorating can go in trends just like anything else, I usually associate them with the '70s. Hadn't thought of them in ages until The Doctor. :-) Edible ball bearings. Genius! Hee.