Scholarly interest in early modern sweets has focused on the central role of these food products as markers of social distinction and conspicuous consumption in elite contexts, mainly centred on northern Europe and Italy. Less fully understood are the ways in which the increasing demand for sugar and sweets informed their production and marketing at local levels, in particular in non-courtly urban areas. This article examines the legal case against the baker Josep Cortés, accused of making and selling sponge biscuits in violation of the privilege of confectioners in late seventeenth-century Barcelona. It addresses how confectioners and bakers materially and discursively defined their products based on the use of certain ingredients, utensils, and skill. This article also illustrates a shift from a generic idea of sweetness to one which was explicitly linked to sugar in the period when sugar was becoming a semi-affordable commodity in Europe. By addressing diverse source materials including court records, printed cookbooks, handwritten recipes, and inventories, this case study exemplifies the significant material and cultural dimensions that sugar adopted during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

学术界对早期现代甜食的兴趣集中于这些食品在精英环境中作为社会区别和显眼消费标志的中心作用，主要集中在北欧和意大利。人们对糖和甜食的需求不断增长的方式尚未引起人们的充分了解，这些手段在地方一级，特别是在非郊区的城市，促进了糖和糖果的生产和销售。本文探讨了针对面包师何塞普·科尔特斯（JosepCortés）的法律案件，后者被指控在十七世纪末期违反糖果制造商的特权制造和销售海绵饼干。它解决了糖果和面包师如何根据某些成分，器皿和技能的使用来从物质上和词义上定义其产品的方式。本文还说明了从甜味的一般观念到在糖成为欧洲半价商品的时期与糖明确相关的观念的转变。通过处理包括法庭记录，印刷食谱，手写食谱和清单在内的各种原始资料，本案例研究说明了糖在十七和十八世纪所采用的重要的物质和文化意义。