The processing of fruit into paste, candied fruit and jam is a more of a specific Clermont speciality. The angelica fields that used to be cultivated in Montferrand are but a distant memory nowadays. Yet the production of fruit paste remains a lively tradition which is exported throughout the world.

Clermont-Ferrand dried jam was already famous in the reign of Louis XI. It was the gift that all visiting dignitaries would look forward to receiving. In 1629, Cardinal de Richelieu who was passing through was given six large, attractive coffers containing one hundred and thirty-three pounds of candied apricots. Later, in Vichy, Madame de Sévigné initiated the craze for candied fruit. But the golden age for confectioners was actually the Second Empire, especially thanks to the Duke of Morny. He turned hundreds of hectares into experimental fields for a sugar factory, the current-day Bourdon sugar plant.