SC - Steak Pye with a French Pudding in the Pye

[Sharon L. Harrett]

Hi, Katerine here.  Adamantius remarks on period versus modern sugar.  This
is another one of those frustrating areas where we know what they *said*,
but can't really tell what they *meant*.

A lot of recipes specify white sugar.  I recall one (but only one) that
calls for black (which may, for that matter, be a scribal error based on
a misreading of "blanc", a term that was used with sugar after it ceased
to be used in general).  But how white was white?  With sugar, as with
flour, it's difficult to know.

Certainly period sugar was processed differently from modern.  Granulation
is a *very* recent innovation; sugar in period came in cakes, most often
cone shaped, and had to be grated or ground off them.  A number of recipes,
as Adamantius points out, suggest that the cakes were sometimes contaminated
with *something*, which one clarified out.

But exactly what, failing archaeology, I don't see any way to know.

Something like turbonado may be more to the point; then again, it may 
just be *differently* less-than-modern-white.

*sigh*

It's a general problem with ingredients.  Almost none of what we use is
really the same as what they had.  One does the best one can, and hopes that
the differences are not too great to approximate the final effect.

Cheers,

- -- Katerine/Terry

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