SC - Honey vrs sugar

[Philip E Cutone]

"Sue Wensel" <swensel at brandegee.lm.com> writes:
> While honey is a popular SCA-alternate for sugar in recipes, I am
> beginning to doubt how much it really was used in period recipes.

i sound like i'm beating a dead horse, "In the Domestroi...." nearly
every recipe which calls for sweetening, specifies honey. Indeed, i
cannot find a place where sugar is used at all! I cannot
say if this was the translator's (Carolyn Pouncy) choice, or
original.  I imagine that it would depend on region.  I don't know the
specifics for sugar cane, but it seems as though it is mostly grown in
humid zone 8 or warmer. (tropical climate)

here is what the online encyclopedia has to say about it:
>     It is believed that sugarcane culture began in New Guinea and
>     then gradually spread throughout the South Pacific, Southeast
>     Asia, and India.  Thereafter it spread to China and to the
>     ancient Arab world, but sugar remained a scarce luxury in Europe.
>     In the 15th and 16th centuries, however, European explorers and
>     colonizers of the Caribbean and South American regions brought
>     sugarcane cuttings with them, and once planted, the cuttings
>     thrived in the warm, moist climate and productive soil.  By the
>     year 1600, sugar production in the subtropical and tropical
>     Americas had become the world's largest and most lucrative
>     industry.

In service,
flip