SC - Honey of cane

[Joe Tolbert]

Greetings:
          A spanish speaking friend says that "honey of cane"
is a transliteration of the spanish "Miell(sp?) de cana", which 
should be TRANSLATED as molasses or cane syrup.

          When I was a child (I seem to be saying that a lot lately)
we raised sugar cane. The cane was cut and brought to the "mill"
or crusher ( a frame with 2 rollers mounted vertically and geared 
togather. A shaft stuck up from one roller. A pole (horizontal)
about 15-20 feet long attached to the top of this shaft. The other
end of the pole attached to a horse or mule )- the mule walked around in 
a circle,the rollers turned,you fed the cane stalks between 
the rollers,the juice was squeezed out and caught in a tub.
          The juice was taken to a cooking pan (the pan is about
4 feet wide and 8 feet long with baffles sticking out from 
alternate sides about every 6 inches to create a long ,winding 
passage.It is made of copper with wooden sides about 4-5 inches 
deep it rest on a furnace where you keep a fire burning for days.
          Cooking syrup is a continous process, some what as I 
imagine making maple sugar to be, the raw cane juice is poured into the 
pan at one end. and the molasses is taken out at the other end
traditionally it was put up into either glass jars ir tin pails.
THe trick in cooking it was to concentrate the syrup just short
of the point where sugar would crystalize out at room temperature.
If not concentrated enough it will spoil. If you cook it far enough
sugar will separate out of solution at room temperature,the liquid
poured off to be furthrer concentrated or used as molasses.
The crystalized sugar is RAW SUGAR,brown and sticky,but not to be
confused with what is sold as BROWN SUGAR. The raw sugar may be 
further refined by disolving and re-crystalizing it.The molasses
is a saturated sugar solution cuntaining most of the minerals in 
the original juice,and whatever vitamins survived the cooking - It
is what rum is made from.

I do apologise if I have been too long winded,

Joseph L. Tolbert,Jr

jlt6 at hotmail.com



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