SC - 13th-Century Andalusian Sugar Candy

[Elise Fleming]

Greetings!  Here's the recipe (my translation) from the 13th-century 
Anonymous Manuscript.  Charles Perry holds the copyright for what is in 
Cariadoc's _Collection_ but a bunch of us did the initial translations 
from Spanish to English.

"Figures dressed in sugar"

Cast to the sugar a similar amount of water or rose water and cook 
until its height is good.  Tip it over into the mould and make of it 
whatever shape is in the mould, in the hidden places and those visible 
and whatever it seems on the dish that you want, because it comes out 
of the mould in the best way.  Then decorate it with gilt and whatever 
you want of it.  If you want to make a tree or a figure of a castle, 
cut it piece by piece.  Then decorate it room by room (section by 
section) and stick it together with mastic until you complete the 
figure you want, if God wills.

>From this I would assume that moulds of some sort are used.  In England 
at a later date moulds would be made of wood or plaster.  Wooden ones 
would be soaked for up to a day and moulds would come in at least two, 
if not three, parts.  Hollow figures were made in England by twirling 
the mould overhead or in one's hands.

>From this recipe one can deduce that models of castles were made, that 
trees, furniture, figures were cast or made in some fashion, and that 
gilding the figures was done.  There isn't any mention here of coloring 
the figures as there is in _Curye on Inglysch_.

Alys Katharine
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