SC - gum arabic

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Donna Kenton wrote:
> 
> Here's a really dumb question:
> 
> What is gum arabic and what do you do with it?
> 
> I was a candy-making shop this past weekend, and saw a small bottle of
> it.  I grabbed it, of course.  I remembered this (with a variety of
> other names/spellings -- gum tragaganth, dragaganth, dracorant -- or
> something like that) from some medieval
> herbal medicine I was reading, but I never experimented with it, because
> 
> I could never find the stuff.
> 
> Anyone ever use it?  How did it turn out?  (Am I mis-remembering the
> name?)
> 
> Rosalinde

I could be wrong, but I'm almost certain that gum arabic is different
from gum tragacanth and gum benzoine, occasionally spoken of in period
recipes as gum dragon and gum benjamin, respectively. Very rarely period
recipes call for mastic gum, I believe, which is, along with gum arabic,
another animal. I think gum arabic is less likely to set as firmly as
the others, and mastic gum just plain stinks of Pine-Sol (the secret
ingredient in Retsina, I believe).

I'm sure it would be interesting to experiment with, though. If you run
out and want to replace it, you might consider gum tragacanth.

Adamantius
______________________________________
Phil & Susan Troy
troy at asan.com
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