SC - Themed feasts

[geneviamoas@juno.com]

Magritte wrote:

>Below are two recipes I used as a basis for a sugar-paste confection
>entered in a recent A&S competition. One of the judges made the 
>comment that "... powdered sugar is not period." My question is, if a 
>late period recipe calls for "refined sugar" ground in a mortar, why 
>isn't powdered sugar period? What should I have used instead?

I hope you can pluck an answer from the following!  Modern powdered 
sugar generally contains corn starch to make the sugar flow better and 
eliminate clumping.  It is also ground exceedingly fine, much finer 
than probably could have been achieved with forceful grinding in a 
mortar and with sieving (searcing) through silk, fine linen, lawn, etc.

However, my personal judging comment would be to accept powdered sugar 
as a substitute for period, finely-ground-and-searced sugar, especially 
if the entrant pointed out his/her knowledge that modern powdered sugar 
is much different.  Now, in the Middle Kingdom at least, you could 
garner additional points if you went to the trouble of grinding up the 
sugar you needed and sieved it to make it as fine as possible.  You 
might even be able to get away with grinding it up in a blender or 
other machine. 

BTW, there are period references to "powdered sugar" but the research I 
have done indicates that "powdered" referred to the crystals and small 
bits that fell off the cone, not to something as finely ground as we 
are accustomed to.

> This same judge made a comment on another entry of mine, saying 
>"Brown sugar is not period- the raw sugar would be great." I'd like 
>opinions from the list.

Someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding of modern 
"brown sugar" is that some of the molasses-y stuff has been added back, 
and therefore is not "period".  Period folk wanted the whitest sugar 
possible, or that they could afford.  Raw sugar, turbinado sugar, might 
be closer, depending on the original recipe.  

One thing that might be interesting to do is to go to the library and 
get out a few books dealing with the history of sugar.  There are 
several available, mostly written in the 30s or 40s.  Now, while more 
period cookery books have been "unearthed" after that date, what you 
will gain is an understanding of how sugar was made early on, and what 
changes occurred in sugar production, such as the making of molasses, 
brown sugar, etc.  A little of this judiciously added to your 
documentation can add to your explanation of why you chose the modern 
substitute that you did.  

Alys Katharine
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