SC - Sugar Questions

[Anne-Marie Rousseau]

Hi all from Anne-Marie...
Magritte asks:
> 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? 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.
> 
Ah, the great sugar myth! :)
Sugar was available to most, though fairly expensive. Most medieval recipes
that call for sweetener call for sugar, and many call for "white sugar" or
"pure sugar" or "refined sugar", especially as you get to the Elizabethan
period. It was sold in cones, and we have pictures of them. we even have
pictures of housewifes buying the stuff at the Pharmacist. The cones are
white, or at least a pale beige. Modern storebought brwon sugar is white
sugar that has molasses added. In theory, I suppose it could be period, but
I know of no recipes that call for its use. and of no "shopping lists" that
call for its purchase. Raw sugar (ie white sguar that is not quite as
refined) as I understand it is the same stuff, without the molasses added,
so I dont understand why one would be period and one not...both are from
cane sugar, which was readily available in period.

Modern Powdered sugar is cut with cornstarch to keep it from clumping and
to make it look whiter. So, no, modern storebought powdered sugar is not
period. In fact, if you use it in some recipes, the cornstarch will do very
funky things. If you take regular sugar and whiz it long enough in your
food processor, you will get "superfine" sugar, ie essentially powedered
sugar without the cornstarch. I have occasionally seen superfine at the
store, too, and know its available through cake decorating catelogs.

If a recipes calls for sugar pounded to a duste :), go for the superfine,
or else acknowledge in your documentation that you used the modern stuff.
(and hope that that pesky cornstarch wont cause you grief like it did with
my marchpanes one time)

hope this helps,
- --AM, who is puzzled why people seem to think that medieval people had no
access to decent ingredients....the same people who insist on using coarse
wheat flour to make it "more medieval", I guess.

============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================