SC - RE:[TY] cooking query

[Liam Fisher]

>There's a fair amount of evidence that suggests sugar was sold in
>several grades, some of which were far from white. What was called white
>sugar may not even have been white, just as what was sold as black sugar
>was probably darkish brown, as opposed to white sugar, which may well
>have been a sort of light straw color. Medieval Europeans weren't as
>specific about colors as we tend to be nowadays. For example, oranges
>were sometimes described as "golden", etc.

These are still available to an extent today, I don't have any sources for 
getting them (yet).  The taste and behavior under fire are much different 
than what we are used to.


>There are numerous period recipes for confections whose processes begin 
>with clarifying the sugar, by melting it in a syrup and clarifying it with 
>egg whites, something like consomme, for those that have done that. There 
>are also similar processes described as stand-alone methods for clarifying 
>sugar.

yeah, probably removing detrius from the sugar, it was pretty standard since 
nothing was really clean then.  Period brewers did it as well, sometimes 
even before ingredients were added.

Consomme are fun *grins*

Cadoc
- -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Cadoc MacDairi, Mountain Confederation, ACG

" The autumn air thickly fills my lungs so sweetly
  Reminds me of her smoky breath with wine
  And this boquet of maple and oak leaves..."

            Type O Negative -- "Creepy Green Light"

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