SC - Treacle Pie

[Terri Spencer]

Treacle was indeed originally a medicinal, specifically germander, more
generally a poison remedy:

trea·cle noun. 
1. a medicinal compound formerly in wide use as a remedy against
poison. 
2. (chiefly British) a: MOLASSES b: a blend of molasses, invert sugar,
and corn syrup used as syrup at the table -- called also golden syrup 
3. something (as a tone of voice) heavily sweet and cloying. 
Middle English triacle, from Middle French, from Latin theriaca, from
Greek thEriakE antidote against a poisonous bite, from feminine of
thEriakos of a wild animal, from thErion wild animal, diminutive of
thEr wild animal Date: 14th century 

Period definitions (from the Early Modern English Dictionaries Database
at http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/english/emed/emedd.html):

Florio 1598: the hearb Germander, or English treacle.
Florio 1598: Theriaca, treacle, a remedie against poi­son. Also of a
viper or other cruell beast.

Thomas 1587: A phisician or treacle seller, that gads about the
countrie. [Medicus di[ae]teticus, digitus, e­ quarius, vid. suis
locis.]

Cotgrave 1611: Methridate; a strong Treacle, or Preser­uatiue deuised
at first by the Pontian King, Mithridates.


And even a recipe for Ras: 

Trochisci de Vipera ad Theriacum Or Troches of Vipers, for Treacle 

Take of the flesh of Vipers, the skin, entrails, head, fat, and tail
being taken away, boiled in water with Dill, and a little salt, eight
ounces, white bread twice baked, grated and sifted, two ounces,
make it into troches, your hands being anointed with Opobalsamum, or
Oil of Nutmegs by expression, dry them upon a sieve turned the bottom
upwards in an open place, often turning them till they are well
dried, then put them in a glass or stone pot glazed, stopped close,
they will keep a year, yet is it far better to make Treacle, not long
after you have made them. 

They expel poison, and are excellently good, by a certain sympathetical
virtue, for such as are bitten by an adder.

>From Culpeper: The Complete Herbal

I don't know how it came to mean molasses, but I'd guess the sugar =
medicine (or sugar makes medicine taste better)  connection is
involved.  

Tara

david friedman wrote: 

That's complicated. C. Anne Wilson, in _Food and Drink in Britain_,
discusses the relevant history, but is a bit vague about exact dates. I
think "treacle" was originally a medicinal, possibly based on sugar
refining residue, and the term got transferred (in England, not
America) to molasses when they became available as a cheap sweetener,
somewhere near or just after the end of our period. 


and "Liam Fisher" wrote:

In the URL I posted earlier today it listed a site which referenced a
Saint performing a miracle at a Treacle Well, or a well that seemingly
had nasty tasting but supposedly curative waters...so I'm disposed to
believing that in period that Treacle would refer to a nasty tasting
rememdy and then got applied to the sugar by-product as although sweet,
I wouldn't just want to eat it alone because it's fairly disgusting
that way as you know. 
Cadoc MacDairi 



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