SC - PAYNE RAGOUN

[Philip & Susan Troy]

LrdRas at aol.com wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 9/9/00 1:44:53 PM Eastern Daylight Time, ddfr at best.com
> writes:
> 
> << Sugar of Cypress, I believe >>
> 
> OK. I have seen this mentioned 3 times now. What is sugar of Cypress and why
> would it work better than sugar syrup in this recipe? Since I have translated
> the term as sugar syrup and it works well in this recipe, what leads you to
> believe that cipre is simply not a scribal error for the word 'sirop'?

Hmm. (Bear in mind I'm about to express opinion.) Because this
explanation allows us to follow the recipe as read, without assuming a
scribal error in transposing consonants. Another example of Occam's Razor.

~generic noun, for example "sucre"~ de cypre is still used to describe
things from Cyprus in modern French.

"Sugur cypre" appears in several recipes, always spelled that way, or in
a similar manner more suggestive of the Isle of Cyprus than of syrup.
IIRC, Cyprus was a major center for the sugar trade in medieval Europe,
becoming in the later Middle Ages (15th century and on) a center for
sugarcane farming and processing as well. This is one of the major
reasons for the increase in sugar use, and drop in prices, found in the
second half of the Middle Ages. You'll find references to sugar from
Cyprus in a lot of 14th-15th century English recipes, with perhaps an
implication that while it isn't as fine as some of the more highly
processed sugars from India or the MidEast, it's plenty fine enough for
reprocessing in the form of candy.

It's also my impression (and I could be wrong about this) that the word
"syrup" and cognates thereof, aren't generally applied to sugar
solutions at the time this recipe appears, rather a syrup tends to be a
thin sauce or gravy.  

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com