[Sca-cooks] Re: molasses and golden syrup

[johnna holloway]

Greetings.

I find the discussion on molasses to be rather interesting, but I am
left wondering if this shouldn't be a discussion about "treacle" and not
molasses.

In an article on "The Changing Concept of Sugar" by Joan P. Alcock,
there  are descriptions of molasses and golden syrup. She notes that
molasses is more of a by-product and is extracted in several grades. The
darkest is blackstrap which is excellent for making treacle toffee. In
England, she notes that the term "molasses" was never popular. "Treacle"
was instead used for the product we call "molasses". This was and
remains a source of some confusion as pale treacle is also used to
denote Tate and Lyle's "Golden Syrup" which is produced and decolorised
from molasses. Molasses cannot be derived from beet sugar, she says.
That product is used apparently only for cattle feed.  (Appears in Look
& Feel, 1993 Oxford Symposium,  pub. 1994).

OED states that regarding molasses "The word is now rare in British use,
but in the U.S. is commonly used promiscuously with treacle. In
technical language, molasses is applied to the drainings of raw sugar
and treacle to the syrup from sugar in the process of refining." At
least in the U.K., OED traces treacle as being used originally in
apothecary terms. The newer MED traces it as "an antidote to poison."
Molasses doesn't appear in the MED.

The problem with talking about "golden syrup" is that it is a specific
product that appeared in the 19th century. Laura Mason dates it to the
1880's in her book Sugar-Plums and Sherbet. And while, Alan Davidson
may think that corn syrup and maple syrup are comparable products, they
aren't at all the same things when it comes to taste. And it really is a
matter of taste. I couldn't abide the taste of golden syrup when I was
in the UK for our year in the 1980's, but I will readily use both maple
and corn syrups. I am sure that English brought up on "golden syrup"
would rather have it than corn syrup or maple.

But anyway should the question be... did they use treacle then?

Johnnae llyn Lewis

Johnna Holloway



On July 17th, There have been these messages:

I don't know about molasses on ships, but some histories of sugar
mention
that the Muslim sugar manufacturers on Sicily, and later on Cyprus,
offered several grades of sugar, from a well-drained cone sugar to a
heavy
syrup. I haven't ever focused on that myself, but I doubt the strong
body and depth of flavor that molasses lends went unnoticed.

Could this have been a golden syrup, rather than what we think of as
molasses, today? Truly a honey of sugar?

Thomas Longshanks

> Could this have been a golden syrup, rather than what we think of as
> molasses, today? Truly a honey of sugar?

I suspect a problem with that idea might be that the "golden" in golden
syrup is specifically achieved deliberately, while the brown of molasses
is largely a matter of processing, or the lack thereof.

Or, as Neil Simon once wrote, "You have to _make_ gravy, it doesn't just
come with the meat!"

Adamantius

On July 17th, Mem Morman wrote:
>
> thomas and bear have been discussing molasses.
>
> at the grand palace of the knights of st. john on the island of rhodes
> there is an excellent archaeological exhibit on the production of sugar
> on that island in the middle ages.  they display some of the machinery
> for crushing and boiling and lots of the little cone shaped molds used
> for the different sizes of sugar loaves.  good commentary along with the
> display, and, i believe but am not sure since it's been a couple of
> years, several quotations from primary sources.
>
> elaina
>
> _______________________________________________
> Sca-cooks mailing list
> Sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
> http://www.ansteorra.org/mailman/listinfo/sca-cooks