[Sca-cooks] No Sugar in 10th Century??

[Decker, Terry D.]

> But the
> first oranges were not the sweet ones we now eat, which IIRC, were
> developed in the mid to late 16th c.

The Portuguese introduced Citrus sinensis, the sweet Chinese orange, to the
Mediterranean around 1529.

>
> ><My Comment: Is this true? No sugar in 10th century
> >England?>
>
> I will trust Hrolf's dates here, as i'm not quite certain when sugar
> reached England. But it was a somewhat rare commodity, even when it
> was imported, which some folks speculate is why it was sprinkled on
> top of all sorts of dishes along with spices, to be showy. It was
> imported from the Muslims, who had gotten it, IIRC, from India into
> the Near East early on. It apparently became pretty common by the
> 16th century, which I have heard is why there are so many sweets and
> fruit preserve recipes from Elizabethan and later cookbooks.

Sugar cultivation was brought from India to Mesopotamia in the 4th Century
BCE and aside from developing refined sugar, there it stayed until the
Islamic expansion overran both Mesopotamia and Northern India in the late
7th and early 8th Centuries.  Sugar production was carried to Egypt, Spain,
Sicily, Cyprus and almost anywhere else cane would grow.  The sugar trade
around the Mediterranean grew at the same time.

The First Crusade at the end of the 11th Century introduced North Eurpeans
to sugar in quantity and expanded the sugar trade into Northern Europe
during the 12th Century.  Between the 13th and 15th Centuries (IIRC),
Europeans lost their sugar fields in the Middle East, but took such places
as Cyprus, Sicily and Spain.  In the 15th Century, sugar planting was
imported to the Canaries and Madeira, increasing the supply and reducing the
price.  In the latter half of the 15th Century, there were large imports of
sugar to England from Madeira which increased the use in England.

Under Elizabeth, most of England's sugar sources were in Spanish hands and
the English sweet-tooth was often supplied by trade with Egypt, which was
pinched by the increasing European production.

During the 17th Century, sugar production in the New World turned sugar into
a commodity rather than a luxury.

Bear