[Sca-cooks] period sugar

[Stefan li Rous]

=C6thelw=FClf asked:
>    According to the More skilled and vastily superior Laurel
>     person the only sugar available to the noble households
>    of the 12-14th century were Date and Beet Sugars,my unskilled
>    and poorly read self believe that cane sugar was available
>     to them,mostly as a "medicinal" yet also in food-stuffs
>    preperation.
>   May I ask for suggestons on where to find documentation
>    on Cane sugar,if it was used,and how was used in Medieval cookery.

Beet sugar??? Ask this person for the documentation on this being
period. I *really* want to see this. From what has been discussed
here previously, beet sugar extraction requires a methodology that
was not developed until the late 18th, early 19th century.

Date sugar appears to be used at most in some parts of the Middle
East but I don't remember any evidence of it being used in Europe
and certainly not northern Europe. Cane sugar was available in Europe,
but more as a medicinal and in small quantities. Honey was one of the
prime period sweeteners and you can trace a gradual switch from honey
to sugar in some recipes as time progresses and sugar became more
available and cheaper.

For referances, check these files in the FOOD-SWEET section of the
Florilegium:
honey-msg          (8K) 11/21/00    Period use of honey. Honey sources.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-SWEETS/honey-msg.html
sugar-msg        (107K)  6/13/01    Sugar and other medieval sweeteners.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-SWEETS/sugar-msg.html

As for uses in period cooking, and this is mostly late period stuff,
not medieval, check some of the other files in this section.

--
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
   Mark S. Harris            Austin, Texas          stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****