[Sca-cooks] sugar

[Stefan li Rous]

Madhavi said:
> There are completely period, unrefined sugars out there, but you'll have to
> test any recipes you make with them. I have used gur before, it is unrefined
> sugar cane sugar, it comes in blocks that you have to grate. It is
> completely period, I can send documentation if you need it. You can get it
> from Latin markets under the name "piloncillos" or in Indian and some ME
> markets under the name "gur" or "black sugar". There's also "jaggery" which
> is unrefined palm sugar and is mostly from SE Asia, but I have no idea how
> you'd document it. Both have basically the same taste as brown sugar but not
> the same smell. It's not unpleasant, but it may be one reason for Asian and
> SE Asian sweets having aromatics in them like kewra, orange flower or rose.

Thank you for this info. I will be adding it to my sugar-sources-msg file.
We have talked about this piloncillos before, but this is the first
time I can remember "gur" being mentioned.

I can get small piloncillos here in the grocery. I've got one that
but haven't used any of it yet. I figured I would just use a knife
or a fruit peeler to scrape off slivers to use. Do we know what
they would have used in period to get sugar from the cones? Would it
simply have been a knife or was there a special tool for this?

I would appreciate seeing any additional documentation on sugar in
period or modern equivalents.

--
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
   Mark S. Harris            Austin, Texas          stefan at texas.net
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