[Sca-cooks] sugar

[Pixel, Goddess and Queen]

On Sat, 26 Jan 2002, Stefan li Rous wrote:

> 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.
>

I don't know what they did in period, but in colonial times (U.S) they had
these nifty things called sugar nippers with which they removed bits of
sugar off the sugar cones. The sutlers Jas. Townsend & Sons have one for
sale, pictured on their website here:

http://www.jastown.com/cooking/cooking.htm

Margaret, former colonial history nut