[Sca-cooks] White Sugar

[Elise Fleming]

Greetings.  A very white sugar was available to the high sultan in
Egypt back in the days of the Crusaders.  During this period,
according to the sugar history books, it was reserved for his table.
While one might take turbinado sugar and grind it oneself, sugar
could have been processed whiter.  The closer to the Renaissance and
to Elizabethan times, the more available white sugar became.  As
Bear noted with flour, you wanted the best for the lord's table.
There were more sugar refineries in the late 1500s and if memory
serves, there was one in England by this time.  White sugar, as
opposed to a brownish sugar, was a matter of how many times the
sugar went through the clarifying process.  There are several
interesting sugar history books available in libraries.  The one I
remember having read (some 10+ years ago) was by Strong.  If you
were to take a brief quote from his (or a similar book) about the
whiteness of sugar, you might be able able to educate the judge and
bypass potential quibbles.

Alys Katharine