[Sca-cooks] White Flour, White Sugar

[Stefan li Rous]

Anahita asked:
> WHITE FLOUR
>
> On our local cooks guild list, someone posted that white flour was
> not period, and that she was told this by a judge in a Kingdom food
> competition (i wish i knew who!) that she should be mixing white and
> whole wheat half and half.

That may not be a bad compromise. I think I've heard that suggestion before.


> My recollection (i don't bake so i haven't studied this as deeply) is
> that flour was bolted by the kitchen staff to make fine and very fine
> grades (such as for Manchets), so fine white flour was indeed
> available, and people of our station (according to the SCA) could
> very well be using white flour.

Part of the problem is what is meant by "white". Just how white is meant by this?


> Can someone please present a more reasoned account of flour so i can
> dispell this myth?


> WHITE SUGAR
>
> Did they have white sugar, either in the Muslim or European world "in
> period"? From my reading it seems to me that the Muslims, at least,
> had white sugar or something very close.
>
> Or is piloncillo really the closest kind to the sugar used "in period"?
>
> How close are demerara or turbinado in character to "period" sugar?
>
> Someone else (who got a laurel for cooking) implied that date sugar
> would be more suitable for cooking in the Andalusian cookbook. This
> seems to me to be in error, since in have read that the Muslims were
> growing sugar cane in Spain.

Apparently date sugar may have been known, but I don't believe it was very
common. I'm not sure about Spain but it was grown in Cyprus and other areas
and more areas as time went on.


> I prevail upon the collective wisdom to dispel the clouds of ignorance...

I think I might just know a place where you can read many previous discussions
on these topics. :-)

flour-msg         (60K)  5/25/02    Types of flour. Sources. Period flour.

http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-BREADS/flour-msg.html
sugar-msg        (107K)  6/13/01    Sugar and other medieval sweeteners.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-SWEETS/sugar-msg.html
sugar-sources-msg (16K)  6/13/01    Modern sugar sources. Sugar types.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-SWEETS/sugar-sources-msg.html


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