[Sca-cooks] Sugar awww Honey Honey

[Johnna Holloway]

Actually what you may be thinking about is pulled sugar.
See--
http://www.notterschool.com/default.asp?page=hp
and look at the photo gallery.
I did some minor work with pulled sugar in December
when I did the dragon for the Red Spears feast. I did
pulled sugar wings for what was a cast or poured sugar
body. Sir Hugh Plat includes recipes for molding sugar
as does John Murrell.

Spun sugar tends to be sugar threads.
As to its use prior to 1600, the situation is not as clear cut
as I thought it was six months ago.
It turns out that the famous description of Henry III's
Venetian banquet where he was supposively served
"spun sugar" dishes was a mistranslation.  I relied upon
that mistranslation by Toussant-Samat when I wrote
the following paragraph in  December 2002.

I would now have to in all honesty say that Henri was treated
to various items of sugarpaste and cast sugar items and
NOT spun sugar. I would guess that the Medici Weddings
of both 1589 and 1600 are probably also sugarpaste and cast sugar.
As for what they served Christina in Rome, the prints survive and can
be viewed in various works.
I have
had the opportunity to purchase a variety of new works from
Italy on the topic of sugar and sometime this summer will
turn my attention to attempting to verify what sorts of
sugar arts they were actually practicing in Italy. I would like
to get the source and uses of blown sugar works pinned down, as
well as more on the topic of pulled sugar.

Johnnae llyn Lewis  Johnna Holloway

Regarding the various sugar works of sugarpaste and cast and
poured sugar, the Italians mastered and delighted in elaborate
sugar creations or “trionfi” early. They were already famous for
these elaborate creations prior to Alessio’s first publication of the
“secrete” of sugar paste in 1555. Notable banquets where spun sugar
creations are mentioned include those served by the Venetians to the
visiting Henry III of France in the 1570’s and the “Medici Wedding” of 1589.

Marie de Medici’s nuptial feasts of 1600 with their wide and splendid
variety of
sugar works are described in the new work Apples of Gold in Settings
of Silver by Carolin C. Young. Drawings still exist of the elaborate trionfi

that graced the Roman tables when the abdicated Queen Christina of
Sweden dined in the 17th century.
-------------------------------------------------

kattratt wrote:

> Ok sorry for the silly title but the sugars question intrigued me....
> If the modern sugar that we have is actually close to the High Quality
> Elizabethan sugar that was in use in period then I am curious... did
> they do or is there evidence of "Spun sugar".  That would be the sugars
> used to create the really nifty artsy type things we recently discussed
> when the Pastry Chef Competition was going on for real and on the Food
> Network.
> I have already mentioned that I thought that meringue was indeed "SNOW"
> and got a fair conformation of that here.
> SO I am curious about Spun Sugar... (At least I think that is the term.)
> Always searching for new fun projects...
> Nichola
>
> _______________________________________________
> Sca-cooks mailing list
> Sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
> http://www.ansteorra.org/mailman/listinfo/sca-cooks