[Sca-cooks] Sugar Cane

[Volker Bach]

On Thu, 8 Apr 2004 19:59:59 -0400, "Carper, Rachel" <rachel.carper at hp.com> 
wrote :

> Howdy everybody. As I plan Olwen's AoA scroll I need a little
> information. Is sugar cane period? If not did they use anything else
> besides Honey as a sweetner? 

Sugar cane is period in that its existence was known from the beginning of 
the Middle Ages onwards (it may be mentioned in Pliny - there is debate 
whether he isn't describing another type of reed - and was certainly 
described by a source close to Alexander's campaign, most likely Nearchus. 
Herodotus is usually credited with the firtst mention of sugar in European 
culture. By the 2nd century AD, 'saccharum/sakkharon' was a familiar 
substance to doctors, listed by Galen and Discurides.  

However, in spite ofsome claims to the contrary I know of no evidence 
forsugar cane in the Byzantine territories prior to their loss to the 
Islamic world. Sugar cane was probably grown in Persia (Euphrates/Tigris 
delta) as early as the 6th/7th century AD, and made it to Egypt prior to 
1000. The Crusaders encountered sugar cane in the Levant and Syria, and by 
the 12th century the Kitab al-Felah from al-Andalus lists it as a familiar 
cash crop. Presumably it would also have been found in Sicily. By the 14th 
century it was becoming a staple cash crop in Sicily and the southern 
Iberian peninsula, the Balearics, and parts of the Middle East (North 
Africa, too, most likely, though I have found no mention of it outside 
Egypt), and by the 15th century had been transplanted to the Cape Verde 
Island and Canaries. The the New World encountered it within Columbus' 
lifetime (Portuguese-style island plantations were an early business model 
for the Conquistadors). 

However, sugarcane does not grow very far north (Spain and central Italy is 
about the limit), so most medieval Europeans (as opposed to most medieval 
North Africans or Syrians) would not know sugarcane, just possibly know 
about it (and considering how many Brits were prepared to believe in the 
spaghetti harvest in the 60s, I wonderhow many would). Sugar processing was 
usually done on the spot as the cane deteriorates rapidly after harvesting. 

Does that help?

Giano