[Sca-cooks] Re: Spun Sugar

[Johnna Holloway]

"Italian cooks were also farther ahead of their English counterparts in 
the use of sugar paste and other confections.  They had developed "spun 
sugar" prior to the 1600s. and even had an academy prior to 1615 
dedicated to the art of freezing and making sugary ices.(9)"
Source :
9. David, Elizabeth.  "The Harvest of Cold Months, Petits Propos 
Culinaires, #3
as cited in
"Of Sugar and Confections" by Alys Katharine, O.L., O.P. (Elise Fleming).
in the Florilegium

I think we can document the ices, but the "spun sugar"?
Was the source here that same Venetian banquet served to Henri III?

Johnnae

Elise Fleming wrote:

>I would agree that it was used to determine sugar temperature in period.  I suppose some folk might say that if they could dip their finger into hot syrup and make a thread between thumb and finger that they could have extrapolated that to using an instrument to wave sugar threads around into a pattern, but one thing doesn't necessarily follow another - or we'd have had lots more inventions earlier on.  I haven't seen any evidence in English books, nor references to things made like that.  The "faulty translation" reference that Johanna gave was the only one I'd seen for "proof". Alys Katharine 
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