[Sca-cooks] Sugar beets

[Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise]

> So what was other then honey  their sugar base? I was always told it was of 
> beets. Now I am confused, another layer of misinformation and conclusion.

Cane sugar was known even by the Greeks and Romans; it was an imported
item. There are some good places to look for the details, including
Andrew Dalby's _Dangerous Tastes_. There may also be some information in
basic texts like C. Anne Wilson's Food and Drink in Britain. I think
there's also a whole book on the trade in sugar that came out this year.

Cane sugar was grown outside of Europe and imported, which is why you 
see it treated as a spice a lot of the time. I believe that by the end 
of our period, attempts were being made to grow it in Italy, but the 
West Indies provided a much more salubrious climate for it, which 
explains the plantations there and the upswing in sugar use. 

I'll upstage Phlip by pointing out that although sugar was used 
medicinally, the amounts of sugar used before 16th century in Europe 
seem to be significantly less than the modern consumption, but that's 
not difficult to believe... 

Other sweetening agents, such as dates, show up from time to time, along 
with the ever-popular honey. However, 

-- 
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net 
"Information wants to be a Socialist... not a Communist or a 
Republican." - Karen Schneider