[Sca-cooks] Gum Arabic WAS parlor tricks

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Oct 25, 2005, at 1:03 PM, Martinsen at ansteorra.org, Kerri"  
<kerrimart at cablespeed.com>"@ansteorra.org wrote:

> For those of us uneducated, what would one use gum arabic for?
>
> Vitha

Today  it shows up in candies, chewing gum, and sometimes as an  
emulsifier for ice cream, among other uses. I'm not sure to what  
extent Gum Arabic is used in period cookery or confectionery, but  
other gums (primarily gums tragacanth and benzoin, a.k.a. gum dragon  
and benjamin, respectively, in some period sources) are used mostly  
as either edible adhesives or to change the textures of various  
foods, mostly confections. So, for example, you sometimes see  
instructions to use a solution of gum to glue gold or silver leaf to  
a food or a pastille, or to toughen up sugar plate (IOW, to make it  
less brittle and fragile), etc. I believe gums in small quantities  
can also have medicinal applications -- maybe someone else has more  
detailed information at hand, but I vaguely recall some gums being  
considered to have expectorant qualities.

Adamantius

>
> On Tue, 25 Oct 2005 11:20:25 -0400
>  <kingstaste at mindspring.com> wrote:
>
>> We do this as a Mad Science stunt, usually at outside birthday  
>> parties.  Fun and messy!
>> Christianna
>> This was posted on the Middlebridge but since it does
>> contain an ingredient that is used in society kitchens
>> (gum arabic gets the blame) I thought people might like
>> it. I have a pound in the kitchen pantry right now.
>> Give the film time to load.
>> Johnnae
>> -----------
>> was written
>> http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2681471
>> This is just so darned cool I
>> just have to share it far and wide! I
>> think you could do kids parties with this trick!
>> griz
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>
> Kerri Martinsen
> Hrosvitha von Celle
> kerrimart at cablespeed.com
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>





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brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them  
eat cake!"
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"Confessions", 1782

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