[Sca-cooks] Blown Sugar is Chinese Apparently

[Terry Decker]

Pure speculation on my part, but consider that blown glass appears to have 
originated around 50 BCE (possibly in the Roman Empire) and that it was 
transmitted to China by Persian glassblowers between the 2nd and 3rd 
Centuries.  It may be that sugarblowing is an offshoot of glassblowing that 
occurred when sugar became plentiful and available and candymakers and 
glassblowers were in close proximity.

There is a very good chance that sugarblowing was developed independently in 
China and Europe and that differences in the availability of sugar account 
for the temporal differences in sugarblowing.

I haven't worked on the veracity of the dates, so take this with a grain of 
salt.

Bear

<clipped>
> So folks--
> I guess we have a probable source for blown sugar candy in China during 
> the Song
> Dynasty. (Northern Song 960–1279) and (Southern Song 1127-1279).
>
> Of course the question still remains – did this make its way to the West
> and when?
>
>
> Johnnae llyn Lewis