[Sca-cooks] Re: Blown Sugar is Chinese Apparently
Terry Decker
t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net
Thu Oct 27 20:42:55 PDT 2005
> Giano mentioned:
>> On Oct 27, 2005, at 3:20 AM, Volker Bach wrote:
>> > As an aside, economic historians have estabnlished that until the
>> 18th
>> > century, per-capita sugar consumption in both China and India was
>> > higher than in Europe.
>
> More sugar per-capita than the Elizabethans??? Wow, then there must have
> been a large inequality in England about who got the sugar and who
> didn't. Or the Chinese and Indians must have eaten a huge amount of
> sugar. The published recipes and menus show the Elizabethans putting
> sugar in almost everything.
>
The Elizabethean sugar surge was just the start of increasing sugar
consumption in Europe. While the Spanish introduced sugar to the New World,
it was the English, French and Dutch who expanded Caribbean sugar production
during the 17th Century to meet the growing demand. Sugar requires a
tropical or semi-tropical climate, which China has much more of than the
European controlled Mediterranean.
> Adamantius then commented:
>> Well, then there's the sort of anecdotal evidence stating that for
>> centuries, cane sugar has been the primary fermentable in India, as
>> opposed to the grapes/apples, malt or honey of Europe. As far as I
>> can tell, there are probably few instances of cultures whose primary
>> booze outlet doesn't center around the most abundant/readily
>> available/cheapest sugar source.
>
> I always thought the Mongols must have been rather desperate to use milk
> as their sugar source for their alcohol. But if cane sugar was as common
> as mentioned above, I'd think the Mongols would have used sugar, not
> milk.
>
> Stefan
The Mongols are from the northern and northwest deserts of China/Mongolia.
Sugar cane doesn't grow there. Not much grows there except spotty grass and
gravel. Milk was probably the easiest thing to ferment. And remember, the
Mongols didn't start moving into those cane growing regions until late in
the 12th Century and by the time they got to India, the were Moslems.
Bear
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