[Sca-cooks] Re: Blown Sugar is Chinese Apparently

[Terry Decker]

> 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