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

[Volker Bach]

Am Freitag, 28. Oktober 2005 05:05 schrieb Stefan li Rous:
> 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.

I think the inequality is exactly the point, sugar being a luxury item in 
Europe and thus consumed in quantity by the wealthy. In China and India, it 
had become an item of everyday consumption at an earlier date. Every weaver 
or metalsmith eating a few pounds a year will make much more of a dent than a 
few thousand courtiers eating near-modern amounts.

> 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.

Would they have had any ready sources for sugar? Milk was something your 
average Mongol could get every day, but other sugar sources would be trade 
items and - given the need to transport them - luxury goods. 

Giano


	

	
		
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