[Sca-cooks] Sugar Cane
Stefan li Rous
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
Sun Jan 7 19:09:49 PST 2007
Daniel asked:
<<<
Yes, but as far as I can tell rum is post-period. Or does someone
> have contrary documentation?
> Stefan
Are we talking about what we know as rum or are we talking more
widely about
distilled spirits based on fermented cane syrups. These may not be
the same
thing. Does anyone know what is fermented and then distilled to
create arak
from Turkey and Lebanon and ouzo from Greece? They are clear spirits
that
cloud when water is added. Are there any early Indian/ subcontinent/
Ceylon
distilled spirits based in fermented cane syrups? >>>
I was speaking or rum specifically, although if there are other
distilled spirits that are created from sugar syrup, I'd include
those. I don't remember what arak and ozzo are made from or whether
they are distilled.
As far as rum is concerned, I think its creation is due to the access
to cheap sugar or cheap sugar byproduct (molasses) in the Caribbean
sugar islands coupled with the fact that imported spirits such as
brandy were expensive. Because of the cost of shipping cane to Europe
or even the sugar cane byproduct, I suspect that any European rum
production started much later than in the Caribbean.
As far as this history of distilling and distilled beverages in
general, see these Florilegium files:
bev-distilled-msg (126K)11/28/06 Medieval distilled beverages.
Distilling.
Clarea-d-Agua-art (12K) 1/ 7/01 "Period drinks - Spiced Wines and
Sweet
Waters" by Vicente Coenca.
Vodka-art (5K) 10/18/06 "Vodka-The Little Water of Life"
by Marija Kotok.
Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous Barony of Bryn Gwlad Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris Austin, Texas
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at: http://www.florilegium.org ****
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