[Sca-cooks] treacle RE: German Breads

otsisto otsisto at socket.net
Mon Mar 31 13:48:00 PDT 2008


Would treacle have been used?
>From this site
http://tinyurl.com/3mu32
"In practice however,  there is a technical difference between  "treacle"
and "Molasses" in that molasses is obtained from the drainings of raw sugar
during the refining process and treacle is made from the syrup obtained from
the sugar."

"Production/Processing
As mentioned above, treacle is a by product of sugar refining.  During the
refining process, raw sugar cane is first crushed then boiled in stages
until it has thickened sufficiently to facilitate the growing of sugar
crystals which will eventually become refined sugar. There are two main
types of treacle:-

Light Treacle better known as Golden Syrup (equivalent = Light Molasses), is
made from the syrup obtained during the first boiling of the sugar
cane/beets. About 65% sucrose, it is the lightest in colour and the sweetest
of all the treacles and is usually unsulphered.

Black Treacle, (equivalent = dark molasses)  is made from the syrup obtained
from later boilings and is about 55% sucrose."

Recipe
Found this online (Polish)
http://www.gallowglass.org/jadwiga/SCA/cooking/recipes/bread2.html



-----Original Message-----
.....Molasses might have been used during the 16th Century, but honey is
more
likely, as in Sabina Welser's lebkuchken recipes.  Malt syrup might also be
used to replace the molasses as Needham (IIRC) gives a date of around 300
BCE for its production in China; however, there is no evidence I know of for
it's use in Europe much before the 18th Century.

I would think dark or medium rye flour would be more common than the light,
but I haven't researched the point thoroughly.  Recipes that use flour,
water, leaven and salt with perhaps a little sweetner and seeds would likely
have been the norm.  Uncut rye bread holds moisture and stores well for long
periods.  Milk, whey and fats like butter or lard add to the flavor, but
they increase the chance of spoiling.

Maslin mixes of wheat and rye were fairly common, so I have no problem with
the mixed flours.  The glutenin in the wheat creates longer gluten strands
than the gliaden in the rye, better to trap the CO2 from the leaven.  Mixed
loaves should be less dense than straight rye loaves.

Bear





More information about the Sca-cooks mailing list