[Sca-cooks] treacle RE: German Breads

otsisto otsisto at socket.net
Mon Mar 31 15:04:04 PDT 2008


Long shot here - how about the use of fruit pulp instead of molasses or
honey, say pounded raisens?

-----Original Message-----
Treacle and molasses come out of the sugarmaking process, so my argument
against their use in period German bread is same.  First, sugar is a easily
transportable, high value good with wide application.  Molasses has less
value, has limited application, and costs more to ship with greater risk of
leakage.  Second, quantities of sugar and molasses were limited and
primarily controlled by the Arabs until the late 15th Century, when supply
and demand for sugar spiralled upward, leading to rise of the sugar industry
in the Caribbean during the 17th Century and the decline of the
Mediterranean sugar trade.  Molasses may have been making its way into the
German States in the 16th Century, but I think it would have been limited
and probably meant for use in something like Schwarzbier rather than as a
bread additive.

Let me say that this is my analysis and interpetation of the situation and
that I have no direct evidence of the use or non-use of molasses in the
German States during the 15th and 16th Centuries.

Bear





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