[Sca-cooks] pressed sugar

[Johnna Holloway]

And to that point here is a recipe
This is an excerpt from *Ouverture de Cuisine*
(France, 1604 - Daniel Myers, trans.)
The original source can be found at MedievalCookery.com 
<http://www.medievalcookery.com/notes/ouverture.shtm>

To prepare sugar for casting images & fruits. Mix melted sugar with rose 
water as much as you would like to have, & let it boil a long time until 
it becomes like syrup, when boiling add two well beaten egg whites, at 
the end the sugar will be very white, then pass the melted sugar through 
a fine sieve to separate out the egg white, then put the sugar back on 
the fire, & let it boil a long time, stirring the sugar with a spatula, 
casting it on top, if you see that it falls like snow then it is cooked 
enough, then take it from the fire, it must always be mixed with a 
spatula that it will become like little grains & little bubbles, then 
cast it in the form of fruit or images as wanted.

So you are melting sugar, clarifying it to remove impurities and then 
casting it.

Johnnae


Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius wrote:
>
> On Jul 31, 2009, at 8:10 PM, Marcha wrote:
>
>> Should have made myself clearer...the pressed sugar I made was simply 
>> granulated sugar with just enough liquid added to make it moldable.  
>> No heat involved.  Did make spun sugar....Once!
>>
>> Thanks again,
>> Bertha
>
> Oh, okay. One point to consider is that the first step in almost any 
> period sugar recipe, since most sugars were purchased in a less 
> refined form than we're used to, is some form of phase change, either 
> grating or crushing a loaf, or making a syrup with water and boiling.
> OTOH, sugar plate is [generally] not boiled. [Except when it is ;-) ]. 
> Most often, it is made by adding powdered sugar to a small amount of 
> liquid (usually gum tragacanth in water, but sometimes other stuff) 
> until the desired consistency is reached.
>
> Adamantius