[Sca-cooks] Medieval Jewish Banquet

[Terry Decker]

This is one of those generalizations that may be true in some instances and 
false in others.

The earliest known reference to white sugar is from a Persian manuscript 
from 510 BCE referencing Indian sugar.  I haven't located a translation of 
the reference, so how it was used is unknown to me.  Pliny (and earlier 
Greek authors) identified white sugar as medicine.  After the Islamic 
expansion  brought sugar production to the Mediterranean and it became more 
common, sugar was used as a condiment or spice.  Since it was traded through 
the same markets as spices, it is fair to consider it a spice at that time. 
In the 16th Century, with the expansion of sugar production and increased 
use as a major ingredient in cooking, sugar became a luxury commodity.  The 
expansion of sugar production into the Caribbean move sugar from luxury 
commodity to commodity foodstuff.

Clifford A. Wright and (IIRC) Terence Scully have both expressed the view 
that sugar was considered a spice.  I believe the general argument for 
including sugar as a spice is in that it and the spices generally fell under 
the household Spicer for the compounding of medicines, digestive aids and 
dispensing to the cook.

Bear


> Ranvaig wrote:
> "But they are passing along this nonsense ""White
> sugar was considered a spice," Toaff said."
>
> Well, they're probably being sloppy with information.  Sugar was, I 
> believe, kept locked up with the spices when it was rare and expensive. 
> And, I think it was also listed along with spices when listing them, but I 
> would agree that it wasn't believed to be a spice.  It just was lumped in 
> with them in household accounts.
>
> Pedantically, Alys K.
> -- 
> Elise Fleming