[Sca-cooks] Medieval Jewish Banquet
Terry Decker
t.d.decker at att.net
Tue Nov 13 18:01:11 PST 2012
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
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