[Sca-cooks] Turkish delight

[JIMCHEVAL at aol.com]

In eighteenth century France, it was known as "starch" (amidon) and there  
was even a corporation of amidionniers whose product was sold to, among 
other  groups,  confectioners.

http://books.google.com/books?id=qUoPAAAAQAAJ&dq=amidon&pg=PA248#v=onepage&q
&f=false


Already  in 1614 a book of remedies ("Les secrets du seigneur Alexis 
Piemontois") uses  "starch flour" in various soaps, pomades and a kind of 
musk-flavored pill  (muscadin), along with gum arabica, sugar and musk:

http://books.google.com/books?id=MHhEAAAAcAAJ&dq=amidon&pg=PT159#v=onepage&q
&f=false
 
In general, it seems to have been a common element in making pills.
 
 
It's used in 1574 in a work on surgery:
http://books.google.com/books?id=BYyjCIU8APsC&dq=amidon&pg=PT460#v=onepage&q
&f=false
 
In Spain before that in 1516:
http://books.google.com/books?id=r0WB_wPqEIMC&dq=amidon&pg=PT27#v=onepage&q&
f=false
 
 
Overall, it looks like it's one of those elements first used in medicine  
which made its way into food, certainly by the eighteenth century.

Jim  Chevallier


"A FOURTEENTH CENTURY DIETETIC: 1. What is a dietetic?"
http://leslefts.blogspot.com/2014/02/a-fourteenth-century-dietetic-1-what-is
.html
 


In a message dated 2/1/2014 12:12:57 P.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
lilinah at earthlink.net writes:
This is what Europeans thought for centuries,  since outside of a few rare 
medieval recipes wheat starch was not used in  cooking. Hans Dernschwam in 
1553 called it "strong flour" since there was no  German word for it. In the 
18th century wheat starch was known as "hair powder",  since its only use 
was for powdering wigs. By the 19th it was used for  stiffening linen and 
eventually returned to uses in cuisine.