Surgar and Salt

[junmist]

I was talking to a cook from a 13th Centry reenactors group and one of the things that she said was that surgar was a highly prized food sauce, this got me thinking ok so I could most proberly do with out the sugar in my coffee (I don't take it in tea ) but if we do not have surgar how are we going to make jam and preserve fruit in syrup. How easy is it to processing sugar beet is it something that we could do ourself in our kitchin or are we going to just have to do with out sugar.
Another thing she said is that Salt was so highly prized that it was kept under lock and key. So do we have any salt mines in this country or are we going to have to try and make our own sea salt which was imported from France in the 13th Centry. I know is not as simple as just boilling it until the water evaporats.

[jansman]

Don't know about sugar, but I have bought 75kg of salt from a supplier at work for 24 quid. It comes in tough plastic sacks, and that which I am using is in a plastic barrel. I stashed it for pickling and preserving. Currently salting runner beans in the old way.

[preppingsu]

Food Factory on BBC1 was about making sugar. Would be worth a watch.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/bigscreen/ ... /b01lz0yt/

Honey is a natural preservative.


http://www.honey.com/images/downloads/refguide.pdf

[tigs]

we dont need salt mines for centuries our salt came from the sea and the best salt still does , you can make jam with honey it dont last as long but its still good.

[junmist]

Well Iv sorted the Salt out there is a salt mine in Cheshire now to find out how to make Surgar

[tigs]

it was on food factory this week! making your own sugar is really hard!!!

[Arzosah]

I've just bought a few seeds of sweet cicely from ebay - its supposed to reduce the need for sugar in desserts by about 50%. Haven't planted them yet but I'll let you know the results.

[junmist]

ethought Id try getting some sugar beet and having a go. It seems strange that I can get seeds from America and Austraila but can't get any seeds from the UK

[jean405]

ethought Id try getting some sugar beet and having a go. It seems strange that I can get seeds from America and Austraila but can't get any seeds from the UK

Hi Junmist, if you do find seeds in the UK will you let us know where you got them from?

Je an

[tigs]

here are some on ebay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BEETROOT-SUGA ... 23207e9098 but all imported , the eu dropped the subsidy a couple of years ago making it very unprofitable to farm in the uk its still grown on a large scale in linconshire , my seed suppliers dont stock it!