Additional Advice on Sugar
Giles Rose concludes his section “Le Confiturier Royal: Or, The Royal
Confectioner” in the 1682 A
Perfect School of Instructions for the Officers of the Mouth with a chapter titled “Here follow some few
Necessary Advices to the Reader, concerning all that is already said.” He
writes that he knows readers may complain that the given instructions are “not
so clear and plain as to be understood by all….” and notes also “without
practice, I dare avouch, none shall ever attain to the perfection of what is here
to be learn’d.” [p278-279] To the end of making things a bit clearer, includes
some additional advice for the Reader. On Sugar he writes:
And first, when I speak of the several boilings
of Sugar, for where as I say sometimes you should boil your Sugar a lisse gros, which is great, and
sometimes a lisse minu, which is less
or not so high, and sometimes a perle
gris, and by and by a perle minu,
these terms may seem strange and ridiculous, or be counted High Dutch to those
that never saw nor tried the Experiment of what is here said; therefore to give
you the full explanation of the words, I think it not too hard to conceive,
that by the gros or minu, is meant least or most boil’d
either in lisse or perle, insomuch that lisse gros is meant most, and minu least boil’d of either lisse or perle, which is in English, to the best of my small judgment, but
rough and smooth, for lisse is
smooth, and perle is rough; and as
for gros and minu, the gros is highest, and minu
is not so high, or not so much boil’d; and as concerning the tearms of the
boilings to their several heights, as English confectioner may inform you
better; as it is out of my Element to do it, therefore I proceed to say,
That when I speak of
Sugar boil’d to a Jelly, I say, or at leastwise mean, that which is boil’d with
the decoction or juice of fruit; ….[p 279-280]
Rose then offers additional and
practical advice for good success then on a variety of sweets, urging for
example that candies be kept in a dry place, and that pastes of fruits are best
kept in wooden boxes between papers. “Be careful that your Preserving pan or
Skillet be always very clear and clean, and always made of red copper, and made
for that purpose, and that your Spoon and Scummer be of the same mettle, or
else of Silver, as it very requisite it should be so.” He notes “the weights of
France and England are much alike, yet the measures are not…Receipts in French, where it is said a pint only,
and I say in English about a quart, it is because the Paris pint is an English quart, within a very little.” He concludes
with a note that he has left certain words in the French because there is no
English equivalent, including a fruit known as the Ballofine which is unknown in England. [p288]
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