Giles Rose on Sugar Boyling
Moving onto sugar and the boiling of sugar, the
section “Le Confiturier Royal: Or, The
Royal Confectioner” of Giles Rose's A
Perfect School of Instructions for the Officers of the Mouth: begins with a description of the Office of the
Confectioner. This is followed by “How to
clarifie Sugar, or Castanade.”
Then follows:
The
different ways of boyling Sugar.
As water is always necessary in the boyling of
Sugar, so is it but necessary that you should know the quantity of each that
should be put together; as for example, if you should ask how much Water would
serve to put to a pound of Sugar, I answer, a half of the 7th part
of a quart will suffice for a pound of Sugar, but if there be any more it must
evaporate away by the force of boyling, that the Sugar may come to its proper
height of boyling for your use. [p 128]
To
boyle your Sugar to a liss, or as I judge it to a smooth Sirup.
The first boyling of your Sugar is called in French, a lisse, and you may know when
this is so by taking up some of this in the boyling with your forefinger, and
laying it upon your Thumb of the other hand; if it doth not run but stands,
like a pea round upon your Thumbs Nail, you may be sure that it is in the state
and condition that you would have it in, that is to say, boyl’d to a lisse, as
you call it. [p 129]
Boyling
your Sugar to a Pearle.
When it is boyled to this height you may know it
by putting in your finger, and laying it to your Thumb and if they cleave
together fast, and when you open them your Sugar draws and clings like Threads
so long as one can open them, this boyling is called, The gross Pearle, and when it holds lisse it is called, The smaller Pearle, and so forth. [p 129]
How to
boyl Sugar a soufflé, or to be blown away.
This way of boyling of Sugar is called by some a Rozar, and it is to be marked, that
when your Sugar is boyled to this height, you may take a Scummer and dip it
into your Sugar a-boyling, and when you have taken it out again blow athwart
the said Scummer, and if your Sugar be boyl’d enough it will fly away like
dryed leaves, but if it run you must boyl it again, for it is not boyled; or
you may instead of a Scummer put in a Spartle, and if your Sugar be boyl’d it
will flie away in the Air, likewise with a Swinge.
[p 130]
To
boyle Sugar a Casse, or to break.
Wet your finger in cold Water, and put it into
your boyling Sugar and as quickly pull it out, and again dip it into the cold
water, and if your Sugar become dry, and breaks in the water upon your finger,
then it is enough; but if it sticks and is clammy, then it is not; but if in
case you are afraid of your fingers, then take a stick that is very clean and
try the experiment with the stick which you should have done with your fingers,
and if your Sugar be boyl’d it will break as well on your stick, as it would
have done on your finger. [p130-131]
This concludes the initial sugar boiling
instructions. Rose next continues with a recipe “How to preserve Pippens, a
Composte.”
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