Muscovado Sugar

[dlgraley]

Might anyone know of a source for muscovado sugar in a solid form rather than crushed or granulated?

 

[satx78247]

The ONLY place that I know of that sells the solid form is the store at Colonial Williamsburg, VA.
(At least the last time that I was there the store had 3# "cones" for sale.)

yours, satx

 

[ghostdncr]

You might try these folks: Dobyns & Martin

 

[dlgraley]

Thanks folks.

 

[Mike Payne]

I have found it in Mexican food stores.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Dobyns and Martin are an excellent source for hard to find ingredients of all sorts.

Be careful folks for Mexican brown sugar, aka Piloncillo is not the same as Muscovado, Demerara, Sucanat, Jaggery, or Turbinado. If you are going to the trouble of using the sugar as called for in a recipe, there are differences in the flavor that you will get when using a substitute. Here is a quick article on Sugars for reference.

On the other hand..., as most folks will have never tasted the "proper" product, if you make a substitute who's going to know except you that you used a different ingredient, especially if your finished item still tastes good? :grin:

BTW if you also need Treacle for Treacle Tarts you would want something liquid like "golden refiner's syrup" for the right taste.


LD

 

[dlgraley]

I learned something from Dobyns and Martin. They said the solid form of muscovado was not available in the 18th century, so they do not carry it.

 

[George]

Dobyns and Martin offer muscavado sugar in their sugar sampler and separately by the ounce and pound. What they say in their page is that there is no evidence of brown sugars like muscavado being sold in the cone form in which white sugar was sold.

I don't think there can be any doubt that muscavado sugar was sold in the 18th century in the crystalized form like other brown sugars. I find literally thousands of references of its being offered for sale all throughout the 18th century. It is said to be shipped in hogsheads, tierces, barrels and casks, instead of boxes and bags, probably because it was a very wet sugar, being the first crystals made in the sugaring process.

Spence

 

[Billnpatti]

To which Williamsburg store are you referring? There are many stores in Williamsburg, many of which have a few food items among their many other offerings. I have been there many times but I don't remember a store specializing in food items. So, what is the name of the store to which you are referring? I would like to look over their wares if they have a website.

 

[satx78247]

SORRY, but I don't remember the name of the store. - It's the store that's directly across the street from The Williamsburg Visitor's Center.
(South side of the street, I think. = I saw the sugar cones for sale, in the same area as jams & jellies were displayed, while my lady was buying them out of pewter candlesticks for $$$$$$$$. = !@#$%!)

yours, satx

 

[Billnpatti]

Thanks, next time I go, I will see if I can find the place. I know what you mean about the stinkin' candlesticks costing a fortune. My wife bought a set of two rather fancy brass candlesticks in Williamsburg at what I thought to be a small fortune. For several years, they had a place of honor on the mantle. Now that we have moved to a house with no fireplace (we have a beautiful Franklin stove now) I have no idea where they are. Beautiful brass candlesticks that cost a fortune stored in a box in the attic. Go figure.

 

[satx78247]

You I could BOTH echo one of my grandfather's sayings about such purchases: "I married a woman."

yours, satx

 

[Luckylead]

Believe it or not I bought a cone of the stuff at a local Wal-Mart last summer the only problem is that its seasonal one other place I know who might have is Jas. Townsend and son or even a organic food store.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Was it a cone of Muscovado or the more common cone of Piloncillo? :grin: I can find cones of piloncillo or find it wrapped in corn husks at the Shoppers Food Warehouse in the Hispanic portion of the Ethnic food aisles... that's where I find the dried corn that I use for parching as well.

LD

 

[greggholmes]

This is an excerpt from.

The Planter and Sugar Manufacturer, Volume 39 1907


"In the illustration that we give herewith our readers will see the early method of making white loaf sugars. The earthen pot will be seen in the foreground, sure mounted by an inverted cone made of cy”” press with iron hoops and with a hole of about an inch in diameter in the bottom. This is the old Dutch style and one sugar house on the lower coast after the civil war had it in over a thousand of these earthen”” ware pots and many of these cypress sugar loaf, or cone, forms, as well as some made of metal. The old Dutch method was to stop the hole in the bottom of the inverted cone. fill it full of hot sugar from the vacuum pan and let it stand in this way until the sugar hardened. The plug was then drawn out from the bottom and any molasses free in. the inverted loaf of sugar could fall into the earthern jar. To promote this flow and to whiten the mass, it was usual to take white sugars, melt them in water to the point of saturation and then use this thin liquor on the top of the cones in greater or less quantities, until the whole loaf of sugar became white, excepting a small part at the lower, or small end. This dark colored end was then cut off and the white loaf was broken up into lump sugar and became the white lump, or crushed sugar of the commerce of that day. This photograph was recently taken of the last one of the old cypress cone forms and will perhaps serve as a reminder to generations yet to come of some of these incidents in the history of the Louisiana sugar industry."

 

[oletymepreacher]

You I could BOTH echo one of my grandfather's sayings about such purchases: "I married a woman."

yours, satx

Women are expensive hobbies.