Sugaring Time

I’ve been hard at work drilling holes and inserting wooden tubes from which maple sap can flow into my containers. It takes roughly 40 times more sap than I shall end up with in syrup or sugar. That’s a lot of time slaving over a hot fire waiting for the evaporation to turn my clear sap into dark golden syrup.

Here is a wonderful site on maple sugaring history. Keep watch for recipes using maple syrup and sugar to follow.

Fromage Glacé

Andrew chose dairy for this month's Sugar High Friday, Jennifer's monthly sweet treat. Here is the 18thC answer to ice cream!

"If French confectioners brought ice cream to the attention of the world by serving it at the French court, these same confectioners also codified the art of making ice cream so that, by the middle of the eighteenth century, numerous books could be consulted on ice cream making from A to Z." Ice Cream from families.com

Autre Fromage Glacé
Prenez une chopine de Crême douce, foüettez-la bien, et délayez-la avec un petit Fromage caillé; mettez-y du sucre raisonnablement, et un peu d’eau de fleur d’orange; passez le tout au travers d’un tamis: ensuite mettez-le dans un moule pour le faire glacer, . . . . Vous pouvez diversifier le goût et la couleur, en y mettant selon les saisons, comme fraises, framboises, ou fleurs d’orange en feüilles, que vous mêlez avec vôtre crême en la passant au tamis. La fleur d’orange ne passe point, mais y laisse son goût. En hiver on le fait cuire, comme le premier fromage glacé, et on luy donne le goût de canella, de chocolat, de citron, ou d’essence de bergamotte.

Massialot's Les Confitures (1717), p. 284.

Iced Cheese, another way
Take a pint of Sweet cream, whip it well, and fold it into 6 ounces of curdled cream [Cream cheese]; add sugar to taste, and a little water of orange flower; pass the whole through a sieve: then put it in a mould and freeze. You can diversify the taste and the color, by adding ingredients according to the seasons, like strawberries, raspberries, or orange flower petals, which you mix with yours creams while passing through the sieve. The orange flower does not pass, but leaves its taste there. In winter one cooks the mixture as in custard, and one uses cinnamon, chocolate, lemon, or oil of bergamotte (orange flower water).

Search Tags: shf food & drink sugar high friday

Potted Cheese

What to do with those tiny rinds and bits of left-over or dried out cheese? Grind and mash them with some butter, even a few bits of shallot or garlic and use to spread on bread before toasting for croutons in salad or soup or dab on grilling meats to impart a piquant glaze. Bits of bleu cheese make for a very tasty mixture.

If you really feel decadent, eat it by the spoon straight out of the crock and wash it down with a chope [mug] of beer!