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| Making Vermont Maple Syrup with the Traditional Evaporator |
Hello My friend and Welcome.
In our continuing study of Foods
of the First Century we turn to an interesting aspect of the Early Christians
diet: Sweets. In the sugar saturated society that we live in it’s hard to
imagine a world without Twinkies, Soda Pop, Candy, Sugar-Coated Cereals…the
list goes on and on. Sweets of one kind or another seem to be everywhere. A quick check of the ingredient lists on some
of the items in our cupboard demonstrates how ubiquitous sugar, in its many
permutations, has become.
A BUILT-IN SWEET TOOTH
Like it or not, we humans seem to
come with a built-in sweet tooth. And we currently quench it with mountains of
refined sugar, and millions of gallons of high fructose corn syrup. But what
about our Christian cousins of the First Century? They somehow survived without
a convenience store on every corner. How did they do it?
We know a couple of things about
sugars. First, they seem to be somewhat addictive; the more you get the more
you want. And secondly, a high intake of sugars in the diet tends to dull the
taste buds. An apple or a pear can never match the intense sweetness of a
bowlful of sugar-coated crunchy-munchies. So, while making do with less sugar
than modern man, perhaps our ancestors were able to enjoy the natural sweetness
of fruits and berries far more than we do today.
LIVING IN SUGARLESS WORLD
Still, there’s that sweet-tooth
thing that makes us all crave sweetness. Rest easy, perhaps life was a little
sweeter than we imagine. First, and foremost, they had honey. Evidence of large
apiaries producing tons of honey annually have been found in the Holy Land. You
can read our post on that HERE. People of that era also produced a number of
syrups, molasses-type products, which they incorporated into their cooking in
many ways.
How effective could fruit syrups
be, you ask? The next time you’re in the grocery store stop by the bakery
department and check the ingredients on one of their “Sugar-Free” pies. What
you will find is that these pies, instead of being sweetened with refined sugar
made from sugar cane or sugar beets (sucrose), are sweetened with fruit sugar
(fructose).
THINK MAPLE SYRUP
Most people have at least a
peripheral understanding of the process for making maple syrup. Sap from a
sugar maple tree is collected in early spring and transported to the sugaring
house. There it is filtered and poured into a shallow evaporator with dividers
that allow the operator to move the syrup from one section to the next as it
slowly thickens. What comes in on one end as raw sap with barely any detectable
sweetness emerges on the opposite end as that golden brown ambrosia we all know
and love.
In reality, the sugar content of
any semi-sweet juice can be increased by boiling to liquid to syrup. The
following is a list of the most common syrups produced in the First Century.
These syrups, or molasses, are still widely used in the Middle East.
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| Carob Pods - Green and Mature |
CAROB MOLASSES
We mentioned Carob in our post on vegetables and made
passing reference to the pods being used as a sweetener. Today, we’ll examine
that in greater detail. The syrup is produced by shelling the beans and finely
chopping the empty pods into water. This mixture is then cooked to extract the
sugars from the pods, It is strained and reduced into a thick syrup, or carob
molasses as it is called. Carob molasses is 100% carob extract with a rich
aroma, flavor and color. It has a high natural sugar content, and can be used
alone as syrup, or as sweetener, colorant, and flavoring agent in ice-cream
toppings, cakes, cookies, and sweetmeats.
In Lebanon, the site of the ancient kingdom of Phoenicia,
carob molasses is traditionally used as an alternative to sugar. Mixed and
served with tahina, or sesame paste, it is eaten as a dessert called dibs bi
tahina. Carob molasses is also said to be delicious on pancakes.
Interestingly, carob seeds have a history of their own. The
carob seed looks very much like a large watermelon seed. There are about eight
seeds to a pod. The gum they contain was used by the Egyptians for binding
their mummies. The Italians use the seed to make rosary beads and in Israel
they have an annual Carob Festival.
Because carob seeds are very uniform in weight, they were
used as a measure for gold and gems. This carob weight has come down through
the centuries as the familiar caret weight. One half of a carob seed equals one
gram, or five carets.
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| Bowl of Date Syprup in the Making |
DATE SYRUP
The juice of most fruits is obtained by pressing. Dates are
different because their soluble solids are too concentrated to be pressed out.
A minor exception to this rule is the incidental by-product when bagged dates
are heaped on top of each other in a humid warehouse. Over a period of time
small amounts of syrup will ooze out due to the force of the downward pressure.
Clearly this is no way to produce usable syrup.
FIG SYRUP
This syrup is
made by scoring dried figs, placing them in large pots of water and letting
them reconstitute for 12 hours. When the figs have softened, they are boiled
and the juice produced is strained off. This juice is then boiled down to thick
syrup. Fig syrup is used in cakes, fritters and many desserts. It also replaces
maple syrup over French toast, waffles and pancakes.
GRAPE SYRUP
Also known as debash,
it is mentioned several times in my
Seeds of Christianity™ Series of books. In Greek it is πετιμέζι, pronounced
peh-tee-MEH-zee. Grape syrup is naturally sweet and eaten with yogurt, over ice
cream, in tea, on pancakes, in baking. In mountainous regions, it is also used
to make an impromptu snow cone by pouring it over fresh snow. A teaspoonful
will work wonders for sore throats due to colds.
The syrup is made by crushing the grapes and adding a
small amount of wood ash to the must,
as crushed grapes, juice and skins are called. The mixture is boiled in small
batches and then strained. The resulting thickened juice is boiled and reduced to
a thick reddish syrup.
POMEGRANATE
SYRUP
All of the modern recipes for pomegranate syrup
shorten the process by combining the juice with refined sugar in a ratio of 1 part
sugar to 4 parts juice before it is reduced. True, pomegranates do have a tart,
tangy taste and may require some sweetening, but clearly this is not the way it
was done 2,000 years ago. They would have prepared the syrup by first boiling
down the pomegranate juice and then sweetened it as needed by adding small
amounts of honey.
Unlike the other syrups and molasses we’ve been looking
at, pomegranate syrup wasn’t used as a topping or sweetener. Instead, it served
as a marinade that was brushed onto various meats before grilling. It is still
used that way today.
Until next time, Shalom Aleichem!
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