Treacle
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2009) |
Treacle is any syrup made during the refining of sugar[1] and is defined as "uncrystallized syrup produced in refining sugar".[2] Treacle is used chiefly in cooking as a form of sweetener or condiment.
The most common forms of treacle are the pale syrup that is also known as golden syrup and the darker syrup that is usually referred to as dark treacle or black treacle. Dark treacle has a distinctively strong flavour, slightly bitter, and a richer colour than golden syrup,[3] yet not as dark as molasses. Golden syrup is the main sweetener in treacle tart.
Contents |
[edit] History
Historically, the Middle English term triacle was used by herbalists and apothecaries to describe a medicine (also called theriac or theriaca) — composed of many ingredients — that was used as an antidote treatment for poisons, snakebites or various ailments.[2] Triacle comes from the Old French triacle, in turn from Vulgar Latin *triacula (the asterisk indicates an unattested reconstructed form), which comes from Latin theriaca,[4] the latinisation of the Greek θηριακή (thēriakē), the feminine of θηριακός (thēriakos), "concerning venomous beasts",[5] which comes from θηρίον (thērion), "wild animal, beast".[6][7]
[edit] Production
Treacle is made from syrups that remain after sugar is removed in its refining process. Raw sugars are first treated in a process called affination so that, when dissolved thereafter, the resulting liquor contains the minimum of dissolved non-sugars to be removed by treatment with activated carbon or bone char. The dark-coloured washings[clarification needed] are treated separately, without carbon or bone char. They are boiled to grain (i.e. until sugar crystals precipitate out) in a vacuum pan, forming a low-grade massecuite (boiled mass) which is centrifuged, yielding a brown sugar and a liquid by-product—treacle.[8]
[edit] In popular culture
 |
This "In popular culture" section may contain minor or trivial references. Please reorganize this content to explain the subject's impact on popular culture rather than simply listing appearances, and remove trivial references. (November 2011) |
In chapter 7 of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the Dormouse tells a story of Elsie, Lacie and Tillie living at the bottom of a well, which confuses Alice, who interrupts to ask. "The Dormouse again took a minute or two to think about it, and then said, 'It was a treacle-well.'" When Alice remonstrated, she was stopped by the Mad Hatter's analogy: "You can draw water out of a water-well, so I should think you could draw treacle out of a treacle-well." Alice said very humbly, "I won't interrupt you again. I dare say there may be one." This is an allusion to the so-called "treacle well", the curative St. Margaret's Well at Binsey, Oxfordshire.[9]
In Series 3 episode 6 of Jeeves and Wooster, Bertie Wooster attempts to use treacle and brown paper to muffle the sound of broken glass while trying to make off with an unsightly painting. He is foiled, however, by the treacle's stickiness.
Harry Potter often eats treacle tart in the Harry Potter book series by J.K. Rowling.[10] Treacle tart is also mentioned in Agatha Christie's murder mystery novel, 4.50 from Paddington, as young Alexander Eastley's favourite dessert.[11]
In the film Around the World in 80 Days (1956 film), Phileas Fogg tells the steward on the RMS Mongolia from Suez to India that his Thursday mid-day meal "has always been, and will always be, hot soup, fried sole, roast beef and Yorkshire Pudding, baked potato, suet pudding and treacle".
In the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the "Child Catcher" uses the promise of free Treacle Tarts as one of the lures to capture the Potts children. When Jeremy Potts hears "Treacle Tarts" among the list of treats promised, he exclaims "Treacle Tarts!"
In the Rev. W. Awdry's book Tramway Engines, part of The Railway Series, a harbor crane drops a crate of treacle and is "upset" all over Percy. This happens in the story Wooly Bear
In Hugh Lofting's book The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle it was mentioned by Tommy Stubbins that treacle tart is one of Doctor John Dolittle's favourite dishes. They also took with them "20 pounds of treacle" on their voyage to Spider-Monkey Island.
A treacle mine features in the novels Reaper Man (1987) and Night Watch (2002) by Terry Pratchett. In the fictional Discworld city of Ankh-Morpork there is a street named Treacle Mine Road, with the current watch house (analogous to a police station) found in the building formerly housing the entrance to a treacle mine.
The third verse of the children's nursery rhyme Pop Goes the Weasel refers to "Half a pound of treacle."
Treacle is mentioned in the second verse of the song 'Cups And Cakes', by the parody fictional heavy metal band Spinal Tap: "The china's so dear and the treacle so clear."
'Treacle' is a term of endearment, from Cockney rhyming slang: sweetheart = treacle tart. In the BBC soap opera Eastenders, former character Pete Beale often addressed Sharon Watts as 'treacle'.
Arctic Monkeys, English indie rock band have a song named 'Black Treacle'. It is the second song, on their fourth studio album Suck It and See. During the song there are references to the properties of treacle. "Now its getting dark, and the sky looks sticky. More like black treacle than tar."
[edit] See also
- Treacle mining
- Treacle sponge pudding
- Venice treacle, also known as Treacle of Andromachus
[edit] References
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ "Treacle Origins and Uses at www.recipes4us.co.uk". http://www.recipes4us.co.uk/Specials%20and%20Holidays/Treacle%20Origin%20Uses%20Recipes.htm.
- ^ a b Oxford Dictionary ISBN 9781851521012
- ^ http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/treacle
- ^ theriacus, Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary, on Perseus
- ^ θηριακός, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
- ^ θηρίον, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
- ^ Treacle, on Oxford Dictionaries
- ^ Heriot p 392
- ^ p14, Oxford in English literature: the making, and undoing, of "the English Athens" (1998), John Dougill, University of Michigan Press, ISBN 0472107844.
- ^ From Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Book 1, when the students attend their first banquet at Hogwarts): "A moment later the desserts appeared. Blocks of ice cream in every flavour you could think of, apple pies, treacle tarts,...." From Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5), the reader is told that Harry ate "a large plateful of his favorite treacle tart." Also mentioned in Book 4 "Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire. "... Said MR. Weasley, now spooning large amounts of treacle onto his porridge." book 4 page 67
- ^ See pages 61 and 63 of 4:50 From Paddington: A Miss Marple Mystery by Agatha Christie (New York, New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, 2007). Available on-line at: 4:50 from Paddington: a Miss Marple mystery.
[edit] Notations
- Heriot, Thomas Hawkins Percy (1920). The manufacture of sugar from the cane and beet. London: Longmans, Green and co..
