Treacle () is any uncrystallised
syrup
In cooking, a syrup (less commonly sirup; from ar, شراب; , beverage, wine and la, sirupus) is a condiment that is a thick, viscous liquid consisting primarily of a solution of sugar in water, containing a large amount of dissolved sugars ...
made during the refining of
sugar.
[Oxford Dictionary ] The most common forms of treacle are
golden syrup, a pale variety, and a darker variety known as black treacle, similar to
molasses. Black treacle has a distinctively strong, slightly bitter flavour, and a richer colour than golden syrup. Golden syrup treacle is a common sweetener and condiment in
British cuisine, found in such dishes as
treacle tart
Treacle tart is a traditional British dessert. The earliest known recipe for the dessert is from English author Mary Jewry in her cookbooks from the late 19th century.
Desserts
It is prepared using shortcrust pastry, with a thick filling made ...
and
treacle sponge pudding
A treacle sponge pudding is a traditional British dessert dish consisting of a steamed sponge cake with treacle cooked on top of it, sometimes also poured over it and often served with hot custard.
The dish has been mass-produced and imported in ...
.
Etymology
Historically, the
Middle English
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English ...
term was used by herbalists and apothecaries to describe a medicine (also called ''
theriac
Theriac or theriaca is a medical concoction originally labelled by the Greeks in the 1st century AD and widely adopted in the ancient world as far away as Persia, China and India via the trading links of the Silk Route. It was an alexipharmic, ...
'' or ''theriaca''), composed of many ingredients, that was used as an
antidote
An antidote is a substance that can counteract a form of poisoning. The term ultimately derives from the Greek term φάρμακον ἀντίδοτον ''(pharmakon) antidoton'', "(medicine) given as a remedy". Antidotes for anticoagulants are s ...
for poisons, snakebites, and various other ailments.
''Triacle'' comes from the
Old French
Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intellig ...
, in turn from (unattested and reconstructed)
Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin, is the range of non-formal registers of Latin spoken from the Late Roman Republic onward. Through time, Vulgar Latin would evolve into numerous Romance languages. Its literary counterpa ...
, which comes from
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
, the
latinisation of the
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
(), the feminine of (), 'concerning venomous beasts', which comes from (), 'wild animal, beast'.
Production
Treacle is made from the syrup that remains after sugar is
refined. Raw sugars are first treated in a process called
affination. When dissolved, the resulting liquor contains the minimum of dissolved non-sugars to be removed by treatment with
activated carbon or
bone char
Bone char ( lat, carbo animalis) is a porous, black, granular material produced by charring animal bones. Its composition varies depending on how it is made; however, it consists mainly of tricalcium phosphate (or hydroxyapatite) 57–80%, calci ...
. The dark-coloured washings 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 (boiled mass) which is
centrifuge
A centrifuge is a device that uses centrifugal force to separate various components of a fluid. This is achieved by spinning the fluid at high speed within a container, thereby separating fluids of different densities (e.g. cream from milk) or ...
d, yielding a brown sugar and a liquid by-product—''treacle''. Black treacle naturally contains relatively high levels of sulphite (>100ppm, expressed in sulphur dioxide equivalent). These levels are deemed safe for the majority of the population, but some allergic and respiratory reactions have been reported particularly amongst asthmatics, so that the United States Food and Drug Administration requires that levels over 10ppm, i.e. >10mg/kg, be declared on the ingredients label.
In culture
A traditional
Cornish fisherman's celebratory drink is "Mahogany", made from two parts local
gin—now usually
Plymouth Gin
Plymouth Gin is a style and brand of gin that has been distilled on the same premises on the Barbican in Plymouth, Devon, since 1793. The site of production, the Plymouth Gin Distillery, was built in 1431 and is reputed to have once been a mo ...
—mixed with one part black treacle.
In chapter 7 of
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are '' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequ ...
's ''
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creature ...
'', the
Dormouse
A dormouse is a rodent of the family Gliridae (this family is also variously called Myoxidae or Muscardinidae by different taxonomists). Dormice are nocturnal animals found in Africa, Asia, and Europe. They are named for their long, dormant hibe ...
tells the story of Elsie, Lacie, and Tillie, who live at the bottom of a well. This confuses Alice, who interrupts to ask what they ate for sustenance. "The Dormouse again took a minute or two to think about it, and then said, 'It was a treacle-well.'" This is an allusion to the so-called "treacle well", the curative St Margaret's Well at
Binsey, Oxfordshire
Binsey is a village by the River Thames about northwest of the centre of Oxford. It is the opposite side of the river from Port Meadow and about southwest of the ruins of Godstow Abbey.
History
Binsey's most noted feature is the parish chur ...
.
[p14, ''Oxford in English literature: the making, and undoing, of "the English Athens"'' (1998), John Dougill, University of Michigan Press, .]
See also
*
Caramelisation
Caramelization is a process of browning of sugar used extensively in cooking for the resulting sweet nutty flavor and brown color. The brown colors are produced by three groups of polymers: caramelans (C24H36O18), caramelens (C36H50O25), and ca ...
*
List of syrups
*
Treacle mining
Treacle mining is a joke about mining black treacle (also known as molasses) in a raw form similar to coal. The subject purports to be serious but is an attempt to test credulity. Thick black treacle makes the deception plausible. The topic has ...
*
Treacle protein
Treacle protein is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''TCOF1'' gene.
This gene encodes a nucleolar protein with an LIS1 homology domain. The protein is involved in ribosomal DNA gene transcription through its interaction with upstream b ...
*
Treacle sponge pudding
A treacle sponge pudding is a traditional British dessert dish consisting of a steamed sponge cake with treacle cooked on top of it, sometimes also poured over it and often served with hot custard.
The dish has been mass-produced and imported in ...
* Venice treacle, also known as Treacle of Andromachus: see
References
Citations
Bibliography
*
External links
*
Old 'Recipes4us' page "Treacle Origin"CSR Sugar company of Australia – TreacleSugar Australia website – refiner and marketer for CSR limited.
{{Sugar
Sugar
Sugar substitutes
Syrup