Author: Camper English

  • Dehydrating Liqueurs: Stovetop Crystallization Method

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    Camper English
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    So far in the Solid Liquids project, I experimented with using the food dehydrator, oven, and microwave to dehydrate liqueurs into flavored sugars. The project index is here.   Well, thanks to a Facebook friend, I now have a much more efficient way than all the others I've tried. Lauren Mote, co-owner of Kale &…

  • Solid Liquids: Bulk Liqueur Dehydration in the Oven

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    Camper English
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    This is just a quick post in the Solid Liquids Project (project index here) to note that you can dehydrate liqueurs in the oven in containers other than the silicone cupcake holders that I've been using. Many people have SilPat non-stick baking mats. These are great but have the problem of being flat so liquids…

  • The Sugar Spirit Project: Enter the Sugar Beet

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    Camper English
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    In studying sugar and sugarcane (go here for the project index) we need to study the sugar beet; sugarcane's competitor.  Here we'll look at the sugar beet's early history.  Sugar beets were not economically important as a source of sucrose until the mid-1800s.  In 1774 a German scientist discovered the sugar from beets was the…

  • Solid Liquids: Campari Syrup

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    Camper English
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    In the last post in the Solid Liquids project, I used dehydrated Campari to make a non-alcoholic Campari & Soda.  Then it occurred to me that for that purpose there was no need to dehydrate the liqueur completely. I could just burn off the alcohol and have a non-alcoholic syrup.  So that's what I did.…

  • Sugar in Early American History

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    Camper English
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    In studying sugarcane and sugar, we've looked at its biology, origins, spread to the West, association with forced labor, how it was processed in the olden days, and how the English developed a taste for it. (Go here for the project index.) Now we'll look at sugar in America. Again I have used these resources…

  • Solid Liquids: Cane Sugar, Fruit Sugar, and Honey

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    Camper English
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    I hit a snag in the Solid Liquids Project (project index here) as I can get some liqueurs to dehydrate into a powdered sugar, but not others. In the last two posts, I think I've identified a commonality in the liqueurs that did not crystallize: they are probably sweetened with something other than (or possibly…

  • Primitive Sugar Production

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    Camper English
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    In studying sugarcane and sugar, we've looked at its biology, origins, spread to the West, and its previous nefarious association with forced labor. (Go here for the project index.) In today's post we'll look at how sugarcane was processed in the olden days to make cyrstallized sugar. Most of this information comes from the sources…

  • Solid Liquids: Dehydrating Liqueurs in the Microwave

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    Camper English
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    In the process of making powdered liqueurs for future use, I've been trying to figure out the best method to get liquids into solids. I'll be comparing the microwave to the oven to the food dehydrator, using Campari as my first liqueur in all of them. In today's post we'll look at using the microwave.…

  • Sugarcane and Slavery

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    Camper English
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    Boy is this ever a topic I'd rather avoid! However there is no denying the historic link between sugarcane production. We were tracing the spread of sugarcane and the sugar industry from the Old World to the new. But slave labor used to harvest and process sugarcane began long before sugarcane was brought to the…

  • The Spread of Sugarcane in the New World

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    Camper English
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    When we last left off looking at sugarcane's spread from India/Indonesia to the rest of the world, the sugar industry had shifted from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic islands of Spain and Portugal, including Madeira and the Canary islands.  During this time, the powers in Europe were developing a taste for sugar.  Sugar was only…