What was before sugar in India?
Before sugar was made sugarcane juice was extracted to make sweets. Later on sugarcane juice was boiled to crystals ,which was similar to present sugar.
What did they use before sugar?
honey
Sweetness came before sugar Before sugar became known, our ancestors ate honey, dates and other sweet foods, which they also used as sweeteners. We know this from writings and reliefs from ancient Mediterranean cultures. Honey is our oldest known sweetener.
What was added to sweeten food in India before refined sugar was available?
Early use of sugarcane in India barberi originating in India and S. edule and S. officinarum coming from New Guinea. Originally, people chewed sugarcane raw to extract its sweetness.
How are Indian sweets made?
All mithai—a Hindi/Urdu word for sweets—are made with some combination of flour, sugar, nuts, legumes, and milk or khoya (a semi-solid dairy product made by slowly boiling milk until it thickens), and then often enhanced with cardamom, rose water, or saffron.
Where did sugar originally come from?
8,000: Sugar is native to, and first cultivated in, New Guinea. Initially, people chew on the reeds to enjoy the sweetness. 2,000 years later, sugar cane makes its way (by ship) to the Phillipines and India. Sugar is first refined in India: the first description of a sugar mill is found in an Indian text from 100 A.D.
What is the history behind sugar?
The first chemically refined sugar appeared on the scene in India about 2,500 years ago. From there, the technique spread east towards China, and west towards Persia and the early Islamic worlds, eventually reaching the Mediterranean in the 13th century. Cyprus and Sicily became important centres for sugar production.
How did Indians crystallize sugar?
Indians discovered how to crystallise sugar during the Gupta dynasty, around 350 AD. Early refining methods involved grinding or pounding the cane to extract the juice, and then boiling the juice or drying it in the sun to yield sugary solids that looked like gravel.
Why sugar is called Chini in India?
Egypt was already making refined sugar by then, fine rock sugar that we refer to in India as “misri” – Misr being the old name for Egypt. It was this fine sugar which would have then come from Kublai Khan’s court to India, and thus been called “chini”.
How would you describe Indian sweets?
Many Indian desserts are fried foods made with sugar, milk or condensed milk. In the eastern part of India, for example, most are based on milk products. Many are flavoured with almonds and pistachios, spiced with cardamon, nutmeg, cloves and black pepper, and decorated with nuts, or with gold or silver leaf.
Why Indian sweets are so sweet?
Most Indian desserts taste sweet because they are made from a mixture of dairy and sugar. Some dishes can also be sour in nature because of the presence of tropical fruits such as mangoes and lemons, while others may be savory due to the usage of spices like saffron and cardamom. Indian desserts come in many textures.
Who made sugar first?
How was sugar made in the 1700s?
Producing the crop Growing sugar was hard, labour-intensive work. The ground had to be dug, hoed, weeded, planted and then fertilised with manure, all under the hot West Indian sun. Slave gangs consisting of men, women and children worked under white overseers. They were whipped for not working hard enough.