Take a pint of sugar and one-third of a pint of almonds and grind both together fine, then scent with camphor Take one-third of a pint of sugar, and dissolve in an ounce of rose-water over a slow fire, then remove When cooled, throw in the ground sugar and almonds, and knead If the mixture needs strengthening, add more sugar and almonds Make into middling pieces, melons, triangles, etc Then lay on a dish and serve — Kitab al Tabikh, transl A J Arberry In Europe: A Spice and Medicine Western Europeans first encountered sugar during their Crusades to the Holy Land in the 11th century Shortly thereafter Venice became the hub of the sugar trade from Arab countries to the West, and the first large shipment to England that we know of came in 1319 At first, Europeans treated sugar the way they treated pepper, ginger, and other exotic imports, as a flavoring and a medicine In medieval Europe, sugar was used in two general sorts of preparations: preserved fruits and flowers, and small medicinal morsels Sweets, or candy, began not as little entertaining treats but as “confections” (from the Latin conficere, “to put together,” “to prepare”) composed by the apothecaries, or druggists, to balance the body’s principles Sugar served several medicinal purposes Its sweetness covered the bitterness of some drugs and made all preparations more pleasant Its meltability and stickiness made it a good vehicle for mixing and carrying other ingredients The solidity of a fused mass of sugar meant that it could release its medicine slowly and gradually And its own supposed effect on the body — encouraging both heat and moisture — was thought to balance the ... general sorts of preparations: preserved fruits and flowers, and small medicinal morsels Sweets, or candy, began not as little entertaining treats but as “confections” (from the Latin conficere, “to put together,” “to...shipment to England that we know of came in 1319 At first, Europeans treated sugar the way they treated pepper, ginger, and other exotic imports, as a flavoring and a medicine In medieval Europe, sugar was used in two... the Latin conficere, “to put together,” “to prepare”) composed by the apothecaries, or druggists, to balance the body’s principles Sugar served several medicinal purposes Its sweetness covered the bitterness of some drugs and made all preparations more