Sugar cones

[huntdaw]

I was wondering if someone could tell me how to make a good sugar cone. We were issued these at TAG and it got me thinking I would like to make some for future personal use or as part of an issue at a future event. Is there a form that is used? How is the sugar held together - through simple compression or is there something that is used as an "adhesive"?

Thanks

[John of the Skulkers Mess]

HuntDaw,

I am of no use on this subject, but that never stopped me from speaking up...

The cones from TAG were a delight compared to the ones I've gotten at Wal-Mart in the past. The Wal-mart versions were very sturdy (rock hard) and located in the veg/fruit section. End caps with other 'ethnic food' items.


Later,
John Pillers

:)

[Clark Badgett]

If you know anyone that works with wood, or even aluminum, you could have them make a mold for you to your specs. Seems to me all it would take would be some brown sugar that has been moistened slightly packed firmly into a mold of this type. If you don't want to go to all this trouble, buy them from a Walmart, usually located in the Mexican food section.

[Hank Trent]

If anyone is using/recommending cones made of brown sugar for your Civil War impression, I'd like to see your documentation that sugar loaves (cones) in the U.S. in the 1860s were made of brown sugar instead of white.

I don't think they were, but rather than repost the lengthy stuff necessary to attempt to prove a negative, how about y'all make it simple and just post the documentation that they were? :)

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[Clark Badgett]

Hank, sorry I ruffled your feathers a bit. I have no idea if they were brown or white sugar. I have a pard that remains convinced they were brown, but if you got evidence otherwise I would be more than happy to see it.

[Spinster]

Mr. Comer,

We've had good success with using a period sugar mold (the young folks lucked up in a junk shop and recognized it for what it was), slighty moistened commerical white sugar, and a bit of tamping down. Sometimes a typically humid Deep South August afternoon is all that is necessary. I do prefer a coarse ground sugar to a fine one, as it seems to hold moisture in the manner that brown sugar does, and thus packs more easily.

Besides, I've gone after those brown sugar cones found in the Mexican food with a hammer and chisel, and STILL couldn't chip off enough for my coffee :D

[Foggy Bottom Jim]

I had always heard, probably on this forum some time in the past, that the Turbinado sugar now found in grocery stores is period correct. It is somewhat coarse, has a brownish color but tastes basically like white sugar; definitely not brown sugar. If you've seen those "sugar in the raw" packets in the coffee shops, that's it.
Jim Reynolds
Sykes' Regulars

[huntdaw]

Many thanks for the info so far. I do have a box of turbinado and might see if I can devise a form. I have never seen those cones at Wally World but it sounds like something I'd rather avoid.

[Hank Trent]

Hank, sorry I ruffled your feathers a bit. I have no idea if they were brown or white sugar. I have a pard that remains convinced they were brown, but if you got evidence otherwise I would be more than happy to see it.

It's not about me and my feathers, it's about documenting what was done in the 1860s, rather than passing along reenactor lore. ;) That's what we're all here for, right?

I've been looking in vain for documentation of brown sugar cones in the U.S. in the 1860s, and since there's an expectation that the things recommended on this forum are supported with evidence, what better place to find people who can share evidence for brown sugar cones?

Your friend must have some solid information if he's convinced cones were brown. Why not get it from him and post it? I'd like to see it.

I had always heard, probably on this forum some time in the past, that the Turbinado sugar now found in grocery stores is period correct.

Brown sugar in various stages of refinement *is* period correct, but my question is, can reenactors document it being formed into a cone shape instead of, for example, random chunks as if it was dug out of a barrel?

Unfortunately, I only have a copy of a follow-up post I made on the subject, so it kind of starts in mid-stream, but the major information is there. My previous (missing) post included this quote from "Sugar--Its Culture and Consumption in the World, Debow's Review, August 1855: "The different species of commercial sugar usually met with in this country are four, viz: brown, or muscovado sugar, (commonly called moist sugar,) clayed sugar, refined or loaf sugar, and sugar candy; these varieties are altogether dependent on the difference in the methods employed in their manufacture."

Here's a repost of my earlier follow-up post:

Let's see if we can figure out how each of the four types of sugar mentioned in the previous quote is made.
1) brown or muscovado
2) clayed
3) refined or loaf
4) sugar candy
The Emerson quote said that sugar candy is loaf sugar "dissolved in water and allowed to evaporate and harden." So let's look at the other three.
1) brown or muscovado
After the cane is crushed and boiled... "When cool, the contents, now a dark brown mixture of sugar and molasses, are put into casks with perforated bottoms, through which the molasses drains away. After thirty days of this discipline the sugar is considered as sufficiently pure for shipment, and the casks are closed up. Sugar thus prepared is known to the trade as 'muscovado.'" ("The Cultivation and Manufacture of Sugar," Debow's Review, 1867)
So that sounds like the darkest brown sugar could be sold wholesale in casks, not necessarily molded.
2) Clayed
The same article continues to describe a further process that creates clayed sugar. But note the sizes of cones it's produced in--80 to 120 lbs each. These are clearly bigger than the 10"-12" tall household-size loaves of refined white sugar.
"Another and better class is known by the name of 'clayed,' and with this a different process is adopted in the latter stages of the manufacture. Instead of being put into the cooling trough , the juice is at once turned into cone-shaped moulds of metal or earthenware, holding from eighty to a hundred and twenty pounds each. These are turned upside down, and a mixture of clay and mortar spread over the base of each. The molasses drains away through the apex, and the water dripping from the clay percolates through the sugar and helps to carry away much of the impure and colored matter, which is considerably more soluble than sugar itself. The object of mixing clay with the water is to make the passage of the latter more gradual, and so diminish the otherwise enormous waste."
As you [someone in a previous thread] said, this would produce a sugar that was lighter in color than muscovado, but still raw and not refined.
3) Refined or Loaf
The article quoted above is talking about sugar that's imported from the West Indies into England, rather than the U.S., but says that most of the sugar is imported as muscovado or clayed, and that refining is usually done after it arrives. "The process commences on the top story of the refinery, where the raw sugar is first collected in heaps and then shovelled into a rectangular iron vessel capable of holding a thousand or more gallons, called the 'blow-up cistern.' Water is turned on at the same time, and the whole rapidly heated to boiling point by the passage of a current of steam. 'Blowing up' causes a great deal of scum to rise to the surface, especially when, as is the case with all but the very purest sugars, bullock's blood, or as the refiners term it, 'spice,' is added to the mixture. This scum is removed by filtration, the liquid being turned from the cistern into a shallow tank, whence it passes through a series of canvas bags, and when perfectly bright, is allowed to flow on a bed of animal charcoal. It is now of the colour of old port wine, but some hours later, when, it reappears below the charcoal, it has become as colourless as water. It is then ready for boiling, which takes place by means of a vacuum pan at a lower degree of heat, and consequently with less injury to the sugar, than would be necessary under ordinary atmospheric pressure. When the boiling has gone on long enough, a valve in the lower part of the pan is opened, and the whole mass falls into a heated vessel on the floor below, where it remains 'until the crystals have become large enough and hard enough to please the operator.' The concluding processes closely resemble those in the corresponding stage of the raw materials. The sugar is poured into moulds , and all the moisture allowed to drain away. Even then, however, it is still colored, and the last trace of impurity is not removed until the cones have been 'clayed,' the clay, in this instance, however, consisting only of a solution of sugar and water, which sinks through the sugar-loaf and leaves it in that state of whiteness with which we are familiar in the sugar-basin. The drippings of this final purification are saved to be made into an inferior sugar; 'THEIR drippings, boiled, drained and cleared, become pieces; the drippings of pieces similarly treated are bastards; and the drippings of bastards are treacle.'"
Another article describing the same process, "Manufacture of Sugar," 1851, mentions that at the end of the process, the cone is smoothed, the "small amount of dark-colored sugar" at the tip of the cone is removed, and the cones are dried and wrapped for shipment. "If, instead of loaves, the manufacturer desired to obtain the material known as crushed lump, the contents of the moulds would never be stoved at all; but when sufficiently dry, they would be taken out, and struck with a mallet, until reduced to a mass of disaggregated crystals."

My conclusion is that the normal household-size loaves (cones) are created as a step in the refining process, and thus by definition would be white, since there's no need to go through that step unless the sugar is being refined. An original loaf on display in its purplish paper wrapper at Roscoe Village in Ohio is white, and I've not seen or mentioned any reference to brown ones.

Since making that post, I *have* found evidence of the Walmart-style sugar cones in the period, in Mexico, on the way to the refinery. So if you're reenacting something in Mexico, they're period correct, and it's funny (and maybe significant) that they're still regionally associated even today. However, the fact that the U.S. author commented on them seems to add weight to the fact that they're not something he was used to seeing in the U.S.

"The sugar here is made into pilensi (little sugar-loaves) resembling maple-sugar, which are transported on mules to the large cities to be refined. [Dec. 27, on Rio Mecca or Rio de la Purificacion, near town of Hidalgos]" (From Life and Correspondence of John A. Quitman ... Governor of the State of Mississippi, By John Francis Hamtramck Claiborne, 1860)

And another quote I found later, implying that crude brown sugar was not found in loaves:

There was no cut nor granulated nor pulverized sugar, to be turned from the grocer's bag onto the scales. All sugar except the crude brown, direct from plantations, was in cone-shaped loaves as hard as a stone and weighing several pounds each. These well-wrapped loaves were kept hung (like hams in a smokehouse) from the closet ceiling. They had to be cut into chips by aid of carving knife and hammer, then pounded and rolled until reduced to powder, before that necessary ingredient was ready for use. (From Social Life in Old New Orleans, by Eliza Ripley (1832-1912), published 1912.)

So that's the best I can do to document that sugar loaves were typically made of white, refined sugar.

My tentative conclusion about why this belief is so widespread despite the fact that I can find no evidence, is that it's a combination of two things "everybody knows"--that old-timey sugar came in loaves, and that people used a lot of crude brown sugar back then instead of so much of this modern refined stuff. Each fact taken separately is correct, but somehow they've become combined in reenactor lore into the inaccurate belief that period brown sugar came in cones.

How would you document the fact that some (most? all?) sugar loaves in the 1860s U.S. were brown?

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[John of the Skulkers Mess]

You have improved the hobby (see Sinks.)


Two gems today, this and info on 'Little Rock' CS dress coats,
John Pillers
TSM

[Clark Badgett]

Thanks Hank. I learned something new today. Now disregard my recomendations about brown sugar. Make them cones with white sugar.

[GrumpyDave]

"Besides, I've gone after those brown sugar cones found in the Mexican food with a hammer and chisel, and STILL couldn't chip off enough for my coffee"

This problem is easily solved with a poke sack or a sock, a log or rock and, the butt of your musket. You can turn a sugar cone into little pieces in a big hurry.

[pops]

This may be a little late as Ive run across it looking for something else,so here is my two cents worth.If you find that you have a hard time trying to chip away at your sugar cones,use your corn grater.mine is made from a sardine can with nail holes punched in it.

[Robert Braun]

Please forgive my late arrival.... but....

What is the evidence for the use of these sugar CONES in the Army during the Civil War (Mr. Trent's excellent post notwithstanding) ?

Bob.

[Hank Trent]

What is the evidence for the use of these sugar CONES in the Army during the Civil War (Mr. Trent's excellent post notwithstanding) ?

For what it's worth, I've tried an OR search, and needless to say all the "Sugar Loaf Mountains" and such play havoc with that search phrase. However, the online search engine didn't show any hits for "sugar (loaf)" or "sugar loaves." "Crushed sugar," or "sugar (crushed)" does show up in a few places, for example:

List of articles which sutlers may be permitted to sell to prisoners of war.... looking glasses, brushes, combs, clothes brooms, pocket
knives, scissors. Groceries: Crushed sugar, sirup, ...

"White sugar" shows up a few places as well, but no indication of its form, other than it's measured in pounds.

My hat's off to the first person who checks all the "sugar loaf" hits to separate out the geographical names from the food. :D

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[markmason]

Not sure how "1860's" related this will be. All of these are great posts, and the references regarding how hard these loafs would be makes one wonder about the use of SUGAR NIPPERS. The sugar be in loaf form, or so-called "chunks of sugar", yet still be soft enough to allow the use of nippers?

Try this with today's cones of sugar will surely bring you closer to carpal tunnel problems sooner than later :p

[Spinster]

[QUOTE=markmason] The sugar be in loaf form, or so-called "chunks of sugar", yet still be soft enough to allow the use of nippers?

Pardon me here folks, for this has only marginal bearing on 1860--I'm often handicapped to some extent because sometimes I live in 1750 as well as 1860. White sugar, of various grinds and consistency, slightly dampened and packed into 18th century type molds ( I use the back of a spoon to pack with), does respond well to sugar nippers, with out all the straining required by the those little inauthentic Walmart brown sugar cones.

Rather like the way that sugar cubes stay together (hmmmm, how long has it been since I've seen those in the grocery store?), the cone holds it shape until pinched with the nippers or knocked with a knife handle. My main problem in 1750 is that the men are bad to use the sugar nippers to pick up a coal and light their pipes with.......at least I know its sterile, if not particularly clean.

[styler]

White sugar cones may be found in stores that cater to German cuisine. They are apparently used for some fiery alcoholic concoction.

Kevin, sugar cones, while they may or may not have been an issued item, were commonly used in civilian life and probably did find their way into soldier's life now and again.

And, no, I don't have a referrence handy. :(

[markmason]

Here is a little quote take from a book I am reading at the moment. Hmmm I will include a small protion of the paragraph as written.

This Wilderness of War The Civil War Letters of George Squier, Hoosier Volunteer Edited by A. Doyle, John David Smith and Richard M. McMurry

Camp near Murfreesboro, Tenn. Jan. 11th, 1863

Dearest Ellen,

I had allmost thought to wait until I heard from you whether you succeeded in getting "through" with the doubtless "in a most" interminable scrawl of the first volume of the battle battle near Murfreesboro.............Now we are in camp about 1/2 mile north of Murfreesboro...

"I did not throw away those things, or atleast none of value --only a lot of papers sent to Tommie and some maple sugar for the same, which i did neither throw away nor carry through."

George

[markj]

Greetings,

ARMY SUPPLIES.‎
‎________‎

OFFICE OF COMMISSARY OF SUBSISTENCE,‎
No. 4 STATE-ST., NEW-YORK, March 21, 1864.‎

SEALED PROPOSALS (in duplicate) will be received by the undersigned until 4 o’clock P. M. ‎on TUESDAY, the 24th inst., for supplying for the use of the United States Army, ‎SUBSISTENCE STORES, to be delivered in New-York or Brooklyn, as follows:‎

‎1,000,000 pounds of clean, dry BROWN SUGAR; barrels to be new, and of the best in ‎use for the purpose, and to be full head-lined.‎
‎50 barrels of “C” SUGAR, barrels as above.‎
Samples of the sugar, in neat boxes of card-board or tin, must be delivered with the ‎proposals, and referred to therein.‎
A printed copy of this advertisement must be attached to each proposal, and the proposals ‎must be specific in complying precisely with all the terms. Each bid, to have consideration, must ‎contain the written guaranty of two responsible names, as follows:‎
‎“We, the undersigned, hereby guarantee that should all or any part of the above bid be ‎accepted, it shall be duly fulfilled, according to its true purport and conditions; also, that a ‎written contract, with bonds to the amount of one-fourth the value of the stores proposed to be ‎furnished, shall be executed, if required.‎
The seller’s name, place of business, and the date of the purchase, as well as the name of ‎the contents, with gross, tare, and net weights, and shipping marks to be hereafter designated, ‎must be plainly marked on every package. All other old marks must be obliterated.‎
The sugar will be carefully inspected before its delivery, and compared with the retained ‎samples. Returns of weights, signed by a professional Public Weigher, must be furnished ‎whenever required.‎
Payment, as heretofore, to be made in such funds as may be furnished by the United ‎States.‎
Contractors are expected to hold their goods, without expense to the United States, until ‎required for shipment.‎
Blanks for proposals will be furnished at this office which must be inclosed in an ‎envelope, addressed to the undersigned, and indorsed “Proposals for Subsistence Stores.”‎
H. F. CLARKE,‎
Colonel, A. D. C. and C. S.‎

Source: New York Times, 25 March 1864.‎

Regards,

Mark Jaeger

[SparksBird]

Michael,
For some instructions on making sugar loaves, you might want to check with Terry Sargent. He is doing a workshop at the Spring MOMCC Conference at Conner Prairie on "Stocking the Period Pantry". For the workshop they will be making sugar loaves as well as roasting green coffee beans, and compounding kitchen pepper and other early 19th century condiments. If you need his address I can send it to you.

Rick Musselman
Buckeye Mess
GHTI

[SparksBird]

I think that the nature of this thread has definitely changed. Rather than talking about brown sugar loaves we are now talking about whether they were actually around. Based upon my own research and opinion, I agree with Hank that they might possibly be a reenactorism. I have looked through numerous period cookbooks, practical receipt books, and others and have yet to find a mention of brown sugar loaves in the 1860s. I have even contacted a sugar museum on this and they couldn't answer this question. Actually, what I have always found is a noted distinction between sugar loaves and brown sugar. In Debow's review, Agricultural, commercial, industrial progress and resources. / Volume 22, Issue 3, Mar 1857, "The Sugar Crop and Sugar Duties, No. 1", they mention several times "loaf sugar" and "brown sugar", with a difference in price and the duties on it. This is just one example of many distinctions between the two. I did find one other interesting note about sugar production in Louisiana. Outside of the Carribbean nations, Louisiana was the largest producer of sugar in the 1830s-40s, with 35,000 tons being produced.
Lastly, if Hank and I both are having this much trouble finding documentation for brown sugar cones then common sense dictates that they couldn't have been that common during the time period. That my two cents.

Rick Musselman
Buckeye Mess
GHTI

[huntdaw]

Rick,

I am planning on being at the MOMCC meeting. In fact, I was just looking at the registration picking what sessions I wanted to go to. Just might make me one of those sugar loafs.

Thanks,

[RedCordCO]

Interesting responses from all sorts of folks.

I wanted to offer that Jas. Townsend sells paper-wrapped sugar cones and sugar nippers in their catalog. The wrapping on the cones can be easily replaced and the nippers [should one need them] can be either hidden from view or explained off as an heirloom in other, perhaps more mainstream, camps.

I prefer using the Mexican 'pilloncillo' sugar that is available in the Mex. section. Also prefer Mex. chocolate as it is more appropo for my region of the country. I digress..

Check out Townsend, though. They are good folks though a bit removed from the era we all portray.

Rob Burchardt

[SparksBird]

Rob,
I don't know if you read the rest of this thread, but we were just discussing whether or not brown sugar cones are actually period or a reenactorism. The ones sold by James Townsend are brown sugar cones. I think we need to look closer at their documentation then where they are available today. Also, I do hope you are talking about civilian use of sugar nippers and not military. I can't see any reason a soldier would be carrying around sugar nippers.

Rick Musselman
Buckeye Mess
GHTI

[Robert Braun]

I am finding myself in agreement with Mr. Musselman.

Unless something more definitive becomes available, use of those quaint sugar cones in one's authentic soldier impression should probably go the way of the dodo...

Regards, Bob.

[vbetts]

This doesn't specifically mention BROWN sugar, nor cones, but at least they are called the same. Of course, this is Mexico, not the US or CS, but it is mid-19th century. For what it's worth, which isn't much.

NEW ORLEANS DAILY PICAYUNE, September 8, 1864, p. 4, c. 1

The Mexican Fairs.
[Montera Morning Star, July 24th.
We presume the fairs of the "old country" are like unto them; but one who has never trusted his life across the ocean, would find in these fairs, the announcement of which we take from a Texas paper, food for many a gay and lively recollection.
In Mexico, without railways, stages, towns near each other, or a population living compactly, except in the towns, these fairs are the event of the year. Thither travel the manufacturers of those curious, water-proof, elegant, soft and exquisitely fine woven blanket shawls, of the unequaled Paras saddle-trees, of the Paras wine, of the earthenware and quaint images of Guadalajara, of the hardware and cutlery of Leon, of the gamusa, (the dressed goat and deer skins,) and the tanned leather of the mountains, and all other various articles of home production, not excluding the piloncillos, little loaves of coarse but very sweet sugar, and the mescal, or whiskey, made of the maguey, or "century plant" with us.

Vicki Betts
vbetts@gower.net

[Hank Trent]

... and all other various articles of home production, not excluding the piloncillos, little loaves of coarse but very sweet sugar...

It sounds like they're talking about the same thing mentioned in a quote I posted on the first page of this thread, and if so, they were indeed apparently unrefined and brown (resembling maple sugar). Reposting the quote:

"The sugar here is made into pilensi (little sugar-loaves) resembling maple-sugar, which are transported on mules to the large cities to be refined. [Dec. 27, on Rio Mecca or Rio de la Purificacion, near town of Hidalgos]" (From Life and Correspondence of John A. Quitman ... Governor of the State of Mississippi, By John Francis Hamtramck Claiborne, 1860)

Now there's just that little detail of documenting that 1) the little brown loaves were also available in the United States and 2) they were issued to soldiers. :)

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[FlemSmythe]

A few years back I attended a short talk on Maple sugaring. The woman who was doing the talk stated that maple sugar was made into cones for use and storage. She also showed us a few examples of some she was making.
They were not commercially manufactured but were manufactured by the people at home for their own use. This was mainly in the north east or where Maple syrup was made most commonly. So you cant totally discount the use of brown sugar or maple sugar cones. Especially if they show up in a package from home.

[Hank Trent]

So you cant totally discount the use of brown sugar or maple sugar cones. Especially if they show up in a package from home.

If the question is, "Was brown cane sugar or maple sugar *ever* formed into cones in the 1860s in the U.S.?" obviously we can never prove that it wasn't.

If the question is, "Do we have primary source evidence of brown cane sugar or maple sugar being formed into cones in the 1860s in the U.S.?", there's none yet on this thread.

If the question is, "What can we document as the most common form of brown cane or maple sugar to use at a reenactment?" then cane sugar has been discussed, and below is some info on maple sugar.

The following is from "The Manufacture of Maple Sugar" C.T. Alvord, Wilmington, Vermont, in the 1862 Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture. For what it's worth, the top maple sugar producing states in 1860, according to the article, were New York, Vermont, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire. Emphasis is added.

The general method of putting up maple sugar for family use is to place it in tubs and drain it.... The best tubs for this purpose are those holding from one to two hundred pounds, made flaring, largest at the top, and having two bottoms... In this bottom one or more holes should be made for the molasses to drain through....

Many families are in the habit of stirring a portion of their sugar, as in this form it retains its flavor better than when it is drained, and is in a more convenient form for use... When it is done, take it from the fire, set the pan in a cool place, and with a wooden paddle commence stirring it briskly... If it is then put into tight boxes or tubs and thus kept, it will retain the fresh maple flavor for some length of time.

When the sugar is to be caked, it should be allowed to stand after it is taken from the fire until it is partially grained, when it shoudl be run into the moulds... Both wooden and tin moulds are used to cake sugar in, and these are made of different forms and sizes--the weight of the cakes varying from two ounces to several pounds. The general form of the cake is a square, as this is the most convenient one for packing in boxes, in which form it is put up for market.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net