Lady Baltimore Ice Cream and Spun Sugar Webs

Owen Wister's popular 1906 novel was followed the next year by a Lady Baltimore Cake recipe, and in 1909 the Lady Baltimore Ice Cream appeared. picture of LB cake

Sugar Mills on Sugar Plantations

A wonderful wind mill sugar mill!  Other ways to power the rollers which pressed the sugar cane included slave labor, water wheels and farm animals.  Close-ups of mills from 1665 to 1835... 

The Art of Refining Sugar

7 great images showing the equipment being made and used to refine sugar from a french book, 1764.

Maple sugar - Tapping the trees

Sugar Maple trees were tapped in several ways over the centuries as seen the the following excerpts.  the 17th cen gash, the spout and troughs, 1792, and 19th century spiles...

Spun Sugar

Sugar was heated to "the crack" stage, then from a fork or spoon "rapidly throw it to and fro..." into some elaborate structures...

Maple sugaring - 1792

The following is an excerpt from Dr. Rush's fascinating pamphlet An Account of the Sugar Maple-tree, of the United States, and of the methods of obtaining Sugar from it, which may be viewed HERE or at the Library of Congress.

Sugar Production, Sugar Mills, Sugar Plantations

A series of period images show the cutting of the sugar cane, various types of sugar mills on the plantations  (powered by oxen and others by water wheel).  Then the syrup was boiled down in cauldrons then into cones.

Sugar Chest, Sugar Desk, Sugar Table

For bulk sugar storage, some beautiful pieces of furniture were made, particularly in the south.  Links to some detailed online articles [see below]. SUGAR CHEST at left.

Mustard Flour, Mustard Pots, Mustard Casters

After 1720, the processing of the mustard seeds in a mill resulted in a fine flour - the flower of mustard - known commercially as Durham Mustard. Interesting story is below.  Later, when the processing moved to Leeds, the name Durham was retained. The mustard was sold as dry powder or as a "paste"...