Identify ingredient from old recipe?

[Mosaic]

I'm in the middle of working out a recipe written down around 1800. I'm stuck on something called 'syrup of sittern' - the recipe appears to refer to this as something that can be used to sweeten instead of sugar. I wonder if anyone can help?

[DTCwordfan]

Lemon is the answer, I believe.

[Mosaic]

Cheers DT - I wondered if it was 'citron' and thhis would fit with the way some other words are spelled ie as they were pronounced locally.
But I've never experienced syrup of lemons...what is it like, and is it sweet?

[oldbillbuck]

Tried several on-line dictionaries but no luck

[DTCwordfan]

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 1/2 cups fresh lemon juice

Directions:
1 In a small saucepan, combine the 1 cup of sugar with 1 cup of water and bring to a boil. Simmer over moderately low heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves.

2 Pour the syrup into a heatproof bowl and let cool to room temperature, then stir in 1 1/2 cups of fresh lemon juice.

3 You may make ahead, the syrup keeps indefinitely.

Excellent for all sorts of things wit: Lemon polenta cake (Italian)

Ingredients
250g butter , softened
250g caster sugar
3 eggs
100g polenta
250g ground almonds
1 tsp baking powder
3 lemons (3 zested, 1 juiced)
4 tbsp limoncello (lemon syrup)
3 tbsp icing sugar


1.Heat the oven to 160C/fan 140C/gas 3. Butter and base line a 23cm springform tin. Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (use an electric hand whisk). Add the eggs one by one and beat between each addition. Fold in the polenta, almonds and baking powder. Mix in the lemon zest and juice.

2. Bake for about 50 minutes-1 hour until the cake is risen and golden (cover the top of the cake loosely with foil after 30 minutes to stop it browning too much).

3. Make the syrup by warming the limoncello with the icing sugar until the icing sugar has melted. Serve the cake warm cut in slices with a drizzle of limoncello syrup.

[Mosaic]

Thank DT - and the recipes look delicious!
The recipe I'm dealing with is for a herbal remedy and it has a whole rack of ingredients, finally saying it can be sweetened with sugar or 'syrup of sittern' instead of sugar.
So based on the ingredients listed for lemon syrup, the choice in the old recipe is really a case of varying the taste rather than doing without sugar. I was trying to make sense of it as some kind of artificial sweetener.

[bobthefisherman]

Nice one DT, I'll add that to my recipe collection, if you don't mind.....

[DTCwordfan]

It makes sense as sugar was a fairly expensive commodity back then......

I have looked at old recipes as well in the past - can remember finding a lovely Fillet of Lamb Reform that went down a treat in Paris with French dinner guests and helping to smash the myth that our food is no good. Back before Catherine de Medici, we had an equal reputation to that of Italy with the French way behind......

[DTCwordfan]

No prob Bob, glad to help......

Nearly Vino Clock.....back to NoM's WoWeek thread! Could be some nice Xmas suggestions this week.

[Mosaic]

The thing that I find intriguing, is you need to use sugar to make the syrup.....so if sugar was expensive / in short supply, where's the advantage? I can only think it was a flavouring option rather than to save on sugar.

[DTCwordfan]

absolutely.....

[bobthefisherman]

Thanks DT......