大象传媒

Sugar beet was used to get us something sweet in our diet, and I鈥檓 sure somebody else has told you the making of the black treacle. But in the corner of our scullery, a scullery was an outside sort of kitchen/utility room, I suppose, we had a copper for heating water. We had no central heating or hot water supply and when it was washday the copper was heated up with a fire underneath, with sticks when the coal ran out, and of course that was another problem, of course we had no gas. The sugar beet was chopped up and put into this copper, and boiled for at least 24 hours until it became a black pulp which was then put into a special rack, and squeezed, with a car jack used to get all the juices out. A bit like squeezing cider apples really. So this thick juice came out, which again was boiled up, to thicken it, and we finished up with a black treacle which, when we had bread, we could spread on the bread or just eat raw, I suppose.
BRIAN LE CONTE

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