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Post by Sō Haruko on Dec 7, 2012 0:49:04 GMT -5
Just thinking that I've never seen a reference to honey in any Japanese cuisine, at all -- our period or modern. I have a hard time believing that they would ignore a high-calorie food like honey, especially since natural sweeteners are otherwise pretty scarce. I wonder if Japan has native bees that are not honey producers (like our mason bees) or if they have no native bees at all?
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Post by Ōgiyame no Emi on Dec 8, 2012 11:21:59 GMT -5
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Post by Sō Haruko on Dec 8, 2012 11:35:10 GMT -5
Huh. Interesting. I wonder if it was perhaps mostly taboo as food, then -- I know some vegetarians eschew honey.
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Post by Nagamochi on Dec 12, 2012 2:50:01 GMT -5
I can't say I claim to know much on honey in Japan, though I've heard through the grapevine that maple syrup is a period sweetener for Japanese. Surprisingly, being the foodist that I am, I never got around to looking into it, so I can't really give you much on that.
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Post by Sō Haruko on Dec 12, 2012 9:32:08 GMT -5
I have a new book inbound from the library on Japanese food history. Perhaps it will shed some light. (:
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Saionji Shonagon
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Post by Saionji Shonagon on Dec 12, 2012 12:50:21 GMT -5
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Post by Sō Haruko on Dec 12, 2012 13:20:03 GMT -5
Yes, but there are many other pollinators besides bees. (; Many insects, birds, and even bats are pollinators.
The article on Japanese honeybees is very cool! (: Thanks for sharing. I really am baffled as to why I have seen no recipes involving honey, though.
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Saionji Shonagon
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Post by Saionji Shonagon on Dec 12, 2012 20:59:11 GMT -5
From Eric Rath, Food and Fantasy In Early Modern Japan (p. 90):
"As Isa Sadatake notes in Teijo's Miscellany (Teijo zakki): "Long ago when there was no sugar, all sweets were sweetened with something called sweet arrowroot (amazura)." He says of sqeet arrowroot that it is a "viny plant. Concocting an infusion of the leaves and turning it into a syrup makes something like a thick malt syrup that will sweeten any foods it is mixed with." Besides amazura, rice glucose (mizu ame) and honey were used as sweeteners in Japan."
(This appears in the chapter on the Namban Ryorisho or Barbarians' Cookbook, in a section contrasting Japanese "sweets" and the sugar use in snacks introduced by the Portuguese.)
That's about all I've turned up.
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Post by Sō Haruko on Dec 13, 2012 1:14:36 GMT -5
The absolutely fantastic _History and Culture of Japanese Food_ sheds some light on this. (:
"There is a record reporting that in CE 643 an aristocrat who had immigrated to Japan from Korea tried unsuccessfully to set up beekeeping. Over the next thousand years beekeeping seems to have been unknown. In the eighteenth century, farmers in several parts of the country gathered honey as a sideline, mainly from the hives of wild bees, but their production was small and the honey was too expensive to become established as a food ingredient. It was used instead as a medicine. The Meiji government introduced Western honeybees and beekeeping techniques in 1877, and the industry flourished, with honey production high enough at one point to support exports." (p.259)
So -- yes to bees, no to honey, except as incense and medicine, it appears, at least according to this book.
Edited to add: according to the author, amazura is made from tapping and boiling the sap of an ivy vine -- parthenocissus tricuspidata is its botanical name. Amazura dates back to at least the 10th century and was used as sweet syrup over ice in summer, and in yam porridge.
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Post by Nagamochi on Dec 14, 2012 13:23:59 GMT -5
:gasp!: Thanks for the info, So. Good to know!
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Post by Ōgiyame no Emi on Dec 19, 2012 9:05:29 GMT -5
have to say, this talk of sweet vine syrup over shaved ice has me hankering for summer...
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Saionji Shonagon
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One dreamed of becoming somebody. Another remained awake and became. (Found in a fortune cookie.)
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Post by Saionji Shonagon on Dec 19, 2012 13:51:36 GMT -5
Can't document it at all, but umeshu over ice is very nice!
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Post by Sō Haruko on Dec 19, 2012 14:05:59 GMT -5
Oh my, I'll have to try that come summertime. (:
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Post by solveig on Dec 20, 2012 23:19:14 GMT -5
Noble Cousin! Greetings from Solveig! have to say, this talk of sweet vine syrup over shaved ice has me hankering for summer... And, it was about the only thing that Sei Shonagon wrote about liking.
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Post by Ishikawa Yoshimasa on Feb 19, 2013 11:47:50 GMT -5
many types of bee... only a few types of honey bee.
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