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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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glass, the simplest of glass, naturally has a pale shade of green. with effort, and other mineral salts added, it becomes clear, or a range of colors (cranberry glass= gold salts, pure crystal = lead salts, blue = coblat, etc.)
i think the blue paper was something akin to blue print paper, and could be copied.. but deep blue (royal blue almost) was used to wrap up sugar cones..(no idea why)
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Bringing this back to the top in hopes that someone will provide more information about the colonial use of blue paper.
It is a completely intriguing thought!
And, of troy, of what did you write in talking about those sugar cones? All I can think of are ice cream cones, but I doubt seriously that the colonials had ice cream cones since Dolly Madison has been credited with having brought ice cream to the foreground of national consciousness.
Begging for my little myths to be slashed apart, WW
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear WW: URL about ice cream. Says cones were invented at worlds fair, St.Louis, 1904. Doesn't mention Dolly Madison.: http://www.heresthescoop.com/history.html
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Joined: Oct 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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granulate sugar is a post civil war invention. to have sugar granulate, you have to cook it at high pressure (and lower temperature) to boil off enough of the water.. (at high tempertures, the sugar carmelizes)
so up until 1860 or so, sugar was formed into a loaf.. about 12 to 18 high, not quite a cone shape but rather a parabula.. (or like sugar loaf moutain in Brazil) to keep it fresh, it was wrapped in blue paper (and restoration villiages still alway have one or two sugar loaves to show off..)
the sugar was cut with giant scissors, sugar scissors, and then pounded in a mortar with a pestel to make it granulated... so a sugar cone is a sugar loaf is solid white sugar, waiting to be be cut and pounded into granulated sugar..
now days, you can buy block or cube sugar.. but people still say one lump or two? since sugar for coffee and tea was lumpy.. no sense in spending hours to make granulated sugar when lumps would melt in hot beverages..
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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In Mexico, they still sell brown sugar in loaves, or cones. That is one hard sugar to pound granulated, I gotta tell you.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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The first thing that I would think of would be the "blue touch paper" in fireworks - also used to mean that you are starting something explosive in more general terms (eg a political debate or an argument). Is that a common term outside the UK - I looked it up quickly and all the mentions of the term seemed to be on British sites.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Consuelo observes:
In Mexico, they still sell brown sugar in loaves, or cones. That is one hard sugar to pound granulated, I gotta tell you.
Well, in Virginia, in WW's kitchen, you'll find boxes of brown sugar I forgot to close back up properly and, in fact, completely forgot their existence, and, should you drop that block of brown sugar on the counter and attempt to pound it, you're not gonna be successful. I'd put up WW's blocks of brown sugar against any of Consuelo's challengers in Mexico.
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Carpal Tunnel
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The brown sugar cones in Mexico probably have a higher moisture content than WW's as they have a high molasses content as well. They make marvelous sugar lump cookies. Oh, boy, another perfectly good thread converted to a food thread! Running away now-e
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Carpal Tunnel
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Those cookies do sound yummy, Consuelo.
I don't think my solidified brown sugar has much moisture content at all. I think those boxes of brown sugar would make pretty good bricks, and I'd love to see the cracked teeth of the ants that tried to eat those sugar bricks...that is, if ants had teeth.
I'm fascinated, however, with these cones of sugar you and of troy have mentioned today.
And to think it all started with the mentioning of white paper.
All roads should lead to sweet places...
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Manufacturers--of computer components, at least--issue white papers which give specs on their products. They can be more or less detailed, and are written with an eye to the market. They may tend, therefore, to emphasize the positive.
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