Bradshaw
Sugar cane has been the most substantial crop grown in south Louisiana for more than a century because planters could make good money turning out tons of granulated sugar. But for many years they were reluctant to make the sweet cane syrup that we find in practically every pantry today.
Bulletin No. 1370, “Sugar-Cane Sirup Manufacture,” issued in October 1925 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture gave some sound advice about changing that, even though the authors, H.S. Paine and C.F. Walton, both chemists, seemed to have trouble with spelling.
They said that “the merits of cane sirup … have doubtless been appreciated from the beginning of the sugarcane industry” and that planters for years had made enough for their own tables. But, they said, cane syrup was hard to sell.
Good syrup, they suggested, should offer “smoothness, with enough of the typical cane-juice flavor to give it the unmistakable taste of the cane.” Planters could make it to their own taste for home use, but the researchers said buyers wanted their syrup to always be the same – and that was a problem. “The industry has been unable to assemble enough sirup of uniform quality to build and maintain a market,” they said.
Bradshaw
They found a definite “lack of uniformity in quality” among syrup makers and thought most of what they made was pretty mediocre or worse. That “greatly retarded” cane syrup sales, they said.
Most of the syrup was “farm-made” and sold by the bucket. Syrup makers were sometimes able to combine enough of these small batches to make a decent shipment, but “dealers to whom such shipments [were] made [were] frequently … greatly disappointed in the sirup.” The scientists said corn syrup from other parts of the country and molasses from the West Indies would continue to dominate the market “until a product of uniform and acceptable quality can be obtained.”
They suggested that a first step might be in the uniformity of the cane crop itself.
“For all practical purposes, sirup … consumers know … what the ideal color of cane syrup is, and since comparison of flavor is much less definite, color is the criterion … most often applied. … The lightest-color sirups usually have the mildest and most generally desired flavor, ” they said, adding that light-colored cane made light-colored syrup.
“Stalks of light color (green and yellow) almost always yield a sirup of lighter, more attractive color than darker stalks,” the researchers reported. “The use of a light-colored cane evidently is desirable for sirup manufacturers.”
In 1925, the Louisiana Purple variety was popular because it matured early and made a syrup “of excellent quality.” Red Ribbon cane was almost as popular. The scientists liked this variety because “the sirup … is a shade lighter than from the Louisiana Purple.”
Money was a factor, too. Whatever its color, a mill turning out even the best syrup had to be practically in the middle of the field to make a profit. It took a ton of good, juicy cane to make just 20 gallons of syrup, and that was a lot of hauling for a little product.
“Sugar cane is such a heavy crop that the haul to the mill plays an important part in determining profits,” according to Bulletin 1370. “Even with very good roads, a radius of 5 miles has been accepted as the maximum distance for delivering cane by wagon or truck.” Even that short distance could be a challenge in 1925 when “very good roads” were hard to find.
It took some time, but cane growers finally figured out how to market flavorful and affordable syrups, and for government documents to finally spell the name the way everybody else did. Messrs. Paine and Walton were just following orders when they wrote sirup instead of syrup.
When the Government Printing Office first issued guidance on such things in 1894, it made Webster’s big dictionary the standard reference for spelling, and Webster’s preferred sirup over syrup. The dictionaries kept sirup as the preferred spelling until well after syrup had become more popular among the populous. It wasn’t until 1959 that Webster’s (and thus federal bulletin writers) finally recognized that most people liked their syrup smooth, flavorful, and spelled with a y.
You can contact Jim Bradshaw at jimbradshaw4321@ gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.
