Peasant
A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or farmer one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, peasants were divided into three classes according to their personal status: slave and free tenant. Peasants either hold title to land in fee simple, or hold land by any of several forms of land tenure, among them socage, quit-rent and copyhold; the word peasantry is used in a non-pejorative sense as a collective noun for the rural population in the poor and under-developed countries of the world. The word "peasant" is derived from the 15th century French word païsant, meaning one from the pays, or countryside. Peasants made up the majority of the agricultural labour force in a pre-industrial society; the majority of the people in the Middle Ages were peasants. Though "peasant" is a word of loose application, once a market economy had taken root, the term peasant proprietors was used to describe the traditional rural population in countries where smallholders farmed much of the land.
More the word "peasant" is sometimes used to refer pejoratively to those considered to be "lower class" defined by poorer education and/or a lower income. The open field system of agriculture dominated most of northern Europe during medieval times and endured until the nineteenth century in many areas. Under this system, peasants lived on a manor presided over by a bishop of the church. Peasants paid labor services to the lord in exchange for their right to cultivate the land. Fallowed land, pastures and wasteland were held in common; the open field system required cooperation among the peasants of the manor. It was replaced by individual ownership and management of land; the relative position of peasants in Western Europe improved after the Black Death had reduced the population of medieval Europe in the mid-14th century: resulting in more land for the survivors and making labor more scarce. In the wake of this disruption to the established order centuries saw the invention of the printing press, the development of widespread literacy and the enormous social and intellectual changes of the Enlightenment.
The evolution of ideas in an environment of widespread literacy laid the groundwork for the Industrial Revolution, which enabled mechanically and chemically augmented agricultural production while increasing the demand for factory workers in cities, who became what Karl Marx called the proletariat. The trend toward individual ownership of land, typified in England by Enclosure, displaced many peasants from the land and compelled them unwillingly, to become urban factory-workers, who came to occupy the socio-economic stratum the preserve of the medieval peasants; this process happened in an pronounced and truncated way in Eastern Europe. Lacking any catalysts for change in the 14th century, Eastern European peasants continued upon the original medieval path until the 18th and 19th centuries. Serfdom was abolished in Russia in 1861, while many peasants would remain in areas where their family had farmed for generations, the changes did allow for the buying and selling of lands traditionally held by peasants, for landless ex-peasants to move to the cities.
Before emancipation in 1861, serfdom was on the wane in Russia. The proportion of serfs within the empire had decreased "from 45-50 percent at the end of the eighteenth century, to 37.7 percent in 1858." In Germany, peasants continued to center their lives in the village well into the 19th century. They belonged to a corporate body and helped to manage the community resources and to monitor community life. In the East they had the status of serfs bound permanently to parcels of land. A peasant is called a "Bauer" in German and "Bur" in Low German. In most of Germany, farming was handled by tenant farmers who paid rents and obligatory services to the landlord—typically a nobleman. Peasant leaders supervised the fields and ditches and grazing rights, maintained public order and morals, supported a village court which handled minor offenses. Inside the family the patriarch made all the decisions, tried to arrange advantageous marriages for his children. Much of the villages' communal life centered on holy days.
In Prussia, the peasants drew lots to choose conscripts required by the army. The noblemen handled external relationships and politics for the villages under their control, were not involved in daily activities or decisions. Information about the complexities of the French Revolution the fast-changing scene in Paris, reached isolated areas through both official announcements and long-established oral networks. Peasants responded differently to different sources of information; the limits on political knowledge in these areas depended more on how much peasants chose to know than on bad roads or illiteracy. Historian Jill Maciak concludes that peasants "were neither subservient, nor ignorant."In his seminal book Peasants into Frenchmen: the Modernization of Rural France, 1880–1914, historian Eugen Weber traced the modernization of French villages and argued that rural France went from backward and isolated to modern and possessing a sense of French nationhood during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
He emphasized the roles of railroads, republican schools, universal military conscription. He based his findings on school records, migration patterns, military-service documents and economic trends. Weber argued that until 1900 or so a sense of French nationhood
Wynnere and Wastoure
Wynnere and Wastoure is a fragmentary Middle English poem written in alliterative verse sometime around the middle of the 14th century. The poem occurs in a single manuscript, British Library Additional MS. 31042 called the London Thornton Manuscript. This manuscript was compiled in the mid-15th century by Robert Thornton, a member of the provincial landed gentry of Yorkshire, who seems to have made a collection of instructional and other texts for the use of his family, it is not known where Thornton found the text of Wynnere and Wastoure, which has not survived in any other sources, but the dialect of the poem indicates that it most written by someone originating from the north Midlands. The poem can be dated with some confidence due to its prominent reference to William Shareshull, Chief Justice of the King's Bench, who left the post in 1361 and died in 1370, it appears to make reference to the Treason Act 1351 and the Statute of Labourers 1351. Wynnere and Wastoure is written in a four-stress unrhymed alliterative line thought to be a late development, or revival, of the alliterative line used in Old English poetry.
Bot I schall tell yow a tale that me bytyde ones Als I went in the weste, wandrynge myn one, Bi a bonke of a bourne. I layde myn hede one ane hill ane hawthorne besyde. Wynnere and Wastoure is the earliest datable poem of the so-called "Alliterative Revival", when the alliterative style re-emerged in Middle English; the sophistication and confidence of the poet's style, seems to indicate that poetry in the alliterative "long line" was well established in Middle English by the time Wynnere and Wastoure was written. The poem begins with a brief reference to the legend, derived from Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, of the founding of Britain by Brutus, the great-grandson of Aeneas; the poet goes on to speak of the marvels and disorder seen in the land, commenting that Doomsday must be approaching. Wandering by himself, the poet lies down by a hawthorn tree and has a dream vision, a "sweven", in which he sees two opposing armies, a gold and red pavilion raised on top of a hill. Inside the pavilion is a richly-dressed, brown-bearded king, identified as Edward III of England.
One army is led by a figure representing monetary gain and financial prudence. The king, after sending his herald to intervene between the two armies, agrees to listen to Wynnere and Wastoure's complaints against each other and to give his judgement on them. There follows a lengthy debate between Wynnere and Wastoure, each giving complex arguments against the other and about the effects on society of the principles they represent. At the end, the King gives his judgement, though the poem breaks off, at line 503, before this has been completed, he appears to endorse elements of both Wynnere's sparing and Wastoure's spending, though the poem seems to condemn both viewpoints as unbalanced and leading to inequality and social abuses. It seems that the poem forms a sophisticated comment on the pressures facing the king and on the principles of good governance, with additional satire directed against the rising merchant class in the person of Wynnere. Though his subject is the feudal economy, the poet's themes are moralistic.
The poem is within both the strong mediaeval tradition of the poetic debate, in which two opposing positions are argued, within the tradition of the "dream vision", in which the narrator falls asleep and witnesses an event with an allegorical character. It has something in common with the genre of the chanson d'aventure, in which the solitary, wandering poet overhears a complaint or debate. Wynnere and Wastoure has some form of relationship to the Piers Plowman tradition; some critics, such as John Burrow, have argued that Langland was influenced by Wynnere and Wastoure, but that he deliberately diluted its style to make it more accessible to southern readers. The writer of Wynnere and Wastoure was a sophisticated poet, confident in both the alliterative verse-form and in handling complex satire. However, we know nothing about the author's identity other than what can be deduced from the poem's language. Modern opinion identifies the dialect, therefore the author, as originating from the north-west Midlands as far north as southern Lancashire.
The presence of some East Midland forms - those of the contemporary dialect of London - has led to the suggestion that the poet may have been part of the household of a lord whose seat was in the north-west, but who ha
Devizes
Devizes is a market town and civil parish in the centre of Wiltshire, England. It developed around Devizes Castle, an 11th-century Norman castle, received a charter in 1141 permitting regular markets, which are held weekly in an open market place; the castle was besieged during the Anarchy, a 12th-century civil war between Stephen of England and Empress Matilda, again during the English Civil War when the Cavaliers lifted the siege during the Battle of Roundway Down. Devizes remained under Royalist control until 1645, when Oliver Cromwell attacked and forced the Royalists to surrender; the castle was destroyed in 1648 on the orders of Parliament, today little remains of it. From the 16th century Devizes became known for its textiles, by the early 18th century it held the largest corn market in the West Country, constructing the Corn Exchange in 1857. In the 18th century, curing of tobacco, snuff-making were established; the Wadworth Brewery was founded in the town in 1875. Standing at the west edge of the Vale of Pewsey, the town is about 10.5 miles southeast of Chippenham and 11 miles east-north-east of the county town of Trowbridge.
It has nearly five hundred listed buildings, some notable churches, a town hall and a green in the centre of the town. Devizes Castle was built by Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury in 1080, but the town is not mentioned in the Domesday Book; because the castle was on the boundaries of the manors of Rowde, Bishops Cannings and Potterne it became known as the castrum ad divisas, hence the name Devizes. On John Speed's map of Wiltshire, the town's name is recorded as The Devyses; the first castle on the site was of the motte and bailey form and was made of wood and earth, but this burnt down in 1113. A new castle was built in stone by Roger of Osmund's successor. Devizes received its first charter in 1141 permitting regular markets; the castle changed hands several times during the Anarchy, a civil war between Stephen of Blois and Matilda in the 12th century. The castle held important prisoners, including eldest son of William the Conqueror; the town has had churches since the 12th century and today has four Church of England parish churches.
During the 12th and 13th centuries, the town of Devizes developed outside the castle with craftsmen and traders setting up businesses to serve the residents of the castle. The first known market in Devizes was in 1228; the original market was in the large space outside St Mary’s Church, rather than in the current Market Place, which at that time would have been within the castle’s outer bailey. The chief products in the 16th and early 17th centuries were wheat and yarn, with cheese and butter increasing in importance later. In 1643, during the English Civil War, Parliamentary forces under Sir William Waller besieged Royalist forces under Sir Ralph Hopton in Devizes; however the siege was lifted by a relief force from Oxford under Henry Wilmot, 1st Earl of Rochester and Waller's forces were totally destroyed at the Battle of Roundway Down. Devizes remained under Royalist control until 1645, when Oliver Cromwell attacked and forced the Royalists to surrender; the castle was destroyed in 1648 on the orders of Parliament, a process known as slighting, today little remains of it.
From the 16th century Devizes became known for its textiles white woollen broadcloth but the manufacture of serge, drugget and cassimere or Zephyr cloth. In the early 18th century Devizes held the largest corn market in the West Country of England and traded hops, cattle and various types of cloth. Before the Corn Exchange was built in 1857, the trade in wheat and barley was conducted in the open, with sacks piled around the market cross. Today's cross displays the tale of a woman, Ruth Pierce, who dropped dead after being discovered cheating. Wool merchants were able to build prosperous town houses in St. John's and Long Street and around the market place. From the end of the 18th century the manufacture of textiles declined, but other trades in the town included clock-making, a bell foundry, milliners and silversmiths. In the 18th century brewing, curing of tobacco and snuff-making were established in the town. Brewing still survives in the Wadworth Brewery; the pond known as The Crammer, east of the town centre, is claimed to be site of the 18th-century Moonrakers story which led to a colloquial name for Wiltshire people.
In 1794 it was decided in the Bear Hotel to raise a body of ten independent troops of yeomanry in the county of Wiltshire. These would be brought together to form the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry, the senior yeomanry regiment. In 1810 the county Militia, quartered at Devizes and the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry were called out to quell the disturbances; the mutiny came to a head when the two forces faced off against each other with loaded firearms in the Market Square, at which point the Militia ringleaders surrendered. The Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry went on to serve at home and abroad, including in the Boer War, World War I and World War II, live on as B Squadron and Y Squadron of the Royal Wessex Yeomanry, based in Old Sarum and Swindon respectively. A new Devizes Prison, or "County House of Corrections", was opened in 1817; this replaced the Old Bridewell, built in Bridewell Street in 1579. The new prison was built of brick and stone, it was designed by Richard Ingleman as a two-storey polygon surrounding a central governor's house and reflected the panopticon principle.
It had an operational life of more than ninety years and was closed in 1922. It stood on the north side of the Castle's Old Park, across the Kenn
Rum
Rum is a distilled alcoholic drink made from sugarcane byproducts, such as molasses, or directly from sugarcane juice, by a process of fermentation and distillation. The distillate, a clear liquid, is usually aged in oak barrels; the majority of the world's rum production occurs in the Latin America. Rum is produced in Australia, Austria, Fiji, Japan, Nepal, New Zealand, the Philippines, Reunion Island, South Africa, Sweden, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States. Rums are produced in various grades. Light rums are used in cocktails, whereas "golden" and "dark" rums were consumed straight or neat, on the rocks, or used for cooking, but are now consumed with mixers. Premium rums are available, made to be consumed either straight or iced. Rum plays a part in the culture of most islands of the West Indies as well as in The Maritimes and Newfoundland; this drink has famous associations with piracy. Rum has served as a popular medium of economic exchange, used to help fund enterprises such as slavery, organized crime, military insurgencies.
The origin of the word "rum" is unclear. In an 1824 essay about the word's origin, Samuel Morewood, a British etymologist, suggested the word might derive from the British slang term for "the best", as in "having a rum time." He wrote: As spirits, extracted from molasses, could not well be ranked under the name whiskey, brandy, or arrack, it would be called rum, to denote its excellence or superior quality. Given the harsh taste of early rum, this interpretation is unlikely. Morewood suggested another possibility: that the word was taken from the last syllable of the Latin word for sugar, saccharum; this view is held today. Competing hypotheses abound. One proposes that the word comes from the Turkish name for Greeks, Rum, as some of the earliest rum spirits were distilled by Greek Christians in the eastern Mediterranean. Other etymologists have mentioned the Romani word rum, meaning "strong" or "potent"; these words have been linked to the ramboozle and rumfustian, both popular British drinks in the mid-17th century.
However, neither was made with rum, but rather eggs, wine and various spices. The most probable origin is as a truncated version of rumbustion. Both words surfaced in English about the same time as rum did, were slang terms for "tumult" or "uproar"; this is a far more convincing explanation, brings the image of fractious men fighting in entanglements at island tippling houses, which are early versions of the bar. Another claim is the name is from the large drinking glasses used by Dutch seamen known as rummers, from the Dutch word roemer, a drinking glass. Other options include contractions of the words iterum, Latin for "again, a second time", or arôme, French for aroma. Regardless of the original source, the name was in common use by 1654, when the General Court of Connecticut ordered the confiscations of "whatsoever Barbados liquors called rum, kill devil and the like". A short time in May 1657, the General Court of Massachusetts decided to make illegal the sale of strong liquor "whether knowne by the name of rumme, strong water, brandy, etc."In current usage, the name used for a rum is based on its place of origin.
For rums from Spanish-speaking locales, the word ron is used. A ron añejo indicates a rum, aged and is used for premium products. Rhum is the term that distinguishes rum made from fresh sugar cane juice from rum made from molasses in French-speaking locales like Martinique. A rhum vieux is an aged French rum; some of the many other names for rum are Nelson's blood, kill-devil, demon water, pirate's drink, navy neaters, Barbados water. A version of rum from Newfoundland is referred to by the name screech, while some low-grade West Indies rums are called tafia. Vagbhata, an Indian ayurvedic physician " a man to drink unvitiated liquor like rum and wine, mead mixed with mango juice'together with friends'". Shidhu, a drink produced by fermentation and distillation of sugarcane juice, is mentioned in other Sanskrit texts. According to Maria Dembinska, the King of Cyprus, Peter I of Cyprus or Pierre I de Lusignan, brought rum with him as a gift for the other royal dignitaries at the Congress of Kraków, held in 1364.
This is feasible given the position of Cyprus as a significant producer of sugar in the Middle Ages, although the alcoholic sugar drink named rum by Dembinska might not have resembled modern distilled rums closely. Dembinska suggests Cyprus rum was drunk mixed with an almond milk drink produced in Cyprus, called soumada. Another early rum-like drink is brum. Produced by the Malay people, brum dates back thousands of years. Marco Polo recorded a 14th-century account of a "very good wine of sugar", offered to him in the area that became modern-day Iran; the first distillation of rum in the Caribbean took place on the sugarcane plantations there in the 17th century. Plantation slaves discovered that molasses, a byproduct of the sugar refining process, could be fermented into alcohol. Distillation of these alcoholic byproducts concentrated the alcohol and removed impurities, producing the first modern rums. Tradition suggests this type of rum first originated on the island
Entremets
Entremets in French cuisine referred to small dishes served between courses but in modern times more refers to a type of dessert. It was an elaborate form of entertainment dish common among the nobility and upper middle class in Europe during the part of the Middle Ages and the early modern period. An entremet marked the end of a serving of courses and could be anything from a simple frumenty, brightly colored and flavored with exotic and expensive spices to elaborate models of castles complete with wine fountains and food modeled into allegorical scenes. By the end of the Middle Ages, it had evolved entirely into dinner entertainment in the form of inedible ornaments or acted performances packed with symbolism of power and regality. In English it was more known as a subtlety and did not include acted entertainment. For modern pastry chefs, an entremet is a multi-layered mousse-based cake with various complementary flavors and varying textural contrasts. Dishes that were intended to be eaten as well as entertain can be traced back at least to the early Roman Empire.
In his Satyricon, the Roman writer Petronius describes a dish consisting of a rabbit dressed to look like the mythical horse Pegasus. The function of the entremets was to mark the end of a course, mets, of which there could be several at a banquet, it punctuated each stage of a banquet, prepared the diners for the next serving and functioned as a conversation piece. The earliest recipe for an entremets can be found in an edition of Le Viandier, a medieval recipe collection from the early 14th century, it described a comparatively simple dish: boiled and fried chicken liver with chopped giblet, ground ginger, cloves, verjuice, beef bouillon and egg yolks, served with cinnamon on top, was supposed to be of a bright yellow color. An simpler dish, like millet boiled in milk and seasoned with saffron, was considered to be an entremets; the most noticeable trait of the early entremets was the focus on vivid colors. On, the entremets would take the shape of various types of illusion foods, such as peacocks or swans that were skinned, cooked and redressed in their original plumage or scenes depicting contemporary human activities, such as a knight in the form of a grilled capon equipped with a paper helmet and lance, sitting on the back of a roast piglet.
Elaborate models of castles made from edible material was a popular theme. At a feast in 1343 dedicated to Pope Clement VI, one of the Avignon popes, one of the entremets was a castle with walls made from roast birds, populated with cooked and redressed deer, wild boar, goat and rabbit. In the 14th century entremets began to involve not just eye-catching displays of amusing haute cuisine, but more prominent and highly symbolic forms of inedible entertainment. In 1306, the knighting of the son of Edward I included performances of chansons de geste in what has been assumed to be part of the entremets. During the course of the 14th century they would take on the character of theatrical displays, complete with props, singers and dancers. At a banquet held in 1378 by Charles V of France in honor of Emperor Charles IV, a huge wooden model of the city of Jerusalem was rolled in before the high table. Actors portraying the crusader Godfrey of Bouillon and his knights sailed into the hall on a miniature ship and reenacted the capture of Jerusalem in 1099.
From the late 14th century on in England, entremets are referred to as subtleties. This English term was derived from an older meaning of "subtle" as "clever" or "surprising"; the meaning of "subtlety" did not include entertainment involving actors. The "four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie", in the nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence", has its genesis in an entremets presented to amuse banquet guests in the 14th century; this extravaganza of hospitality was related by an Italian cook of the era. “Live birds were slipped into a baked pie shell through a hole cut in its bottom.” The unwary guest would release the flapping birds. At the end of the Middle Ages, the level of refinement among the noble and royal courts of Europe had increased and the demands of powerful hosts and their rich dinner guests resulted in more complicated and elaborate creations. Chiquart, cook to Amadeus VIII, Duke of Savoy, described an entremets entitled Castle of Love in his 15th-century culinary treatise Du fait de cuisine.
It consisted of a giant castle model with four towers, carried in by four men. The castle contained, among other things, a roast piglet, a swan cooked and redressed in its own plumage, a roast boar's head and a pike cooked and sauced in three different ways without having been cut into pieces, all of them breathing fire; the battlements of the castle were adorned with the banners of the Duke and his guests, manned by miniature archers, inside the castle there was a fountain that gushed rosewater and spiced wine. Noteworthy for its entertainment value to the assembled nobles of the time, the 17th century provided a memorable banquet event courtesy of the host, the Duke of Buckingham. In honor of his royal guests, Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria, a pie was prepared concealing a human being — famous dwarf of the era, Jeffrey Hudson. Entremets made an effective tool for political displays. One of the most famous examples is the so-called Feast of the Pheasant, arranged by Philip the Good of Burgundy in 1454.
The theme of the banquet was the fall of
Mortar and pestle
Mortar and pestle are implements used since ancient times to prepare ingredients or substances by crushing and grinding them into a fine paste or powder in the kitchen and pharmacy. The mortar is a bowl made of hard wood, ceramic, or hard stone, such as granite; the pestle is a blunt club-shaped object. The substance to be ground, which may be wet or dry, is placed in the mortar, where the pestle is pressed and rotated onto it until the desired texture is achieved. Scientists have found ancient mortars and pestles that date back to 35000 BC; the English word mortar derives from classical Latin mortarium, among several other usages, "receptacle for pounding" and "product of grinding or pounding". The classical Latin pistillum, meaning "pounder", led to English pestle; the Roman poet Juvenal applied both mortarium and pistillum to articles used in the preparation of drugs, reflecting the early use of the mortar and pestle as a symbol of a pharmacist or apothecary. The antiquity of these tools is well documented in early writing, such as the Egyptian Ebers Papyrus of ~1550 BC and the Old Testament.
Mortars and pestles were traditionally used in pharmacies to crush various ingredients prior to preparing an extemporaneous prescription. The mortar and pestle, with the Rod of Asclepius, the Green Cross, others, is one of the most pervasive symbols of pharmacology, along with the show globe. For pharmaceutical use, the mortar and the head of the pestle are made of porcelain, while the handle of the pestle is made of wood; this is known as a Wedgwood mortar and pestle and originated in 1759. Today the act of reducing the particle size is known as trituration. Mortars and pestles are used as drug paraphernalia to grind up pills to speed up absorption when they are ingested, or in preparation for insufflation. To finely ground drugs, not available in liquid dosage form is used if patients need artificial nutrition such as parenteral nutrition or by nasogastric tube. Mortars are used in cooking to prepare wet or oily ingredients such as guacamole and pesto, as well as grinding spices into powder.
The molcajete, a version used by pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican cultures including the Aztec and Maya, stretching back several thousand years, is made of basalt and is used in Mexican cooking. Other Native American nations use mortars carved into the bedrock to other nuts. Many such depressions can be found in their territories. In Japan large mortars are used with wooden mallets to prepare mochi. A regular sized Japanese mortar and pestle are called surikogi, respectively. Granite mortars and pestles are used in Southeast Asia, as well as India. In India, it is used extensively to make spice mixtures for various delicacies as well as day to day dishes. With the advent of motorized grinders, use of the mortar and pestle has decreased, it is traditional in various Hindu ceremonies to crush turmeric in these mortars. In Malay, it is known as batu lesung. Large stone mortars, with long wood pestles were used in West Asia to grind meat for a type of meatloaf, or kibbeh, as well as the hummus variety known as masabcha.
In Indonesia and the Netherlands mortar is known as Cobek or Tjobek and pestle is known as Ulekan or Oelekan. It is used to make fresh sambal, a spicy chili condiment, hence the sambal ulek/oelek denote its process using pestle, it is used to grind peanut and other ingredients to make peanut sauce for gado-gado. Large mortars and pestles are used in developing countries to husk and dehull grain; these are made of wood, operated by one or more persons. Good mortar and pestle-making materials must be hard enough to crush the substance rather than be worn away by it, they can not be too brittle either. The material should be cohesive, so that small bits of the mortar or pestle do not mix in with the ingredients. Smooth and non-porous materials are trap the substances being ground. In food preparation, a rough or absorbent material may cause the strong flavour of a past ingredient to be tasted in food prepared later; the food particles left in the mortar and on the pestle may support the growth of microorganisms.
When dealing with medications, the prepared drugs may interact or mix, contaminating the used ingredients. Rough ceramic mortar and pestle sets can be used to reduce substances to fine powders, but stain and are brittle. Porcelain mortars are sometimes conditioned for use by grinding some sand to give them a rougher surface which helps to reduce the particle size. Glass mortars and pestles are fragile, but suitable for use with liquids. However, they do not grind as finely as the ceramic type. Other materials used include stone marble or agate, bamboo, steel and basalt. Mortar and pestle sets made from the wood of old grape vines have proved reliable for grinding salt and pepper at the dinner table. Uncooked rice is sometimes ground in mortars to clean them; this process must be repeated until the rice comes out white. Some stones, such as molcajete, need to be seasoned first before use. Metal mortars are kept oiled. Since the results obtained with hand grinding are neither reproducible nor reliable, most laboratories work with automatic mortar grinders.
Grinding time and pressure of the mortar can be adjusted and fixed, saving time and labor. The first automatic Mortar Grinder was invented by F. Kurt
Sultana (grape)
The sultana is a "white", oval seedless grape variety called the sultanina, Thompson Seedless, Lady de Coverly, oval-fruited Kishmish. It is known as İzmir üzümü in Turkey since this variety has been extensively grown region around İzmir, it is assumed to originate from the Levant, which became part of the Ottoman Empire. In some countries Commonwealth countries, it is the name given to the raisin made from it or from larger seedless grapes; these are larger than Zante currants, the Thompson variety is smaller than many seeded raisins. In the US and Canada, the name "raisin" is applied to all dried grapes, so that the breakfast cereal known as "sultana bran" in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom is called raisin bran in the United States and Canada. Thompson sultana raisins are small and sweet, have a golden colour. Another seedless grape variety from the former Ottoman Empire, the round-fruited Kishmish, is dried to make a larger sultana raisin; the sultana raisin was traditionally imported to the English-speaking world from the Ottoman Empire.
Turkey and Australia are major producers. American sultana grapes are invariably Thompson Seedless, a name that refers to William Thompson, a viticulturist, an early grower in California and is sometimes credited with introducing the variety. According to the US Code of Federal Regulations, the two names are synonymous. All of California raisin production and one-third of California's total grape area is of this variety, making it the single most planted variety; the Ottomans took the sultana grape variety to the island of Crete in the 19th century. In the US, most raisins, including those with the typical dark brown colour, are made from the sultana grape, the Thompson Seedless; the term "sultana" refers to golden-coloured dried grapes, which may be called "golden raisins". Any kind of grape may be used to produce golden raisins, any kind of golden raisins from any kind of grape may be marketed as "sultanas". Moreover, the golden colour may come from a treatment with sulfur dioxide rather than traditional drying and preservation methods.
Most nonorganic sultana grapes in California and elsewhere are treated with the growth-inducing plant hormone gibberellin. In other grapes, gibberellin is released by the seeds. In some jurisdictions, seedless dried grapes are classified as sultana and Thompson raisins according to the drying method used. Sultanas are steeped in a solution of water, potassium carbonate, vegetable oil to hasten the drying process. Thompson raisins are not treated with this solution, but are dried thus they require more drying time than sultanas; because of this, Thompsons are a darker colour than sultanas. Sultana raisins are eaten as a snack food without further processing and are used in a variety of dishes, such as fruitcake and Bath buns, sometimes prepared by soaking in water, fruit juice, or alcohol; the sultana grape is used to make white wine, in which use it is known for its "sweet blandness". It is referred to as a "three-way grape" because it is used as table grape, to make raisins, to make wine. In the United States it is the base for wine generically called "chablis".
This wine is named for the Chablis region of France. In the EU, "Chablis" wine must be made from the Chardonnay grape produced in the region of the Yonne département. End users include: Manufacturing industries such as bakeries and breakfast cereal producers Supermarkets Dairy products such as yogurt and ice-creams Salads and dessertsThompson Seedless is the most planted grape in California due to its triple use. Sultana grape juice was fraudulently sold as being of Chardonnay grapes in Australia for wine making, due to the lower cost of Sultana grapes; the fraud was discovered in 2003 by the Australian Brandy Corporation. It was considered the largest case of wine deception in Australian history. Sultaniye wines are dry and semi-dry, light-bodied wines produced in Turkey. Sultaniye grapes used in winemaking are grown at Denizli and Manisa, in the Aegean Region of Turkey. Sultaniye grapes are consumed as table raisins, as well as used in wine making; the Semillon and Sultaniye wines from the Marmara Region of Turkey attract attention not only in the local market, but in international markets
