[StBernard] New Orleans museum tells the story of Louisiana's sweetest crop

[Westley Annis]

New Orleans museum tells the story of Louisiana's sweetest crop
Published: Thursday, January 06, 2011, 5:00 AM     Updated: Thursday,
January 06, 2011, 6:27 PM
 By Judy Walker, The Times-Picayune 
"Sweetest Day" is a holiday celebrated in October in the Great Lakes region.
In New Orleans, one could argue that the sweetest day is when the Sugar Bowl
is played.

Eliot Kamenitz/The Times-Picayune
Sugar bowl from Morning Call Coffee Stand's French Quarter locale;
In 2011, the city is even a little sweeter, since the Southern Food and
Beverage Museum this week opened its most ambitious exhibition ever: "Tout
de Sweet: All About Sugar."
"We're telling the story of sugar in Louisiana, which almost becomes the
story of sugar in the United States, " said Liz Williams, president of the
museum. "Domino's refinery is the largest in the Western Hemisphere, "
Williams said. "Why is that here? It's here because of all this history."
The exhibit includes the banner that hung on the Chalmette Refinery -- which
is actually in Arabi -- to note its 100th anniversary in 2009. The refinery
produces more than 2 billion pounds of all kinds of sugar products a year,
about 19 percent of the country's cane sugar. Domino is the exhibit's major
sponsor, and it's the first time a big commercial manufacturer has made such
a contribution to the nonprofit museum, Williams said.
One case is devoted to their promotional items, such as Lionel train cars,
old recipe pamphlets and paperweights in the shape of sugar crystals. But
the exhibit contains much more than commercial artifacts, including many
from the family collections of local antiquarian Peter Patout.

Eliot Kamenitz / The Times-Picayune
Lix Williams, Southern Food & Beverage Museum president and director, stands
in an arbor of sugar cane, which frames one of the exhibit entrances. At
right are carved wooden gears, artifacts from the Chalmette refinery
That's the bleached skull of Miller, the last sugar mule on his father's
sugar plantation, in one area devoted to agriculture. More elegant are the
two cases devoted to two early Louisiana sugar plantation families; Patout
is descended from both.
One family is that of Frances Gabriel "Valcour" Aime, 1797-1867, whose St.
James plantation in that parish came to be known as 'Le Petit Versaille'
"because it was so fancy, " Williams said. Along with monogrammed old Paris
porcelain dinner plates, silver and glassware are a matching clock and zinc
statues, one representing Africa and one representing America, the bookends
of the sugar cane world.
Other artifacts include a giant sugar kettle heaped with the stuff; real
sugar cane stalks forming an arched entryway to part of the exhibit; tokens
for the company store on a sugar plantation; a giant promotional cone of
sugar browned with age; a plow that would have been used to plant cane; and
cane knives and machetes, which graphically illustrate the backbreaking work
of the harvest. The machetes were used to chop down the cane stalks, which
were trimmed with the almost-as-huge cane knives.
The exhibit also tells the story of two Louisianians who are famous for
their contributions to the sugar industry: Etienne de Bore, whose plantation
was located in what is now Audubon Park, and Norbert Rillieux, an inventor
and free man of color born in 1806 whose evaporator system is still in use
today (see below).
The front room at the museum includes a display of plates depicting early
sugar refining, from the mid-18th-century "Encyclopedic, ou Dictionnaire
Raisonne des Sciences, des Arts et des Metiers, " a systemic dictionary of
sciences, arts and crafts. A graphic of the process as it's performed at the
Chalmette Refinery supplies the 21st century update.

Eliot Kamenitz/The Times-Picayune
Cane knives and machetes
Also featured in the exhibit is a gunny sack full of Bagasse, the fibrous
pulp left over after the juice is squeezed out of sugar cane. It has long
been used in construction materials such as insulation and now is used as
biofuel and to make biodegradable tableware.
Nearby is a case containing a very large footed silver-plated sugar bowl,
circa 1940, that was used in the Morning Call Coffee Stand when it was in
the French Quarter. A historic photo on the restaurant's website shows an
employee polishing one just like it.
"I think it went out of service because it was polished until the (silver)
plate wore off, " Williams said.
The case also includes two small transfer-ware plates that depict sugar
farming. One, with a French caption, depicts a white planter and a black
worker. Early sugar cane farming, in this country as well as others, was a
factor in the enslavement of millions of Africans.
Sugar was such an important early global industry that the manufacture of
gears for it contributed to the Industrial Revolution. An allusion to this
can be seen in the carved wooden gears from the Chalmette Refinery, used to
mold the iron works when the plant was built in 1909.
 
Enlarge Eliot Kamenitz, The Times-Picayune
ELIOT KAMENITZ, THE TIMES-PICAYUNE Tokens from the company store on a sugar
plantation are part of the display in the ‘Tout de Sweet: All About Sugar’
display at The Southern Food & Beverage in New Orleans.
Southern Food and Beverage Museum's sugar exhibit in New Orleans gallery (7
photos)
The more fanciful culinary side of sugar is represented in the form of an
elaborate sugar-work carousel, created by George Cook, pastry chef at the IP
Casino in Biloxi, Miss.
It's pretty sweet.
. . . . . . . .
SoFAB president Liz Williams makes a variation of a famous French cocktail
using cane syrup, one of the state's distinctive sugar products.
Louisiana Kir
Makes 1 cocktail
1 teaspoon cane syrup
Champagne or white wine
Put the cane syrup in a champagne or wine glass, then top with champagne or
white wine.
. . . . . . . .
The opening party on Sunday for the "Tout de Sweet" exhibit served sweets
(of course) including this variation on a peanut brittle recipe included in
a promotional brochure, "Sugar Spoon Recipes, " from the Domino Sugar Bowl
Kitchen, 1962.
Pecan Brittle
Makes 1 1/2 pounds
1 tablespoon butter
1 1/4 cups broken pecans
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 pound sugar
Melt butter in small saucepan over very low heat. Add nuts and salt. Allow
to warm.
Place sugar in large thick skillet over medium heat. Stir continuously until
sugar caramelizes into golden brown syrup. Quickly stir nut and butter
mixture into the syrup. Pour onto large buttered surface at once. With
spatula, stretch and pull candy into a thin sheet. Allow to cool. Break into
pieces.
. . . . . . . .
Domino Sugar's website has modern recipes using the products made in its
Chalmette Refinery, including one of its newest ones. Demerara Washed Raw
Cane Sugar, made from the first pressing of the cane, has a bit of molasses
that gives it the golden color.
Those fortunate enough to have used the old-fashioned raw sugar direct from
a Louisiana mill might find the product similar. It has a crunchy texture,
since the crystals are a bit larger than normal.
Chicken Sate with Peanut Sauce
Marinade:
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon sesame oil
3 green onions, sliced thin
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup Domino Demerara Washed Raw Cane Sugar
1 pound chicken breasts cut into strips
Peanut Sauce:
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup canned coconut milk
Soak wooden skewers in water.
For the marinade, heat the oils in a small saucepan. Add green onions,
garlic and ginger and cook, stirring frequently, about 3 minutes. Carefully
add the soy sauce, lemon juice and sugar. Bring to a boil, then remove from
heat and cool.
Meanwhile, thread chicken strips onto skewers in a zigzag pattern and place
them in a shallow pan. Pour the marinade over the chicken, cover and
refrigerate for 1 hour, turning once after 30 minutes.
For the peanut sauce: In a small saucepan, bring water, soy sauce, lemon
juice, garlic and honey to a boil. Remove from heat, add the peanut butter
and stir until smooth. Stir in coconut milk. Serve sauce at room
temperature.
Remove chicken from marinade and grill over medium heat for about 2 minutes
on each side or until cooked through. Serve with peanut sauce.
Granola Carrot Bread
Makes 1 loaf, 12 servings
1-1/2 cups granola
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups grated carrots
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk or buttermilk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 9- by 5- by 3-inch loaf pan.
In large bowl, combine all ingredients; stir just until mixed. Pour into
prepared pan. Bake 55 to 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center
comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pan and finish cooling
on rack.
. . . . . . . .
Food editor Judy Walker can be reached at jwalker at timespicayune.com or
504.826.3485.
 
MAJOR LOUISIANA SUGAR HISTORY MAKERS/from the SoFAB exhibit
Etienne de Boré
De Boré was born in Illinois in 1741. Educated in France, he served as a
musketeer in the King's Guard. He married a woman from Louisiana, and was
granted a plantation at what is now Audubon Park in New Orleans. He was a
successful indigo planter until weather and competition from Central America
caused his fortunes to change. He planted sugar and built a sugar mill; his
plantation is credited with producing the first granulated sugar in the
colony in 1795. In 1796 his crop brought in $12,000, which spurred the
area's new sugar-growing industry.
De Boré lived until 1820, having held offices in the government of
Louisiana.

Eliot Kamenitz/The Times-Picayune
Norbert Rillieux
Born in 1806, Rillieux was a brilliant inventor and engineer. A free person
of color, he was educated in France. He developed the multiple-effect
evaporator under vacuum, which made the granulation of sugar efficient and
profitable. .
Rillieux's system was readily adopted in Louisiana, Cuba and Mexico. In
Louisiana it was installed at Myrtle Grove, as well as Bellechasse
plantations. Approaching the Civil War, free people of color were restricted
in their movements, and Rillieux returned to France, where he remained until
his death in 1894. Rillieux was a cousin of French painter Edgar Degas, who
also visited Louisiana. Rillieux's invention was designated a National
Historic Chemical Landmark in New Orleans on Apirl 18, 2002.
 
Tout de Sweet: All About Sugar
What: An exhibit about sugar production in Louisiana.
Where: Southern Food and Beverage Museum, Riverwalk Marketplace, Julia
Street entrance.
When: Mondays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 6 p.m.
Tickets: $10, $5 students/seniors, AAA members $8.
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