4 large lumps of sugar?

I am making Julia Child's beurre d'Orange and cannot for the life of me figure out how much sugar "4 large lumps" is. Are they sugar cubes? Why buy sugar in lumps, anyway, if you are going to incorporate it into something?

[Robin Garr]

Walter, that send me down an Internet rabbit hole, and to be honest, I don't have a definitive answer. Several stories like this one, though, suggest that the sugar cube was invented to standardize the less precise lump knocked off the larger loaves that sugar was sold in during the 19th century and before, back when granulated sugar wasn't even a dream.
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/maga ... -cube.html

A cube approximates one teaspoon, so I'd go with that. Or if your recipe could be harmed by too much sweetness, go with a little less and then flavor to taste?

Granulated sugar is an underappreciated wonder.

I remember visiting a fort in Quebec City and going into the commander's house. They had a vintage sugar loaf cutter installed in the kitchen. Apparently the sugar came in hard loaves, to prevent loss by people and vermin, and then was scraped off for use. Obviously if you could afford a built-in sugar cutter, it was a symbol of wealth, I suppose not unlike having a carving station for jamón iberico would be today.

I think based on the description and your post they must have been sugar cubes, which was what my mother also thought when I asked her. They are used to scrape the oils out of the zest of the orange. Interestingly, the recipe (from the 70s) describes the zest as "the orange part of the peel", indicating that not every reader would know that term. I'm a little surprised anyone who can make Julia Child recipes wouldn't know that sort of basic culinary term, but on the other hand I'm not sure I heard it until I was an adult.

Now I just have to figure out why the orange juice wouldn't emulsify with the butter. Wasted a perfectly good blood orange, though the butter was superb without it.

Thai palm sugar and Indian palm and cane sugars (gur, jaggery) still come mainly in inconvenient hard cakes or loaves. I end up using a meat hammer to break them up. I managed to find some Thai palm sugar that was soft, sort of like New England maple sugar. Much more convenient to use.

Orange juice, being mostly water, is not going to want to emulsify with butter, which is mostly fat. I'd proceed as if making mayonnaise--add the orange juice very slowly while beating the butter.

-Paul W.

I remember visiting a fort in Quebec City and going into the commander's house. They had a vintage sugar loaf cutter installed in the kitchen. Apparently the sugar came in hard loaves, to prevent loss by people and vermin, and then was scraped off for use. Obviously if you could afford a built-in sugar cutter, it was a symbol of wealth, I suppose not unlike having a carving station for jamón iberico would be today.

Having a sugar loaf cutter in the house meant you could afford sugar, a great luxury in Colonial times. White sugar, however you could lay your hands on it, was an expensive import. Alas that it would cake.

I am making Julia Child's beurre d'Orange and cannot for the life of me figure out how much sugar "4 large lumps" is. Are they sugar cubes? Why buy sugar in lumps, anyway, if you are going to incorporate it into something?

Sugar cubes used to come in two sizes: cubes and tablets. I think the cubes (sold by Domino as "Dots") is all that is made anymore; as best I can figure out, the tablets were made using molds created for WWII-era K rations (...that's the only pix I can find of them, but I remember them from my childhood (and not war surplus)).

Is there any difference in size between US and UK sugar cubes, as there is with liquid measures such as pints and gallons?

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

"Interestingly, the recipe (from the 70s) describes the zest as "the orange part of the peel", indicating that not every reader would know that term. I'm a little surprised anyone who can make Julia Child recipes wouldn't know that sort of basic culinary term, but on the other hand I'm not sure I heard it until I was an adult."

I'm relatively positive that I didn't know the word zest until I learned of zesting tools.

To most Americans at that time, Zest was a brand of soap bar. But the adjective "zesty" (piquant or lively) was in common use.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

I spent today reading what I consider my very first cookbook. It was just about the only cookbook my mother owned; she didn't cook from it that I recall, she just owned it. I loved it because it was big with lusty artwork. Anyway, I plan a separate post about the book, which was published in 1960, but I couldn't help but notice after participating in this conversation this morning that what we're calling zest was routinely referred to as grated peel.

I think "zest" was a fairly every-day word in Australian English during that period and earlier.
I love these divergences of language and usage.

Is there any difference in size between US and UK sugar cubes, as there is with liquid measures such as pints and gallons?

-Paul W.

I have no idea, but then I don't use sugar* and we don't have any sugar cubes in the house. I don't know if there is a standard size in the UK. It's not mandated by any regulation so I suppose it's up to individual manufacturers, as I assume also in the USA. But I never saw any cubes in the USA; all the eating places had sweeteners in individual wrappers.

* I don't, but Jo uses sugar to make marmalade all year and jam in autumn and crumble when the garden rhubarb is rampart. Ummm, had rhubarb crumble last night!

An image search for 'sugar cubes' shows no consistency, some are perfect cubes, some are rectangular.

"One lump or two"? Unsure why she used in a recipe, but a lump is a teaspoon.
Shapes vary, but should all be one teaspoon I believe
American tsp as 4.93 ml, metric tsp are 5. Pretty insignificant difference. The big one that might screw up a recipe is Australian tablespoons, which are 4 teaspoons, as opposed to 3 everywhere else.