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87 chapter xi y How Melado Is Cooked and Whisked in the Boiling Pans Now that the caldo has been refined and filtered, it goes to the boiling pans to be cooked, helped by a greater fire and flame than that needed in the cauldrons. The bottoms of the boiling pans have a greater thickness to allow the additional activity required at this stage. If the melado boils to the point where it threatens to spill over, throw in some animal fat and it will subside and become quiet. This also might be good advice for a person, should his indignation get out of control. They say that if any acidic liquid is added to the cauldrons or the boiling pans, for example lemon juice or something similar, the melado will never coagulate, nor will it solidify as it should. There is talk that this has happened. However, this does not appear to be correct, at least in reference to any acidic liquid other than lemon juice. There have been those who added a lot of sour cachaça to the caldo. Perhaps they did this as a practical joke, or because they were annoyed, or irritated. In spite of this, the sugar coagulated quite well when it was supposed to. Just because of the actions of some souls, their petty dissatisfactions cause all these efforts to amount to nothing. What is certain is that when the me­ lado or the mel moves to the boiling pans, extreme vigilance and awareness are required from those working the boiling pans, the banqueiro, the assistant banqueiro, and the sugar master. This is when the sugar master uses his training and where extreme caution and skill are needed. The melado leaves the filtering kettle for the awaiting boiling pans and goes to each one, staying in each as long as is required, and no longer , to complete a stage in the process. In the first boiling pan, called the “receiving,” it boils and begins to cook, and the smallest impurities are removed. These are called netas and they are removed with a small skimmer into a mold placed there. If they want to use them, which is good, at the end of the week they make a second quality loaf of sugar. 88 The Cultivation of Sugar These skimmings are not returned to the boiling pan in the way that they are earlier when caldo is returned to the cauldrons. From the receiving pan, where the liquid remains only a short time, the melado is moved with a copper ladle (made from a small skimmer) to a second boiling pan called “of the door.” Here it continues to boil and thicken and any impurities are removed at the edge with a special broom, which is like a brush or a broom made of bark, with a twig holding the ends together. The melado stays in this boiling pan longer than in the first until it is half done. From here, it is moved with the same copper ladle, into the third boiling pan, called the “cooking pan.” Even though it was cooking in the other pans, here the cooking is completed and it begins to condense perfectly until it is ready for whisking. The sugar master makes this judgment, or the banqueiro does so in his absence, judging by the shape and thickness of the melado. Having reached this stage, it is called mel at its peak, thick and sufficiently condensed and ready to move to the fourth boiling pan, called the “whisking pan,” where it is whipped with a beater, similar to a skimmer with the same edges but no holes. It is whisked to keep it from burning. Once it has been whisked and cooked enough, the liquid is lifted with the same beaters as high above the boiling pan as they can. This is called “letting it breathe.” In this process, those working the boiling pans demonstrate their special talents. They continue doing this, more or less, as demanded by the three temperings required of the sugar going into the molds. These temperings are so essential and demanding that it would be best to speak about them in the next chapter. ...

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