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89 chapter xii y The Three Temperings of Melado and Its Correct Distribution in the Molds Before the melado goes into the molds, while still in the whisking pan, it is necessary to adjust the cooking to the tempering demanded by the rule of good distribution. There are three, and each is different and each requires a different concoction. In the same way, by different means and with repeated reasons, we attempt to temper souls in the grip of any strong passion. The first tempering is called “to begin” or “basin tempering.” This consists of straight mel, because it has been cooked less. It is the first taken from the whisking pan right away, and it is put in a basin with the beater. The basin is not on the fire and is next to the boiling pans. It is mixed using a spatula or a great ladle with the mouth pointed down. The banqueiro or the assistant banqueiro has prepared four or five molds in the shed in a row of pressed stalks of cane. Each has its bottom hole filled and the mold is elevated. Four or five molds are what they call a venda. This tempering is poured using a great ladle inside a divider. The mel is divided among the four or five molds by the banqueiro or the assistant banqueiro or someone working the boiling pans. However, this is at the order of the sugar master, filling each with its portion that, with luck, will leave space for the other two temperings, which should follow immediately. The second tempering is called “to equalize,” and it involves more cooking since the mel was in the whisking pan longer. Stirred and thickened, it was also whisked more. This is also removed from the pans, placed into the basin, and stirred with a great ladle. It then goes into the four molds using the divider with an equal amount in each. This is stirred with spatulas more than the first tempering. This is followed by the third and last tempering, called “to fill.” The mel has all the cooking and thickness needed and is put in the basin and 90 The Cultivation of Sugar mixed with the great ladle, put in the divider, taken to the shed, and used to fill the molds. The three temperings are mixed together in the molds using a spatula and, with luck, the three will blend into one. This procedure is so critical that, without it, the sugar in the molds cannot later whiten and be refined. If they poured only perfectly cooked tempering into the molds, it would coagulate and condense in such a way that water could not filter through it and cleanse it after the top is sealed with clay. If the tempering was completely free of heating, it would fail to crystallize in the molds and collapse into mel. With the mixture of the three temperings, it coagulates in such as way that it stays firm while the water filters through it little by little, keeping the sugar dense and strong. The sugar is whitened without melting; the process is just enough to refine it perfectly. To find this middle way in accomplishing the temperings requires the best work and skill of the sugar master. In the same way, this is the major difficulty in the practice of virtue caught in the middle of two extreme vices. Melado served on plates and in pots for eating is from the first and second temperings. Melado from the third tempering, well whisked in the divider, makes rapaduras,29 so loved by children. It coagulates on a piece of paper with the four edges turned up as if they were walls, within which the melado hardens when cooled and is about the size of the palm of a hand. Happy is the boy who gets a couple of these. Licking those papers puts him in a much better mood than using them to practice his ABCs. With this it will be understood why this sweet substance possesses so many different names before it attains the more noble and perfect name of “sugar.” These names have to do with its beginnings, its processing , and its perfection, and describe various states through which it passes. Each state has a name that changes. So, at the mill it is called “sugarcane juice.” Until it reaches the meio cauldron, it is called caldo. At that point, it is boiling caldo. At the melar cauldron, it...

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