Historically, the Middle English term treacle was used by herbalists and apothecaries to describe a medicine (also called theriac or theriaca), composed of many ingredients, that was used as an antidote for poisons, snakebites, and various other ailments.[3]Triacle comes from the Old Frenchtriacle, in turn from (unattested and reconstructed) Vulgar Latin*triacula, which comes from Latintheriaca,[5] the latinisation of the Greekθηριακή (thēriakē), the feminine of θηριακός (thēriakos), 'concerning venomous beasts',[6] which comes from θηρίον (thērion), 'wild animal, beast'.[7][8]
Production
Treacle is made from the syrup that remains after sugar is refined. Raw sugars are first treated in a process called affination. When dissolved, the resulting liquor contains the minimum of dissolved non-sugars to be removed by treatment with activated carbon or bone char. The dark-coloured washings[clarification needed] are treated separately, without carbon or bone char. They are boiled to grain (i.e. until sugar crystals precipitate out) in a vacuum pan, forming a low-grade masse cuite (boiled mass) which is centrifuged, yielding a brown sugar and a liquid by-product—treacle.[9]
Black treacle naturally contains relatively high levels of sulphite (>100ppm, expressed in sulphur dioxide equivalent). These levels are deemed safe for the majority of the population. However, some allergic and respiratory reactions have been reported particularly amongst asthmatics. As such, that the United States Food and Drug Administration requires that levels over 10ppm, i.e. >10mg/kg, be declared on the ingredients label.[10]
A traditional Cornish fisherman's celebratory drink is "Mahogany", made from two parts local gin—now usually Plymouth Gin—mixed with one part black treacle.[11][12][13]
In chapter 7 of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the Dormouse tells the story of Elsie, Lacie, and Tillie, who live at the bottom of a well. This confuses Alice, who interrupts to ask what they ate for sustenance. "The Dormouse again took a minute or two to think about it, and then said, 'It was a treacle-well.'" This is an allusion to the so-called "treacle well", the curative St Margaret's Well at Binsey, Oxfordshire.[14]
In the Harry Potter book series, treacle tarts, puddings, and other variations regularly appear as one of Harry's favourite desserts, and are noted as present during many of the Hogwarts feasts.[citation needed]
In the Discworld series of fantasy books by Terry Pratchett, the dwarfs work in treacle mining. They are sometimes buried in treacle when a particularly rich vein of treacle is unexpectedly encountered.[citation needed]
In the animated series Futurama, Bender the robot offers to recreate an ancient candy for his human friend Philip J. Fry. During the cooking process, Bender adds treacle, explaining that it reminds him of his late Aunt Juanita, who drowned in the substance.[16]
In the Thomas the Tank Engine episode "Woolly Bear" (based on the same story from the Railway Series book Tramway Engines), a crate of treacle smashes all over Percy before he leaves the harbour. His crew get the worst off, but he is still sticky as he puffs away into a windstorm in which hay is stuck to his boiler, and he resembles a Woolly Bear caterpillar as a result.[17][18]
^Bindu Nair and Amy R. Elmore, Final Report on the Safety Assessment of Sodium Sulfite, Potassium Sulfite, Ammonium Sulfite, Sodium Bisulfite, Ammonium Bisulfite, Sodium Metabisulfite and Potassium Metabisulfite, International Journal of Toxicology 22(Suppl. 2):63–88, 2003, page 67, [1]Archived 2022-05-17 at the Wayback Machine
^p14, Oxford in English literature: the making, and undoing, of "the English Athens" (1998), John Dougill, University of Michigan Press, ISBN0-472-10784-4.
