Food in Renaissance cuisine
The sugar it was for Italian Renaissance cuisine a real obsession.
In practice, it was added to any dish.
From appetizers to desserts, passing through the first courses, second courses and side dishes, there was no dish that did not include an abundant sprinkling.
In fact, there were many innovations concerning the gastronomy of the 15th and 16th centuries, but the rather excessive use of sweet salt, expression used to indicate cane sugar , the only one known at the time, was one of the most revolutionary.
This also gave rise to the impulse to a pastry completely renewed compared to the past.
The reasons that brought sugar to such a sensational success were various.
Among the most important is the fact that it was able to perfectly balance the salt used for preserving food and the possibility, combined with citrus juice or vinegar, to give life to sweet and sour flavors, a fashion of the period.
And to think that until then sugar, although known, had only been used in the pharmaceutical field as an officinal spice.
However, the use of sugar in cooking concerned only Italy, since the rest of Europe continued to abound in honey ( see also https://www.pilloledistoria.it/12396/storia-moderna/ciotole-tavole-rinascimentali).