On Food And Cooking Part 75

It appears that the basic liking for saltiness is innate in humans, no doubt because salt is an essential nutrient. The preference for a certain level level of saltiness is learned through repeated eating experiences and the expectations they create in us. Preferences can be changed by constant exposure to different salt levels, which changes expectations. But this takes time, usually two to four months. of saltiness is learned through repeated eating experiences and the expectations they create in us. Preferences can be changed by constant exposure to different salt levels, which changes expectations. But this takes time, usually two to four months.

The Physical Properties of Salt Salt generally remains a solid in the kitchen unless it's dissolved. Room-temperature water can dissolve around 35% of its weight in salt, to give a saturated solution of 26% salt that boils at around 228F/109C at sea level. Salt generally remains a solid in the kitchen unless it's dissolved. Room-temperature water can dissolve around 35% of its weight in salt, to give a saturated solution of 26% salt that boils at around 228F/109C at sea level.The particle size of salt crystals determines how fast they will dissolve, a fact that can make a big difference when adding salt to a low-moisture food, for example to a bread dough that has been made by the autolysis method (p. 536). Flake salts may dissolve four to five times faster than granulated salt, and finely ground salt nearly 20 times faster.Solid salt crystals melt at 1,600F/800C, and evaporate at around 3,000F/1,500C, temperatures reached in wood fires and glowing coals, which can vaporize salt and deposit a thin film on foods above them.

Chapter 12.

Sugars, Chocolate, and Confectionery

The History of Sugars and Confectionery Before Sugar: HoneySugar: Beginnings in AsiaEarly Confectionery in Southwest AsiaIn Europe: A Spice and MedicineConfectionery for PleasureA Pleasure for AllSugar in Modern Times The Nature of Sugars Kinds of SugarThe Complexities of SweetnessCrystallizationCaramelizationSugars and HealthSugar Subst.i.tutes Sugars and Syrups HoneyTree Syrups and Sugars: Maple, Birch, PalmTable Sugar: Cane and Beet Sugars and SyrupsCorn Syrups, Glucose and Fructose Syrups, Malt Syrup Sugar Candies and Confectionery Setting the Sugar Concentration: Cooking the SyrupSetting the Sugar Structure: Cooling and CrystallizationKinds of CandiesChewing GumCandy Storage and Spoilage Chocolate The History of ChocolateMaking ChocolateThe Special Qualities of ChocolateThe Kinds of ChocolateChocolate and Cocoa as IngredientsTempered Chocolate for Coating and MoldingChocolate and Health Ordinary sugar is an extraordinary food. Sugar is pure sensation, crystallized pleasure. All human beings share an innate liking for its sweetness, which we first experience in mother's milk, and which is the taste of the energy that fuels all life. Thanks to this deep appeal, sugar and sugar-rich foods are now among the most popular and widely consumed of all foods. In centuries past, when sugar was rare and expensive, they were luxuries reserved for the wealthy and for the climax of the meal. Today sugar is cheap, and manufactured sweets have become everyday, casual pleasures, affordable and entertaining morsels. Some are soothing cla.s.sics, cream and sugar cooked into rich brown caramels, or clear sugar tinted to look like a shard of stained gla.s.s. And others are provocative novelties with glaringly unnatural colors, whimsical shapes, hidden pockets of hissing gas, and burningly excessive doses of acidity or spice.

In the kitchen, sugar is a versatile ingredient. Because sweetness is one of a small handful of basic taste sensations, cooks add sugar to dishes of all kinds to fill out and balance their flavor. Sugar interferes usefully with the coagulation of proteins, and so tenderizes the gluten network of baked goods and the alb.u.men network of custards and creams. If we heat sugar enough to break its molecules apart, it generates both appealing colors and an increasing complexity of flavor: no longer just sweetness, but acidity, bitterness, and a full, rich aroma. And sugar is a sculptural material. Provide it with some moisture and high heat, and we can coax from it a broad range of shapeable consistencies, creamy and chewy and brittle and rock hard.

The story of sugar is not all sweetness and light. Its appeal was a destructive force in the history of Africa and the Americas, whose peoples were enslaved to satisfy the European hunger for it. And today, by displacing more nouris.h.i.+ng foods from our diet, sugar contributes indirectly to several modern diseases of affluence. Like most good things in life, it's best enjoyed in moderation. And like that other good thing, fat, it's easy to consume a lot of sugar in manufactured foods without realizing it.

Chocolate, the cooked, sculptable paste of a South American tree seed, has been married to sugar ever since its arrival in Europe nearly 500 years ago, and is in some respects sugar's complement. Where sugar is a single molecule purified from complex plant fluids, chocolate is a mixture of hundreds of different molecules produced by fermenting and roasting a plain bland seed. It's one of the most complex flavors we experience, and yet it lacks and is completed by basic, simple sweetness.

Gathering honey in prehistoric times. This rock painting, found in the Spider Cave at Valencia, Spain, dates back to about 8000 BCE BCE and appears to show two people raiding a wild beehive. The leader and appears to show two people raiding a wild beehive. The leader (enlarged at right) (enlarged at right) may be carrying a basket for the honeycomb. Artificial hives and the domestication of bees are known from about 2500 may be carrying a basket for the honeycomb. Artificial hives and the domestication of bees are known from about 2500 BCE BCE in Egypt. (Redrawn from H. Ransome, in Egypt. (Redrawn from H. Ransome, The Sacred Bee, The Sacred Bee, 1937.) 1937.) The History of Sugars and Confectionery Before Sugar: Honey After mother's milk, the first significant source of sweetness in human experience must have been fruits. Some warm-climate fruits like the date can approach a sugar content of 60%, and even temperate fruits become very sweet when they dry out. But the most concentrated natural source of sweetness is honey, the stored food of certain species of bees, which reaches 80% sugars. It's clear from a remarkable painting in the Spider Cave of Valencia that humans have gone out of their way to collect honey for at least 10,000 years. The "domestication" of bees probably goes back 4,000 years, judging by Egyptian hieroglyphs that show clay hives.

However our ancestors obtained it, honey came to represent pleasure and fulfillment to them, and is a prominent metaphor in some of the earliest literature we know. A love poem inscribed 4,000 years ago on a Sumerian clay tablet describes a bridegroom as "honeysweet," the bride's caress as "more savory than honey," and their bedchamber as "honeyfilled." In the Old Testament, the promised land is pictured several times as a land flowing with milk and honey, a metaphor of delightful plenty that is itself used figuratively in the Song of Songs, where another bridegroom chants, "Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue..."

Honey remained an important ingredient in both the food and culture of cla.s.sical Greece and Rome. The Greeks offered it in ceremonies to the dead and the G.o.ds, and priestesses of the G.o.ddesses Demeter, Artemis, and Rhea were called melissai melissai: the Greek melissa, melissa, like the Hebrew like the Hebrew deborah, deborah, means "bee." The prestige of honey was due in part to its mysterious origins and to a belief that it was a little bit of heaven fallen to earth. The Roman natural historian Pliny speculated in entertaining detail on honey's nature. means "bee." The prestige of honey was due in part to its mysterious origins and to a belief that it was a little bit of heaven fallen to earth. The Roman natural historian Pliny speculated in entertaining detail on honey's nature.

Honey comes out of the air...At early dawn the leaves of trees are found bedewed with honey...Whether this is the perspiration of the sky or a sort of saliva of the stars, or the moisture of the air purging itself, nevertheless it brings with it the great pleasure of its heavenly nature.

It was more than 1,000 years before the true roles of flower and bee in the creation of honey were uncovered (p. 663). In fact, honey making is the natural model for all human sugar production. We too take sweet juices from plants and separate the sugars from the water. Palm trees in South Asia, maple and birch trees in northern forests, agave plants and maize stalks in the Americas: all these have provided the sweet juices. But none of them has been as generous as sugarcane.

Sweet MannaIn the Old Testament book of Exodus, G.o.d fed the exiled Israelites with manna, manna, which is described as "like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey." Today this term is used for the sugar-rich secretion of certain trees and also certain insects. In the Middle East, the tamarisk tree produces enough manna that Bedouin nomads can collect several pounds in a morning, and go on to make halvah with it. The sugar alcohol which is described as "like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey." Today this term is used for the sugar-rich secretion of certain trees and also certain insects. In the Middle East, the tamarisk tree produces enough manna that Bedouin nomads can collect several pounds in a morning, and go on to make halvah with it. The sugar alcohol mannitol mannitol (p. 662) owes its name to the fact that it was first found in and extracted from manna. (p. 662) owes its name to the fact that it was first found in and extracted from manna.

Sugar: Beginnings in Asia Europe barely knew what we now consider ordinary table sugar until around 1100, and it was a luxury until 1700. Our first major source of sucrose was the sugar cane, Saccharum officinarum, Saccharum officinarum, a 20-foot-tall member of the gra.s.s family with an unusually high sucrose content - about 15% - in its fluids. Sugar cane originated in New Guinea in the South Pacific and was carried by prehistoric human migration into Asia. Sometime before 500 a 20-foot-tall member of the gra.s.s family with an unusually high sucrose content - about 15% - in its fluids. Sugar cane originated in New Guinea in the South Pacific and was carried by prehistoric human migration into Asia. Sometime before 500 BCE BCE, people in India developed the technology of making unrefined, "raw" sugar by pressing out the cane juice and boiling it down into a dark ma.s.s of syrup-coated crystals. By 350 BCE BCE, Indian cooks were combining this dark gur gur with wheat, barley, and rice flours and with sesame seeds to make a variety of shaped confections, some of them fried. A couple of centuries later, Indian medical texts distinguished among a number of different syrups and sugars from cane, including crystals from which the dark coating had been washed. These were the first refined white sugars. with wheat, barley, and rice flours and with sesame seeds to make a variety of shaped confections, some of them fried. A couple of centuries later, Indian medical texts distinguished among a number of different syrups and sugars from cane, including crystals from which the dark coating had been washed. These were the first refined white sugars.

Early Confectionery in Southwest Asia Around the 6th century CE CE, both the cane and sugar-making technology were carried westward from the delta of the Indus River to the head of the Persian Gulf and the delta of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, where the Persians made sugar a prized ingredient in their cooking. One modern survival of this esteem is the sprinkling of large sugar crystals over a dish called "jeweled rice." Islamic Arabs conquered Persia in the 7th century and took the cane to northern Africa, Syria, and eventually Spain and Sicily. Arab cooks combined sugar with almonds to make marzipan paste, cooked it down with sesame seeds and other ingredients to make chewy halvah, made great use of sugar in syrups aromatized with rose petals and orange blossoms, and were pioneers in confectionery and in sugar sculpture. There are records of a 10th-century feast in Egypt that was adorned with sugar models of trees, animals, and castles!

Pulled Sugar and Almond Confection in 13th-century BaghdadMedieval Arab cooks were among the first to explore sugar's remarkable sculptural qualities, as these early examples of pulled sugar and marzipan show.Dry HalwaTake sugar, dissolve in water, and boil until set: then remove from the dish, and pour onto a soft surface to cool. Take an iron stake with a smooth head and plant it in the ma.s.s, then pull up the sugar, stretching it with the hands and drawing it up the stake all the time, until it becomes white: then throw once more onto the surface. Knead in pistachios, and cut into strips and triangles. If desired, it may be colored, either with saffron or with vermilion.FaludhajTake a pint of sugar and one-third of a pint of almonds and grind both together fine, then scent with camphor. Take one-third of a pint of sugar, and dissolve in an ounce of rose-water over a slow fire, then remove. When cooled, throw in the ground sugar and almonds, and knead. If the mixture needs strengthening, add more sugar and almonds. Make into middling pieces, melons, triangles, etc. Then lay on a dish and serve.- Kitab al Tabikh, Kitab al Tabikh, transl. A. J. Arberry transl. A. J. Arberry In Europe: A Spice and Medicine Western Europeans first encountered sugar during their Crusades to the Holy Land in the 11th century. Shortly thereafter Venice became the hub of the sugar trade from Arab countries to the West, and the first large s.h.i.+pment to England that we know of came in 1319. At first, Europeans treated sugar the way they treated pepper, ginger, and other exotic imports, as a flavoring and a medicine. In medieval Europe, sugar was used in two general sorts of preparations: preserved fruits and flowers, and small medicinal morsels. Sweets, or candy, began not as little entertaining treats but as "confections" (from the Latin conficere, conficere, "to put together," "to prepare") composed by the apothecaries, or druggists, to balance the body's principles. Sugar served several medicinal purposes. Its sweetness covered the bitterness of some drugs and made all preparations more pleasant. Its meltability and stickiness made it a good vehicle for mixing and carrying other ingredients. The solidity of a fused ma.s.s of sugar meant that it could release its medicine slowly and gradually. And its own supposed effect on the body - encouraging both heat and moisture - was thought to balance the effects of other foods and enhance the digestive process. A number of soothing medicinal sweets remain popular to this day, including lozenges, pastilles, and comfits. "to put together," "to prepare") composed by the apothecaries, or druggists, to balance the body's principles. Sugar served several medicinal purposes. Its sweetness covered the bitterness of some drugs and made all preparations more pleasant. Its meltability and stickiness made it a good vehicle for mixing and carrying other ingredients. The solidity of a fused ma.s.s of sugar meant that it could release its medicine slowly and gradually. And its own supposed effect on the body - encouraging both heat and moisture - was thought to balance the effects of other foods and enhance the digestive process. A number of soothing medicinal sweets remain popular to this day, including lozenges, pastilles, and comfits.

Confectionery for Pleasure It's thought that the first nonmedical confection in Europe may have been made around 1200 by a French druggist who coated almonds with sugar. Medieval recipes from the French and English courts call for sugar to be added to fish and fowl sauces, to ham, and to various fruit and cream-egg desserts. Chaucer's Tale of Sir Topas, a 14th-century parody of the chivalric romance, included sugar in a list of "royal spicery," along with gingerbread, licorice, and c.u.min. By the 15th century, wealthy Europeans had come to appreciate the purely pleasurable virtues of sugar and its ability to complement the flavors of many foods. The Vatican librarian Platina wrote around 1475 that sugar was being produced in Crete and Sicily as well as India and Arabia, and added, The ancients used sugar only in medicines, and for this reason make no mention of sugar in their foods. They certainly missed out on a great delight, since nothing given us to eat is so flavorless that sugar cannot make it savory.... By melting it, we make almonds...pine nuts, hazelnuts, coriander, anise, cinnamon, and many other foods into beautiful things. The quality of sugar then almost crosses over into the qualities of the things to which it clings in the confection.Food Words: Sugar Sugar and and Candy CandyOur language bears the traces of sugar's pa.s.sage from India through the Middle East to Europe. The English word sugar sugar comes from the Arabic imitation of the Sanskrit comes from the Arabic imitation of the Sanskrit sharkara, sharkara, meaning gravel or small chunks of material; meaning gravel or small chunks of material; candy candy from the Arabic version of the Sanskrit for sugar itself, from the Arabic version of the Sanskrit for sugar itself, khandakah. khandakah.

Advances in Confectionery In the 15th and 16th centuries, confectionery became more of an art, done with greater sophistication and intended more and more to delight the eye. Molten sugar was now spun into delicate threads and pulled to develop a satiny sheen, and confectioners began to develop ways of determining the different states of a sugar syrup and their appropriateness to different preparations. By the 17th century, court confectioners were making whole table settings and ma.s.sive decorations out of sugar, hard sugar candies had become common, and cooks had developed systems for marking the syrup concentrations suitable for different confections - ancestors of today's thread-ball-crack scale (see box, p. 651). In the 15th and 16th centuries, confectionery became more of an art, done with greater sophistication and intended more and more to delight the eye. Molten sugar was now spun into delicate threads and pulled to develop a satiny sheen, and confectioners began to develop ways of determining the different states of a sugar syrup and their appropriateness to different preparations. By the 17th century, court confectioners were making whole table settings and ma.s.sive decorations out of sugar, hard sugar candies had become common, and cooks had developed systems for marking the syrup concentrations suitable for different confections - ancestors of today's thread-ball-crack scale (see box, p. 651).

A Pleasure for All Sugar became more widely available in the 18th century, when whole cookbooks were devoted to confectionery. England developed an especially strong sugar habit, and consumed large amounts in the tea and jams that fueled the working cla.s.s. The per capita consumption rose from 4 pounds/2 kg a year in 1700 to 12 pounds/5 kg in 1780. By contrast, the French limited their use of sugar mainly to preserves and to desserts. In the 19th century, the growing production of sugar from beets, and the development of machines that automated the cooking, manipulation, and shaping of sugar preparations, brought inexpensive candies for all and encouraged an inventiveness that continues to this day. It's in the 19th century that familiar modern candies and chocolates were invented, and the control of crystallization was refined. Taffy Taffy or or toffee, toffee, from the Creole for a mixture of sugar and mola.s.ses, and from the Creole for a mixture of sugar and mola.s.ses, and nougat, nougat, from the vulgar Latin for "nut cake," entered the language early in the century; from the vulgar Latin for "nut cake," entered the language early in the century; fondant, fondant, from the French for "melting," the basic material of fudge and all semisoft or creamy centers, was developed around 1850. Most candy today is a variation of some kind on bonbons, taffy, and fondant. from the French for "melting," the basic material of fudge and all semisoft or creamy centers, was developed around 1850. Most candy today is a variation of some kind on bonbons, taffy, and fondant.

Sugar as DisguiseThe medicinal origins of confections live on in expressions that we use today. While "honey" is almost invariably a term of praise, "sugar" is often ambivalent. Sugary words, a sugary personality, suggest a certain calculation and artificiality. And the idea of "sugaring over" something, the deception of hiding something distasteful in a sweet sh.e.l.l, would seem to be taken directly from the druggist's confections. As early as 1400, the phrase, "Gall in his breast and sugar in his face" was used, and Shakespeare has Hamlet say to Ophelia,'Tis too much prov'd, that with devotion's visageAnd pious action we do sugar o'erThe devil himself. (III.i) The Rise of the Sugar Industry The 18th-century explosion in European sugar consumption was made possible by colonial rule in the West Indies and the enslavement of millions of Africans. Columbus carried the cane to Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic) on his second voyage in 1493. By about 1550, the Spanish and Portuguese had occupied many Caribbean islands and the coasts of western Africa, Brazil, Mexico, and were producing sugar in significant quant.i.ties; English, French, and Dutch colonists followed in the next century. By 1700, some 10,000 Africans were being traded via the Portuguese colony So Tome to the Americas every year. The sugar industry was not the only force behind the great expansion of slavery, but it probably was the major force and helped ease its introduction into the southern American colonies and the cotton plantations. According to one estimate, fully two-thirds of the 20 million Africans enslaved in the Americas worked on sugar plantations. The intricate trade in sugar, slaves, rum, and manufactured goods made major ports out of the hitherto minor cities of Bristol and Liverpool in England, and Newport, Rhode Island. And the huge fortunes made by plantation owners helped finance the opening stages of the Industrial Revolution. The 18th-century explosion in European sugar consumption was made possible by colonial rule in the West Indies and the enslavement of millions of Africans. Columbus carried the cane to Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic) on his second voyage in 1493. By about 1550, the Spanish and Portuguese had occupied many Caribbean islands and the coasts of western Africa, Brazil, Mexico, and were producing sugar in significant quant.i.ties; English, French, and Dutch colonists followed in the next century. By 1700, some 10,000 Africans were being traded via the Portuguese colony So Tome to the Americas every year. The sugar industry was not the only force behind the great expansion of slavery, but it probably was the major force and helped ease its introduction into the southern American colonies and the cotton plantations. According to one estimate, fully two-thirds of the 20 million Africans enslaved in the Americas worked on sugar plantations. The intricate trade in sugar, slaves, rum, and manufactured goods made major ports out of the hitherto minor cities of Bristol and Liverpool in England, and Newport, Rhode Island. And the huge fortunes made by plantation owners helped finance the opening stages of the Industrial Revolution.

In the 18th century, just when it seemed at its strongest, the West Indian sugar industry began a rapid decline. The horrors of slavery gave rise to abolition movements, especially in Britain. Slaves staged revolts, and received some support from the very countries that had carried them to the plantations. One by one, through the mid-19th century, European countries outlawed slavery in the colonies.

The Development of Beet Sugar The severest blow to West Indian sugar was the development of an alternative to the sugar cane that could grow in northern climates. In 1747, a Prussian chemist, Andreas Marggraf, showed that by using brandy to extract the juice of the white beet ( The severest blow to West Indian sugar was the development of an alternative to the sugar cane that could grow in northern climates. In 1747, a Prussian chemist, Andreas Marggraf, showed that by using brandy to extract the juice of the white beet (Beta vulgaris, var. var. altissima altissima), a common European vegetable, he could isolate crystals that were identical to those purified from sugar cane, and in comparable quant.i.ties. Marggraf foresaw a kind of cottage industry by which individual farmers could satisfy their own needs for sugar, but this never came about, and many years pa.s.sed before the idea escaped the laboratory. In 1811, the Emperor Napoleon officially set the goal of freeing France from dependence on the English colonies for various commodities, and in 1812 personally awarded a medal to Benjamin Delessert, who had developed a working sugar-beet factory. In the next year, 300 such factories sprang up. A treaty resuming trade between France and England was signed in 1814, making West Indian sugar available once again, and the fledgling industry crashed as suddenly as it had begun. But it rose again in the 1840s and has flourished ever since.

Stages of Sugar Cooking in the 17th CenturyThis early system for recognizing the concentration of boiled sugar syrups comes from Le Confiturier francois. Le Confiturier francois. Then as now, the confectioner needed tough fingers. Then as now, the confectioner needed tough fingers.Cookings of SugarThe first is to the ribbon. It is reached when the syrup begins to thicken, so that in taking it with the finger and putting it on the thumb, it doesn't flow, and remains round as a pea.Cooked to the pearl. The second cooking is reached when, in taking the syrup with the finger and putting it on the thumb, and opening the fingers, it forms a small thread....Cooked to the feather. This cooking has many different names.... It is recognized by placing a spatula in the syrup, and shaking the syrup in the air; the syrup flies away as if dry feathers without stickiness.... This cooking is the one for preserves and tablets.Cooking to the burning smell. This cooking is recognized when one dips the finger in cool water, then in the sugar, and when putting the finger back into the cool water, the sugar breaks neatly like a gla.s.s without stickiness.... This cooking is for the large citron biscuit biscuit, for caramel, and pulled sugar, or penide penide, and this is the last cooking of the sugar.

Sugar in Modern Times At present, beet sugar accounts for about 30% of the sucrose produced in the world. Russia, Germany, and the United States are the major beet growers, with California, Colorado, and Utah the leading states. The Caribbean is now a minor source of cane sugar, its role having been a.s.sumed by India and Brazil. Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, and Texas also produce sugar cane. Spurred by the demand of an increasingly populous and affluent West, world sugar production increased sevenfold between 1900 and 1964, a rate matched by no other major crop in history. And thanks to the development of methods for making sweeteners from corn, an even less expensive source, sugar has never been cheaper or more abundant in our diet. This is not necessarily good for our long-term health (p. 657), and one of the major developments in 20th-century food manufacturing has been the development of ingredients that mimic the flavor and physical characteristics of sugar without having adverse effects on body weight and the regulation of blood sugar (p. 659).

Recipes for Caramel, Pulled Sugar, and Sugar Ham in the 17th CenturyCaramelleMake some sugar cooked to the burning smell, take it off the fire, put in a little amber, rub a stone of marble or plate with oil of sweet almonds, throw your caramel on in little pieces as if preserves, and take them up with a spoon.Twisted SugarMake some sugar cooked to the burning smell; take from the fire and throw it on a marble stone that you have rubbed with sweet-almond oil; rub your hands also, and work it well, have iron hooks to pull and draw out, and dress as a wreathed marzipan.Slices of HamMake some sugar cooked to the feather, put it in three containers; in one put some lemon juice, in another some roses of Provence, and in the other some powdered cochenille, or pomegranate juice or powdered barberry. Make a layer of the white on some paper, two layers of red, continue until the sugar has the thickness of a ham, and cut it by the slice in the form of a slice of ham.- Le Confiturier francois Le Confiturier francois The Nature of Sugars Ordinary sugar is one member of a group of many chemicals, all of which are given the general name sugars. sugars. All sugars are made from just three kinds of atoms, carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, with the carbon atoms providing a kind of backbone to which the other atoms are attached. Some sugars are simple molecules, while others are made from two or more simple sugars joined together. Glucose and fructose are simple All sugars are made from just three kinds of atoms, carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, with the carbon atoms providing a kind of backbone to which the other atoms are attached. Some sugars are simple molecules, while others are made from two or more simple sugars joined together. Glucose and fructose are simple monosaccharides, monosaccharides, while table sugar, or sucrose, is a while table sugar, or sucrose, is a disaccharide disaccharide made up of one glucose and one fructose joined together. made up of one glucose and one fructose joined together.

Living things put the sugars to two primary uses. The first is the storage of chemical energy. All life depends on sugars for the energy that fuels the activity of cells. This is why we have taste receptors that register the presence of sugars, and why our brain attaches pleasure to that sensation: sweetness is the sign of a food that can help supply our need for calories. The second major role for sugars is to provide building blocks for physical structures, especially in plants. The cellulose, hemicellulose, and pectin that give bulk and strength to plant cell walls are long chains of various sugars. The simple physical bulk of sugar is also useful to the cook, who can construct from it a variety of interesting textures.

One chemical characteristic of sugars is especially important in the kitchen. Sugars have a strong affinity for water, so they readily dissolve in water, and form temporary but strong bonds to water molecules in their vicinity. Sugars therefore retain moisture in baked goods, keep frozen desserts from solidifying into a solid block of ice, form a sticky matrix that holds food particles together in such things as marzipan and granola bars, maintain a moist, glossy appearance in glazes, and help preserve fruits by drawing moisture out of spoilage microbes and preventing their growth.

Kinds of Sugar The cook works with just a handful of the many different sugars in nature. All of them are sweet, but each has its distinctive qualities.

Glucose Glucose, also called Glucose, also called dextrose, dextrose, is a simple sugar, and the most common sugar from which living cells directly extract chemical energy. Glucose is found in many fruits and in honey, but always in a mixture with other sugars. It's the building block from which starch chains are constructed. Cooks encounter it most often as the sweet substance in corn syrup, which is made by breaking starch down into individual glucose molecules and small glucose chains (p. 677). A chain of two glucoses is called is a simple sugar, and the most common sugar from which living cells directly extract chemical energy. Glucose is found in many fruits and in honey, but always in a mixture with other sugars. It's the building block from which starch chains are constructed. Cooks encounter it most often as the sweet substance in corn syrup, which is made by breaking starch down into individual glucose molecules and small glucose chains (p. 677). A chain of two glucoses is called maltose. maltose. Compared to table sugar, or sucrose, glucose is less sweet, less soluble in water, and produces a thinner solution. It melts and begins to caramelize at around 300F/150C. Compared to table sugar, or sucrose, glucose is less sweet, less soluble in water, and produces a thinner solution. It melts and begins to caramelize at around 300F/150C.

Sweets Around the WorldSugar is universally popular, but different cultures have made different uses of it. Here are examples of sweets that are characteristic of some nations and regions.

India

Reduced-milk sweets, deep-fried batters in syrup, halvah (pastes of sugar, wheat, or chickpea flour, fruits, vegetables) Reduced-milk sweets, deep-fried batters in syrup, halvah (pastes of sugar, wheat, or chickpea flour, fruits, vegetables)

Middle East

Halvah (pastes of sugar syrup and semolina, sesame), pastries in syrup (baklava), marzipan Halvah (pastes of sugar syrup and semolina, sesame), pastries in syrup (baklava), marzipan

Greece

Spoon fruits, pastries in syrup Spoon fruits, pastries in syrup

France

Caramel, nougat, dragees Caramel, nougat, dragees

England, United States

Novelty candies Novelty candies

Scandinavia

Licorice Licorice

Mexico

Dulce de leche (reduced milk), penuche (brown-sugar fudge) Dulce de leche (reduced milk), penuche (brown-sugar fudge)

j.a.pan

Agar jelly candies, bean-paste candies, sweet-rice mochi, tea ceremony sweets Agar jelly candies, bean-paste candies, sweet-rice mochi, tea ceremony sweets

Fructose Fructose, also called Fructose, also called levulose, levulose, has exactly the same chemical formula as glucose, but the atoms are arranged in a different structure. Like glucose, fructose is found in fruits and honey, and certain corn syrups are treated with enzymes to convert their glucose into fructose. It's also sold in pure crystalline form. Fructose is the sweetest of the common sugars, the most soluble in water (4 parts will dissolve in 1 part room-temperature water), and absorbs and retains water most effectively. Our bodies metabolize fructose more slowly than glucose and sucrose, so it causes a slower rise in blood glucose levels, a quality that makes it preferable to other sugars for diabetics. Fructose melts and begins to caramelize at a much lower temperature than the other sugars do, just above the boiling point of water at 220F/105C. has exactly the same chemical formula as glucose, but the atoms are arranged in a different structure. Like glucose, fructose is found in fruits and honey, and certain corn syrups are treated with enzymes to convert their glucose into fructose. It's also sold in pure crystalline form. Fructose is the sweetest of the common sugars, the most soluble in water (4 parts will dissolve in 1 part room-temperature water), and absorbs and retains water most effectively. Our bodies metabolize fructose more slowly than glucose and sucrose, so it causes a slower rise in blood glucose levels, a quality that makes it preferable to other sugars for diabetics. Fructose melts and begins to caramelize at a much lower temperature than the other sugars do, just above the boiling point of water at 220F/105C.

The fructose molecule exists in several different shapes when dissolved in water, and the different shapes have different effects on our sweet receptors. The sweetest shape, a six-corner ring, predominates in cold, somewhat acid solutions; in warm or hot conditions, this shape s.h.i.+fts to less sweet five-corner rings. The apparent sweetness of fructose is cut nearly in half at 140F/60C. Neither glucose nor sucrose changes so drastically. Fructose is thus a useful subst.i.tute for table sugar in cold drinks, where it can provide the same sweetness with half the concentration and a calorie savings approaching 50%. In hot coffee, however, its sweetness drops to the level of table sugar.

Sucrose Sucrose is the scientific name for table sugar. It is a composite molecule made of one molecule each of glucose and fructose. Green plants produce sucrose in the process of photosynthesis, and we extract it from the stalks of sugar cane and the storage stems of sugar beets. Of all the common sugars, it has the most useful combination of properties. It is the second sweetest, after fructose, but is alone in having a pleasant taste even at the very high concentrations found in candies and preserves; other sugars can seem harsh. Sucrose is also the second most soluble sugar - two parts can dissolve in one part of room-temperature water - and it produces the greatest viscosity, or thickness, in a water solution. Sucrose begins to melt around 320F/160C, and caramelizes at around 340F/170C. Sucrose is the scientific name for table sugar. It is a composite molecule made of one molecule each of glucose and fructose. Green plants produce sucrose in the process of photosynthesis, and we extract it from the stalks of sugar cane and the storage stems of sugar beets. Of all the common sugars, it has the most useful combination of properties. It is the second sweetest, after fructose, but is alone in having a pleasant taste even at the very high concentrations found in candies and preserves; other sugars can seem harsh. Sucrose is also the second most soluble sugar - two parts can dissolve in one part of room-temperature water - and it produces the greatest viscosity, or thickness, in a water solution. Sucrose begins to melt around 320F/160C, and caramelizes at around 340F/170C.

When a solution of sucrose is heated in the presence of some acid, it breaks apart into its two subsugars. Certain enzymes will do the same thing. Breaking sucrose into glucose and fructose is often referred to as inversion, inversion, and the resulting mixture is called and the resulting mixture is called invert sugar invert sugar or or invert syrup. invert syrup. ("Inversion" refers to a difference in optical properties between sucrose and a mixture of its components parts.) Invert syrups are about 75% glucose and fructose, 25% sucrose. Invert sugar only exists as a syrup, since the fructose component won't fully crystallize in the presence of glucose and sucrose. Sucrose inversion and invert sugars are useful in candy making because they help limit the extent of sucrose crystallization (p. 685). ("Inversion" refers to a difference in optical properties between sucrose and a mixture of its components parts.) Invert syrups are about 75% glucose and fructose, 25% sucrose. Invert sugar only exists as a syrup, since the fructose component won't fully crystallize in the presence of glucose and sucrose. Sucrose inversion and invert sugars are useful in candy making because they help limit the extent of sucrose crystallization (p. 685).

Common sugars. Carbon atoms are shown as dots. Glucose and fructose have the same chemical formula, C6H12O6, but different chemical structures, and different degrees of sweetness. A given concentration of fructose tastes much sweeter than the same concentration of glucose. Table sugar, or sucrose, is a combination of glucose and fructose (a molecule of water is released when the two sugars bond to make sucrose). but different chemical structures, and different degrees of sweetness. A given concentration of fructose tastes much sweeter than the same concentration of glucose. Table sugar, or sucrose, is a combination of glucose and fructose (a molecule of water is released when the two sugars bond to make sucrose).

Lactose Lactose is the sugar found in milk. It is a composite of two simple sugars, glucose and galactose. Cooks seldom encounter it in pure form. Because it's much less sweet than table sugar, manufacturers use it much as they do the sugar alcohols (p. 662), more for its physical bulk than for its sweetness. Lactose is the sugar found in milk. It is a composite of two simple sugars, glucose and galactose. Cooks seldom encounter it in pure form. Because it's much less sweet than table sugar, manufacturers use it much as they do the sugar alcohols (p. 662), more for its physical bulk than for its sweetness.

The Complexities of Sweetness There's more to the sweetness of sugars than the sensation of sweetness pure and simple. Sweetness helps mask or balance both sourness and bitterness from other ingredients. And flavor chemists have shown that it has a strong enhancing effect on our perception of food aromas, perhaps by signaling the brain that the food is a good energy source and therefore deserves special attention.

Different sugars give different impressions of sweetness. Sucrose takes some time to be detected on the tongue, and its sweetness lingers. By comparison, the sweetness of fructose registers quickly and strongly, but it also fades quickly. And corn syrup is slow to taste sweet, peaks at about half the intensity of sucrose, and lingers even longer than sucrose. The quick action of fructose is said to enhance certain other flavors in foods, especially fruitiness, tartness, and spiciness, by allowing us to perceive them clearly without the masking effect of residual sweetness.

The Composition and Relative Sweetnesses of Different SugarsSugar sweetness is designated by comparison to the sweetness of table sugar, which is a.s.signed a value of 100.

Sugar Composition Composition Sweetness Sweetness

Fructose

120 120.

Glucose

70 70.

Sucrose (table sugar)

100 100.

Maltose

45 45.

Lactose

40 40.