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The Pantry:
SWEETENERS 101 |
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Sugar is a carbohydrate
created naturally in fruits and vegetables, or by honey bees.
Sweetening is its obvious function, but it also plays a
great
role in baking.
It comes in either dry (white or brown), liquid or artificial
forms. |
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 Honey,
granulated and confectioners' sugar are staples in just about everyone's
kitchen, and there are many types.
Sugar acts as a
preservative in
candies,
chocolates
and
icings.
It binds with water so it is not available for microbial growth, except
for custards, creams or egg-based ones. They need refrigeration.
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Sugar History:
Where did sugar first come from?
Around 20,000 BC, people in the islands of the South Pacific were the
first to find the sugar in sugar cane that grew naturally in their area.
However, India was the first country to extract natural cane juice to make
the first crude sugar, which they called "gur" (loosely translated as
"tasting sweet") in 500 BC. From India, the knowledge of making sugar
spread westward into the middle east and then to Europe by the Crusaders.
For hundreds of years, sugar was a highly prized and expensive "spice"
that was used only in the homes of nobility and royalty. Christopher
Columbus took sugar cane to plant in the Caribbean, leading to the
production of sugar in the New World.
In the mid-1700's, a German scientist
developed an alternative to sugar cane through the use of sugar beets.
Since then, sugar beets are also grown and processed to produce sugar.
There is no difference in the sugar produced from either cane or beet.
Today, sugar is derived from sugar beets or sugar cane
that are crushed and dissolved in water. The raw syrup is boiled down to
concentrate it to a point where some fraction crystallizes. The remaining
heavy syrup (see "molasses")
is separated from the 95+% pure sugar. The crystals are further processed
several times to increase its purity yielding, eventually, the pure white
crystals we commonly use. Some other commonly used sugars are also
produced during the processing. |
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NOTE:
If you want to substitute one sugar for another, the rule of
thumb is to use dry sugar for dry sugar and liquid sugar for liquid sugar.
You can't exchange a dry one for a liquid one and vice versa without
wrecking havoc, even if a
substitution chart
shows you otherwise. Also, each dry or liquid sugar has its own
attribute, so when you substitute it, expect changes in the outcome. |
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addition to beet and cane sugars, there are other types of
sugar used in baking that come from different sources. After
processing, the beet and cane sugars are chemically the same. |
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SOURCES |
DESCRIPTION:
Sugar comes from many plants |
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Beet sugar |
A variety of garden beet extensively
cultivated for the sugar which can be extracted from the roots. |
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Sugar cane |
A tall grass whose sap yields sugar.
Perhaps the oldest source of sugar known. |
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Fruit sugars |
Sugar from grapes and other fruit with a
high sugar content. |
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Honey |
Sugar harvested from bees. |
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Milk sugar |
Fine white powder much less sweet than
cane sugar, made from milk extract. |
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Refined sugar |
White crystals of either sugar beet or
sugar cane. |
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Sugar maple |
A North American tree from whose sap
maple sugar is made. |
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Turbinado sugar OR date
sugar OR Sucanat (more nutritious) |
Sugar from the sap of the date palm. |
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TYPE OF SUGAR: |
EXAMPLES / FOOD
SOURCES: |
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Monosaccharides:
(single sugar molecules) |
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Glucose |
Grapes, various fruits. Much less sweet than
cane sugar. |
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Fructose |
Fruit, honey. Fructose =
granulated fructose = fruit sugar = levulose (fruit sugar) |
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Galactose |
Milk |
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Disaccharides:
(each molecule is made of two single sugar
molecules) |
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Sucrose (glucose + fructose) = sugar |
The technical name for sugar. A
sweetener which is extracted from plants, such as beet or
cane, producing natural sugar. |
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Lactose (glucose + galactose) |
Milk extract. Fine white
powder much less sweet than cane sugar. |
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Maltose (glucose + glucose) |
Bee. A sugar produced by the
action of malt on starch. |
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How do fructose (one of the sugars found in fruit), lactose (a sugar
found in milk) and sucrose (commonly table sugar) compare in
sweetness?
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FYI: Here are some
questions
that I am frequently asked about sugar.
The answers may
surprise you: |
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 | Is
the sugar in fruit better for you than table sugar?
Sugar is a natural product. The sugar in your sugar bowl is
the same substance (sucrose) found naturally in sugar cane,
sugar beets, apples, oranges, carrots and every other fruit
and vegetable we eat. The body uses sugar from sugar cane and
sugar beets in the same way as the sugars in fruit and
vegetables. The sugars found in all carbohydrate foods all
become glucose, fuel for the body. |
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| How
does refined sugar compare to the sugar in fruit?
From a nutritional point of view, it doesn't matter what foods
provide the sugars in our diet. Once digested, all sugars are
put to the same good uses. All fruit and vegetables contain
some sucrose along with other sugars, like fructose and
glucose, in addition to fiber and a variety of vitamins and
minerals. Most of the sugar added to foods is enjoyed as a
part of foods from all four food groups, giving us both good
nutrition and good taste. |
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| Is it
better for you to eat honey instead of sugar?
Honey, brown sugar, white sugar and maple syrup all have
similar nutritional values. They all provide carbohydrate and
energy, but insignificant amounts of vitamins and minerals.
Sugar and other carbohydrate sweeteners play an important role
in making other foods taste better, and, through their many
uses in cooking, increasing the variety of foods available.
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Is sugar
bleached to make it white?
No. There is no
bleaching agent added at any time during the refining process.
Pure sucrose crystals are naturally white.
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 When
making
lemon curd, sugar
raises the coagulation point of the egg yolk. It also protects it from
premature coagulation during the addition of the lemon juice. If the juice
were added directly to the unprotected yolk, the yolk would partially
coagulate and, when strained, a large percentage of it would be left behind
in the strainer. Be sure to mix the sugar well with the egg yolks before
adding the juice. |
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Sucrose ====
