All sugars should be stored in a dry place for they deteriorate if stored
where it is damp. This power of absorbing moisture can be made use of
to improve some foods, but it is a detriment in others.
Browne reports that the sugars having the highest absorptive power from
a saturated atmosphere are the levulose-containing substances : invert sugar,
honey, levulose, and molasses. He finds that the percentage of water ab-
sorbed has no relation to the percentage of levulose present. This would
suggest that cakes made with levulose-containing products would not dry
out so rapidly as cakes made with sucrose. In practise, this is found to be
true. Cakes made with part levulose or levulose-containing substances do not
dry out so rapidly as those made with sucrose.
Honey and molasses are used in many family recipes for cookies, par-
ticularly the kinds made for holidays, for they can be made a long time in
advance of their intended use and they remain moist with storage — in many
instances the moisture content seems to increase during storage.
Invert sugar either added to food or formed by inversion during cooking
is found in many food products. In the bakery trade it is used to prevent
SOLUTIONS 39
drying and checking. The acid in fruits inverts sucrose. The amount of
total sugar that can be held in solution in a given quantity of liquid is
greater if it contains a mixture of sucrose, levulose, and dextrose. Rich
preserves made of fruit containing little acid do not crystallize so readily
during storage if lemon juice is added when they are being made. The
lemon juice brings about more inversion than the less acid fruit juice. The
invert sugar does not crystallize so readily as the sucrose, the total quantity
of sugar held in solution is greater, and there is less evaporation.
The levulose-containing substances should be avoided for hard candies.
Duryea states that maltose is better to use in hard candies than dextrose,
because the candies remain drier. He also adds that another advantage
of using maltose in hard candy is that maltose is not so readily affected
by alkali. The decomposition caused by use of dextrose and alkaline w^ater
is avoided.
The Melting Point of the Sugars and the Effect of Heat
When sugars are heated without the addition of water a point is reached
at which they change from a crystalline to a liquid state. This is called
the melting point.
Mackenzie states that the melting point of sucrose is 160° to 161 °C.
Impure solutions of sucrose will give variable melting points. After sugar
is melted and cooled slowly it forms the hard amorphous sugar sometime?
called ''barley sugar." The amorphous form of sugar like the amorphous
sulfur slowly reverts to the crystalline form. If sucrose is heated above the
melting point brownish-colored substances called caramel are formed. In
the presence of moisture, caramelization may begin at temperatures below
100°C. Caramel is composed of a number of substances, decomposition
products of sucrose with loss of water.
Maltose melts at about 100°C. Having a lower melting point than
sucrose it decomposes more easily by heat.
Page 35
Presented as published in 1932. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
A modernized reading is not available for this page yet. You are seeing the original text.
All sugars should be stored in a dry place for they deteriorate if stored
where it is damp. This power of absorbing moisture can be made use of
to improve some foods, but it is a detriment in others.
Browne reports that the sugars having the highest absorptive power from
a saturated atmosphere are the levulose-containing substances : invert sugar,
honey, levulose, and molasses. He finds that the percentage of water ab-
sorbed has no relation to the percentage of levulose present. This would
suggest that cakes made with levulose-containing products would not dry
out so rapidly as cakes made with sucrose. In practise, this is found to be
true. Cakes made with part levulose or levulose-containing substances do not
dry out so rapidly as those made with sucrose.
Honey and molasses are used in many family recipes for cookies, par-
ticularly the kinds made for holidays, for they can be made a long time in
advance of their intended use and they remain moist with storage — in many
instances the moisture content seems to increase during storage.
Invert sugar either added to food or formed by inversion during cooking
is found in many food products. In the bakery trade it is used to prevent
SOLUTIONS 39
drying and checking. The acid in fruits inverts sucrose. The amount of
total sugar that can be held in solution in a given quantity of liquid is
greater if it contains a mixture of sucrose, levulose, and dextrose. Rich
preserves made of fruit containing little acid do not crystallize so readily
during storage if lemon juice is added when they are being made. The
lemon juice brings about more inversion than the less acid fruit juice. The
invert sugar does not crystallize so readily as the sucrose, the total quantity
of sugar held in solution is greater, and there is less evaporation.
The levulose-containing substances should be avoided for hard candies.
Duryea states that maltose is better to use in hard candies than dextrose,
because the candies remain drier. He also adds that another advantage
of using maltose in hard candy is that maltose is not so readily affected
by alkali. The decomposition caused by use of dextrose and alkaline w^ater
is avoided.
The Melting Point of the Sugars and the Effect of Heat
When sugars are heated without the addition of water a point is reached
at which they change from a crystalline to a liquid state. This is called
the melting point.
Mackenzie states that the melting point of sucrose is 160° to 161 °C.
Impure solutions of sucrose will give variable melting points. After sugar
is melted and cooled slowly it forms the hard amorphous sugar sometime?
called ''barley sugar." The amorphous form of sugar like the amorphous
sulfur slowly reverts to the crystalline form. If sucrose is heated above the
melting point brownish-colored substances called caramel are formed. In
the presence of moisture, caramelization may begin at temperatures below
100°C. Caramel is composed of a number of substances, decomposition
products of sucrose with loss of water.
Maltose melts at about 100°C. Having a lower melting point than
sucrose it decomposes more easily by heat.