Foods and household management

Sugar is a valuable food material, but should not be used in excess ; the tendency in the United States is rather toward an excessive use of sugar. It is liable to cause an acid fermentation in digestion, when taken in large amounts, and is sure to irritate the stomach. It should be well diluted by other foods. The amount that may be eaten daily varies for most people from two ounces for young children to four ounces for adults, but many people cannot eat these amounts without more or less irritation of the stomach. It is a common practice to oversweeten cakes and desserts, the sweet- ness of the sugar often disguising other agreeable flavors. The liking for sweets should be well under control, for the eating of too much sugar is a habit easy to form, and one which crowds out other valuable foods. Cane Sugar' is sold both brown and white, and is manufactured in powdered, granulated, and solid form, the latter usually cut in cubes or dominoes. The canes are first crushed, the juices passing from the machine being of a rather dark greenish color. This juice is first clarified and filtered, and then boiled down in order to crystallize the sugar, the liquid sirup forming molasses. In the older methods the sirup was boiled in open pans, and the crystals filtered from the molasses by a slow process. In the modem process the sirup is boiled at a low temperature in vacuum pans, and the sugar is separated from the molasses by a centrifugal machine, built on the same principle as a cream separator. The principles of beet sugar manufacture are essentially the same, with some differences in detail. The molasses manufactured in the older method is richer in cane sugar and is a better table molasses than the new process molasses, the latter being used chiefly for the manufacture of alcohol. Molasses is either dark or light, the darker having a stronger flavor especially suited to gingerbread arid Indian meal pudding. Molasses comes in the bulk, and may be slightly acid ; or in cans, in which case no acid fermentation should have taken place. Where canned molasses is used in a batter, it is sometimes necessary to use baking powder instead of soda. " New Orleans " is a light-colored molasses, " Porto Rico '' dark. Brown sugar has not passed through the refining processes necessary to the whitening of the sugar. It is softer than the granulated white, has a decided brownish color and a rich flavor. In buying sugar it is economy to purchase granulated in lai^ quantities, a fraction of a cent per pound being saved in this way. The cut sugar comes in convenient boxes, which keep the product clean. Powdered sugar may be bought in small quantities, three or five pounds, since it is not used so much in cooking as the granulated. Candy, homemade and purchased. — Candy, if not eaten between meals, is an allowable form of sugar. The best time for eating it is at the end of a meal, one or two pieces. Even in this case, however, it would be better for the body if the craving for sweet were satisfied by fruit rather than candy.