Brown sugar

“ A pound of sugar to a pound of fruit, is sufficient to preserve most kinds of fruit. Some kinds of fruit require more, and some will do with less, than an equal weight of sugar. White sugar makes the most delicate sweetmeats—nice brown sugar answers very well for most kinds of fruit. The West India sugar-house syrup is better than sugar to preserve fruit, on account of its never fermenting. ”

“ After the molasses have been drained from the concreted loaves, the sugar is not at all deliquescent, like equally brown sugar from the cane. Maple sugar is in taste equally agreeable with cane sugar, and it sweetens as well. When refined, it is equally fair with the loaf sugar of Europe. ”

“ Brown sugar frosting which will not crack is made of one tablespoon of vinegar, brown sugar enough to mix and the beaten white of half an egg. Beat all well together and add sugar enough to spread.
I have many times been asked how I retained the color of preserved fruits. I allow for all preserves equal measure of sugar and fruit.
It is impossible to have success if you make large quantities. I never make over three pints at a time—usually one quart. ”

“ The cheapest does not go so far as the more refined, and there is a difference even in the degree of sweetness. Of white sugar that should be preferred which is close, heavy, and shining. The best sort of brown sugar has a bright gravelly appearance, and it is often to be bought pure as imported. ”

“ Thus, if a white substance, resembling exactly, in every external appearance, a lump of sugar, do not melt when exposed to the action of boiling water, we do not regard it as sugar, because the water does not act on it as we have uniformly known it to act on that substance; or if the same white lump, in every other respect resembling sugar, affect our taste as bitter or acrid rather than sweet, we immediately, in like manner, cease to consider it as sugar, because it does not act upon our nerves of taste in the same manner as sugar acts upon them. ”

“ When crushed between rolls it yields 65 per cent. of its weight as juice, and 18 per cent. of this juice is sugar. It is concentrated by evaporation at a low temperature, the crystallized portion being known as “raw” or brown sugar, which is subsequently refined, while the uncrystallized portion forms molasses.
FIG. 173.—VACUUM PAN FOR EVAPORATING THE SYRUP TO PRODUCE SUGAR.
In the process of refining, 2 or 3 parts of raw sugar, with one of water containing a little lime, ground bone black, and the serum of bullocks’ blood, is heated by the passage of steam through it. ”

“ They are not infrequently infested by a small insect, the sugar-mite, many thousands of which have been detected in a single pound of brown sugar." Cane-sugar and grape-sugar, otherwise known as sucrose and glucose, are obtained from various sources. Most of the cane-sugar consumed in England is actually produced from the sugar-cane, but of beet-root sugar there is much in the market, and in America sugar is produced from the maple, from maize, and from the "sugar grass." ”

“ Sugar-cane, though not so important as formerly, is still grown very extensively in several of the Southern states—Cuba, Porto Rico, and many semi-tropical countries. The chief distinction between cane-sugar and beet-sugar is that the crude cane-sugar, before it is refined, is a very wholesome and palatable product. The brown sugar of commerce is uncrystallized, or unrefined cane-sugar, and is fully as wholesome, and to most tastes more palatable than the granulated product. It is to be regretted that fashion has decreed we should use white sugar. ”

“ It was hard to get white sugar most of the time, and the people had to use brown sugar, which came in barrels, and when the weather was damp and rainy that sugar seemed to draw moisture and got quite heavy. And each time the old lady got sugar she accused the old man of putting water in it to make it weigh more. ”

“ The scum should always be reserved when charcoal or black is not used, to mix with the articles of an inferior quality.
The best refined loaf sugar should be white, dry, fine, of a brilliant sparkling appearance, when broken, and as close in texture as possible. The best sort of brown has a bright, sparkling, and gravelly look. East India sugars appear finer, but do not contain so much saccharine matter, yet they are much used for manufacturing the best sort of common sweetmeats, when clarified, instead of loaf sugar. ”

“ Put 50 pounds of coarse brown sugar into a pan, which will contain 1-3d more, pour in 20 pints of water, well mixed with 5 whites of eggs; pound 5 pounds of small charcoal, mix it in the pan while on the fire, and boil it till it looks as black as ink. If it rises too fast, add cold water, strain it through a bag, and though at first it will be black, continue to strain it until it becomes quite clear; which may be seen by putting the syrup in a glass. Put it back until it comes out as fine as clarified loaf sugar. ”

“ If the heat is continued a change of color takes place; it grows darker and darker until it blackens just as sugar does, the final result being nearly the same. Water is driven off in both cases, but in carbonizing sugar we start with more water, sugar being starch plus water or the elements of water. Thus the brown material of bread-crust or toast is nearly identical with caramel. ”

“ Honey is one of the best forms of sugar available. The white sugar is detrimental to health, because it has become inorganic through the refining process. The brown, unrefined granulated sugar or maple sugar should be used instead. ”

“ Sugar is divided into the following classes:—Refined sugar, white clayed, brown clayed, brown raw, and molasses. The sugarcane grows to the height of six, twelve, or even sometimes twenty feet. It is propagated from cuttings, requires much hoeing and weeding, giving employment to thousands upon thousands of slaves in the slave countries, and attains maturity in twelve or thirteen months. ”

“ When fresh, it is perfectly white and delicious, but, because most of the wounds on which it is found have been made by fire, the exuding sap is stained on the charred surface, and the hardened sugar becomes brown. Indians are fond of it, but on account of its laxative properties only small quantities may be eaten. ”

“ Put 1 pint of clarified sugar in a round-bottomed pan on a clear fire, boil it to the degree called blown, mix in as much prepared cochineal as will make it a good colour, boil it again to the degree called blown, throw in the brown burnt almonds free from small; take the pan off the fire and stir the almonds well about in the sugar with the spatter until it is all upon them, which is very easily done if you are careful. ”

“ One pound butter, one pound brown sugar, one pound flour, twelve eggs, four pounds currants, four pounds raisins, one pound citron, two pounds figs, two pounds blanched almonds, two oranges, one tablespoonful cinnamon, one tablespoonful allspice, one-half tablespoonful mace, one-half tablespoonful cloves, one nutmeg, one lemon peel (chopped fine) , one gill wine, one gill brandy; chop orange peel and pulp (removing seeds) , then work in all the sugar you can (this is extra sugar) , slice the almonds thin, also citron, chop figs quite fine. ”

“ The reason for using syrup instead of water is that the former, being a saturated sugar solution, does not melt the sugar as water would.
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The resultant mixture, called magma, looks a good deal like a soft, brown mortar. It is, in fact, raw-sugar crystals swimming in syrup. This consistency is needed to allow the magma to work freely in the centrifugals, the next operation. Most of the impurities contained in raw sugar are superficial, that is, adhering to the outside of the grain. They may be more or less readily removed by washing the surfaces of the crystals with water. ”

“ No person forfeits his or her character or standing in society by being engaged in raising and selling slaves to supply the cotton, sugar, and rice plantations of the south. Few persons who have visited the slave states have not, on their return, told of the gangs of slaves they had seen on their way to the southern market. This trade presents some of the most revolting and atrocious scenes which can be imagined. Slave-prisons, slave-auctions, hand-cuffs, whips, chains, bloodhounds, and other instruments of cruelty, are part of the furniture which belongs to the American slave-trade. ”

“ Nature, which finds herself declining in me, is so greedy of new breath, that I gape as I crawl for the benefit of the fresh air, as if I was jaw-fallen, and those humming insects that are a pestiferous calamity this hot weather to all cooks-shops and sugar-bakers, are so unmannerly, that they fly over those few palisadoes of my breathing-hole that are left, and dung t’other side the pails, as if they took my mouth for a house of office ”

“ Never was an experiment more severely tested than that of emancipation in the West Indies.
Nevertheless, the principles of freedom triumphed; not a drop of blood was shed by the enfranchised blacks; the colonies have arisen from the blight which they labored under in the time of slavery; the land has increased in value; and, above all, that which is more valuable than cotton, sugar, or rice—the moral and intellectual condition of both blacks and whites is in a better state now than ever before. ”

“ A few weeks after, on our downward passage, the boat took on board, at Hannibal, a drove of slaves, bound for the New Orleans market. They numbered from fifty to sixty, consisting of men and women from eighteen to forty years of age. A drove of slaves on a southern steamboat, bound for the cotton or sugar regions, is an occurrence so common, that no one, not even the passengers, appear to notice it, though they clank their chains at every step. ”

“ The slave-trader started at early dawn, and was beyond the confines of the city long before the citizens were out of their beds. As a slave regards a life on the sugar, cotton, or rice plantation as even worse than death, they are ever on the watch for an opportunity to escape. The trader, aware of this, secures his victims in chains before he sets out on his journey. ”

“ I would be forever ruined, for I would be sold, and in all probability have to end my days on a cotton, rice, or sugar plantation." However, the thought of freedom in the future outweighed this danger, and her resolve was taken. ”

“ After these march a similar group, but their burdens consist of various objects cunningly moulded in coloured sugar, such as castles and pavilions, summer-houses and pagodas, and all the picturesque habitations that man can conceive. ”

“ Glucose sugars melt at one hundred and five degrees, 19C., while cane sugars melt only when heated to one hundred and thirty-seven degrees, C. Raw sugars are no longer used. They should be refined to free them from the repulsive sugar mite and other impurities. The best sugar is always the most economical.
The Best Grades of Family Sugar are the cut loaf, cubes and crushed. ”

“ How to make clear Sugar.—Break three pounds of fine white sugar, the hardest and closest grained is the best, put it into a sugar-pan, with three pints of clear spring water, set over a sharp fire, and when beginning to boil place it at the corner to simmer, and squeeze in the juice of half a lemon, skim well and reduce to two thirds, it is then ready to use for jellies. ”

“ Weigh each pine-apple, balancing the other scale with an equal weight of the best double-refined sugar, finely powdered, at home. The white sugar, that is sold ready-powdered, is generally so adulterated with finely pulverized starch, as to have very little strength or sweetness, and is, therefore, unfit for sweetmeats, as, when made with it, they will not keep. ”

“ The methods of refining sugar have been so perfected within the last few years that it is safe to say that few food substances in commercial use are so near to being chemically pure as granulated sugars of good grade. No less an authority than Blythe says, "Loaf sugar is, as a rule, chemically pure. It is probably, indeed, the purest of all substances in commerce, and a large quantity may be burnt up without obtaining a trace of nitrogen and without leaving any residue. The only sugar that may be impure are the raw sugars." ”

“ The output of the other sugars is measurable in hundreds or even thousands of pounds, but the output of the sugar of commerce is measured in millions of tons. Long experience proves that the desired substance is most readily, most abundantly, and most cheaply, obtained from the juices of the plant commonly known as sugar cane, and from the vegetable known as the sugar beet. ”

“ There are many varieties of the sugar cane which contain from twelve to twenty per cent. of sugar; these are cut, crushed, and the juice boiled down and clarified with lime, etc.; the sugar crystallizes and leaves the molasses. The sugar beet contains from 18seven to thirteen per cent. of sugar, which, when raw, is unpleasant, but when refined is identical with cane sugar. The fact that the molasses of the sugar beet, although colorless, is very disagreeable, has retarded the beet sugar manufacture, but it is a great and growing industry. The sap of the sugar maple contains about two per cent. ”

“ Good sugar-beets possess the following broad characteristics: (1) Regular pear-shaped form and smooth skin; long, tapering, carrot-like roots are considered inferior; (2) white and firm flesh, delicate and uniform structure, and clean sugary flavor; thick-skinned roots are spongy and watery; those with large leaves are generally richer; (3) average weight 11⁄2 to 21⁄2 lbs., neither very large [141] nor very small roots being profitable to the sugar-manufacturer; as a rule, beets weighing more than 31⁄2 lbs. are watery, and poor in sugar ”