Loaf sugar

“ 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." ”

“ Considerable ingenuity is exerted in the adulteration of sugar. The moist sugars are mixed up with sand, salt, flour, and a variety of other ingredients of little or no cost. The loaf, or lump sugar receives the addition of lime, chalk, gypsum, plaster of paris, or any white material which will save expense to the “refiner.”
Lump, or loaf sugar, to be good, should be close, heavy, and shining: though, by the bye, some of the craft have lately contrived to introduce some sparkling par97ticles of marble, to produce the shining appearance. ”

“ 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. ”

“ All kinds of sugar for candy, are boiled as above directed. When boiling loaf sugar, add a tablespoonful of rum or vinegar, to prevent its becoming too brittle whilst making.
Loaf sugar when boiled, by pulling and making into small rolls, and twisting a little, will make what is called little rock, or snow. By pulling loaf sugar after it is boiled, you can make it as white as snow.
Common Twist Candy.—Boil three pounds of common sugar and one pint of water over a slow fire for half an hour, without skimming. When boiled enough take it off; rub the hands over with butter ”

“ If you want to have it particularly good to look at use loaf sugar, but there is no actual necessity, ordinary white sugar answering as well if care is taken. Add a pint of sugar to a pint of juice; stir well with a wooden spoon till all is dissolved, then set on the fire again till it jells, which it will in from half-an-hour to forty minutes. It will be noticed round the sides of the pan first; now remove from the fire, and when cool pour into glasses, jars, etc. This is much prettier than marmalade made with citron, and it has much the same flavour. ”

“ Then take half a pound of loaf-sugar in lumps, and rub on them the yellow rind of two lemons. Mix together the strained juice of the lemons, and two glasses of sherry or madeira, and a glass of brandy; pour it upon the sugar; and when the sugar is entirely dissolved, mix it with a quart of rich cream, and whip it with rods or a whisk to a stiff froth. Take off the froth as it stiffens, and add it gradually to the custard, stirring it very hard, at the time ”

“ Break up 1 lb. of loaf sugar into small particles, let it dissolve in a pan with 1⁄2 pint of water and 2 spoonfuls of lemon-juice; skim and boil to the ball, add pieces of lemon peel tied together with a string, boil until a sample is brittle; take out the lemon peel, pour out the sugar on an oiled slab, taking care to distribute it so that the whole mass cools at the same time. It is pulled, manipulated, and cut in the ordinary way. A small part of the sugar coloured red and boiled separately may be used to variegate the sweets, and should be worked in just before cutting. ”

“ Take damsons that have been preserved without sugar; pass them through a sieve, to take out the skins and stones. To every pound of pulp of fruit put half a pound of loaf sugar, broke small; boil them together till it becomes quite stiff ”

“ To every gallon of water take four pounds of loaf sugar, boiled and clarified with eggs, according to the quantity, and thrown hot upon the elder-flowers, allowing a quart of flowers to each gallon. They must be gathered when the weather is quite dry, and when they are so ripe as to shake off without any of the green part. When nearly cold, add yest in proportion to the quantity of liquor; strain it in two or three days from the flowers, and put it into a cask, with two or three table-spoonfuls of lemon-juice to every two gallons. ”

“ Take a pound of Spanish nuts without their shells, which put in a pan with as much sugar, and proceed as directed for almonds; you may boil the nuts a little if you chuse, to take off their skin, but then the sugar does not stick on them so well. You may also make all sorts of pralines with clarified sugar, which must be proportioned in equal quantity to the weight of sugar you want to praline; your work will be certainly much the finer, for generally they use loaf sugar. ”

“ I say granulated sugar, because the loaf sugar purchased was in a street-car-card-familiar box and the magazines, I believe, had prepared me for that brand of powdered sugar which "does not cake." And the fresh meat does not fairly class among the unknown-quality supplies of sugar and vegetables. ”

“ 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. ”

“ But the bun was sweet and that was enough, sweetened with white sugar too, a rare flavor in those days. I write white sugar but its current name was loaf sugar. It came in cone-shaped packages wrapped in heavy chocolate colored paper, and this paper was used by women for dyeing. These packages were hung up over the counters of all country stores. The sale was small as it was expensive and limited in use, chiefly to the sick room, wedding and funeral feasts. ”

“ And possibly those who suppose that sugar has a bad effect upon the teeth of Europeans, may not be mistaken, for it is well known that refined loaf-sugar contains a considerable quantity of lime; and he that doubts whether lime will destroy bone of any kind, may easily ascertain the fact by experiment. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Cane sugar is obtained from sugar cane, beets, and the palm and sugar-maple trees. Sugar cane is a grass supposed to be native to Southern Asia, but now grown throughout the tropics, a large amount coming from Cuba and Louisiana; it is the commonest of all, and in all cases the manufacture is essentially the same. The products of manufacture are: molasses, syrup, brown sugar, loaf, cut, granulated, powdered, and confectioners’ sugar. Brown sugar is cheapest, but is not so pure or sweet as white 7grades ”

“ It is a sacrifice of money to buy poor flour, meat, sugar, molasses, butter, cheese, lard, &c., to say nothing of the injurious effect upon the health.
Of West India sugar and molasses, the Santa Cruz and Porto Rico are considered the best. The Havana is seldom clean. White sugar from Brazil is sometimes very good. Refined sugars usually contain most of the saccharine substance, therefore there is probably more economy in using loaf, crushed, and granulated sugars, than we should at first suppose. ”

“ It is interesting to note that while the cane is growing and in an unripe state, there is no discernible sucrose or pure sugar in it. As the ripening process goes on, the content of the cane juice is changed by the action of the sun’s rays, and the amount of sucrose as determined by polariscopic test shows when the time for harvesting is at hand. Nature’s operation in thus changing glucose or invert sugar into sucrose or pure sugar cannot be accomplished by any human means. ”

“ Boil the molasses, skim it, throw in the barberries, and simmer them till they are soft. If you wish to lay by a few for sickness, preserve them in sugar by the same rule as other preserves. Melt the sugar, skim it, throw in the barberries; when done soft, take them out, and throw in others.
A pound of sugar to a pound of fruit is the rule for all preserves. The sugar should be melted over a fire moderate enough not to scorch it. When melted, it should be skimmed clean, and the fruit dropped in to simmer till it is soft. ”

“ There is no mistake more common than to suppose that any half-ripe or over-ripe fruit is good enough for jam.
Sugar for Preserving.—Of the various kinds of sugar in common use, the white refined lump is generally sold for preserving, and, indeed, is the only kind admissible for the more delicate kinds of preserves. Coarse brown sugar conceals the flavour of any fruit, and the whiter moist sugar has little sweetening power. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Cook in a small quantity of boiling water, and if economy is a point to be considered, do not add sugar until the fruit is done. Sugar boiled with an acid will be converted into glucose, two and one half pounds of which only equal one pound of cane sugar in sweetening properties. It will require a much larger amount of sugar to sweeten fruit if added before the cooking process is completed. Fruit should be cooked by stewing, or by gentle simmering; hard boiling will destroy the fine flavor of all fruits, and especially of berries and other small fruits. ”

“ This, together with the fat found in milk, supplies the child with energy before it is able to digest a variety of foods. The sap of various plants contains such large quantities of sugar that it can be crystalized out and secured in dry form. The liquid that remains is valuable as food, for, by boiling it down, it forms molasses. Sugar is also present in considerable amounts in all fruits, and much of it is in a form that can be assimilated, or taken up by the body, quickly. A sugar very similar to this natural fruit sugar is made from the starch of corn and is called glucose. ”

“ 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." ”

“ 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. ”

“ The purity of the juice has an important bearing on the subsequent manufacture of the sugar. It is difficult and costly to extract sugar from low-purity juices, and the loss of sugar in the process is very high. The reverse is naturally true if the juices have a high purity. The purity of the juice in the beet is materially affected during the growing period by climatic conditions, rainfall, irrigation, fertilization, state of soil and cultivation. Great care and attention must be given the beet to insure high purity and heavy content of sugar. ”

“ Where fruits are too dry to give out enough juice to cover them generously, a light syrup should be used. But with juicy fruits, avoid water if possible. A good rule in the case of small berries is to allow one third of a pound of sugar to each pound of fruit. ”

“ On other estates the second sugars, or sugars produced from boiling molasses alone, are not purged to dryness, but when sufficiently separated from their mother-liquor are mixed with the defecated juice, thereby increasing its saccharine richness, and after being converted into syrup in the usual manner are treated in the vacuum pan as first sugars, which in fact they really are. ”

“ Inorganic matter is determined by incineration, farina by the iodine test, water by drying at 210 deg., and molasses by getting rid of it by re-crystalization from alcohol, as also by the color and moisture of the article.
The natural impurities of sugar are gum and tannin; gum is detected by giving a white precipitate with diacetate of lead, and [Pg 137] tannin by giving a black coloration or precipitate with persulphate of iron.
An experienced sugar dealer easily judges of the value of sugar by the taste, smell, specific gravity, moisture and general appearance. ”