Molasses

“ Because of the presence of this acid, molasses may be used with soda to form a chemical leavening agent, and when they are combined in hot breads or cake, the chemical action of the two produces carbon dioxide. However, accurate results cannot always be obtained when these ingredients are used, for the degree of acidity in molasses is as uncertain as it is in sour milk. Molasses that is old or has been kept in a warm place will contain more acid than molasses that has been manufactured only a short time or that has been kept cool to retard fermentation. ”

“ In my laboratory we have modified the method still further by using a 10 per cent solution of New Orleans black (or baking) molasses instead of the more expensive sugar-dextrin solution. As the molasses costs but 20 cents a gallon, a gallon of the dilute solution costing 2 cents can be used indefinitely if fermentation be prevented by a crystal of phenol or thymol. The paraffin sections are floated on to this dilute molasses solution warmed sufficiently to smooth out the sections ”

“ It was necessary to keep the molasses-barrel in the yard, where Cupid presided over it, and harangued and scolded the eager, noisy crowd, collected around, to his heart's content; while up the road leading to the house came constantly processions of men, women, and children, carrying on their heads cans, jugs, pitchers, and even bottles,—anything, indeed, that was capable of containing molasses. It is wonderful with what ease they carry all sorts of things on their heads,—heavy bundles of wood, hoes and rakes, everything, heavy or light, that can be carried in the hands ”

“ When the density of molasses has been lowered by dilution with water, fermentation sets in rapidly, more especially if it has been previously rendered acid. As, however, molasses from beet generally exhibits an alkaline reaction, it is found necessary to acidify it after dilution; for this purpose sulphuric acid is employed, in the proportion of about 41⁄2 lbs. of the concentrated acid to 22 gallons of molasses, previously diluted with eight or ten volumes of water. Three processes are thus employed in obtaining alcohol from molasses; dilution, acidification, and fermentation. ”

“ Molasses is a less one-sided food than cane sugar or corn syrup. The latter furnish nothing but fuel, and if used too freely not only disturb digestion but tend to crowd out foods which yield mineral salts. Molasses is quite rich in calcium, one tablespoonful yielding as much as five ounces of milk, and is for this reason a better sweet for growing children than ordinary sugar or corn syrup when the amount of milk which they can have is limited, or when fruits and vegetables are hard to get. ”

“ In any case there will be some molasses produced, and this constitutes a valuable sugar-house by-product, if properly cared for. It may be disposed of in one of several forms, namely, as a human food, a stock feed, a source of alcohol, factory fuel, and a fertilizer.
Cane molasses as a human food.—For many years low-grade cane molasses has been used as a human food in the United States. ”

“ The composition of the molasses varies with the working of each factory, also with the condition of cane, time of harvest, etc. The juice from green cane and that which has reached ultramaturity will contain a higher percentage of invert sugar and organic non-sugars than a properly matured cane. Then factories that have ample boiling-house provision, and crystallizers as well as magma tanks, will be able to send out a molasses with lower purity, thus recovering more of the crystallizable sugar. ”

“ In so far as soluble materials which are not food is concerned, however, the refinery molasses contains even larger proportions than the sugar factory molasses. The refinery molasses is not usually considered suitable for food except when diluted as has been before indicated in the way of mixing sirup. ”

“ The lid is pushed down tight and under warm conditions, or if the molasses has been in a warm room there is a certain amount of fermentation and gas under pressure, and if you pry it open quickly you find the lid flies up in the air and you will probably be smeared over with molasses. ”

“ A molasses known as sorghum molasses is made by boiling the sap of sorghum, which is a stout cereal grass, but this variety is seldom found on the general market, it being used locally where it is manufactured. The dark color and the characteristic flavor of molasses are due to the foreign materials that remain in the juice after the removal of the sugar. Molasses is not so sweet as sugar, but it is much used as an ingredient in the making of many delicious confections. ”

“ Ten percent of molasses of this kind added to a glucose will make a mixture which is attractive and salable, and, it may also be added, palatable. The other products which are used for mixing with the glucose in the manufacture of table sirup consist of the molasses obtained from cane sugar factories or the sirups made directly from the sugar cane and sorghum. All these bodies have valuable mixing properties and small quantities of them give sufficient color and flavor to the mixed product. ”

“ The remainder of the process is also similar to that used in refining cane-sugar. The syrup passes from tank to tank, constantly thickening, and the molasses is extracted in the same fashion by being thrown off in the centrifugal machines when the sugar crystallizes. Molasses is often boiled two and three times to make second and third grade molasses for the trade, and you must remember in this connection that the names New Orleans and Porto Rico do not necessarily indicate where the product was made, but rather its quality, these varieties being of the finest grade. ”

“ Barbet has suggested a way out of the difficulty. This consists in boiling the molasses in vacuo, and then running it into molds lined with sheets of paper. These are set by dipping in cold water. When set the loaves wrapped in their paper coverings are as easily handled as sugar loaves. There is no dead weight nor any “empties” to be returned as in the case of casks. The molasses is in a most concentrated form and this makes for economy in freight. There is no risk of deterioration and the loaves may be stored in an ordinary warehouse. ”

“ Various forms of acid phosphates are frequently employed in the clarifying of the cane juices and a part of these is also found concentrated in the molasses. In fact the molasses from sugar cane factories very frequently contains such quantities of these added substances as to render it unfit for human consumption. It is true that these substances are diluted when mixed with glucose, but this is not a sufficient excuse to warrant their employment. ”

“ Dr Franklin informed me yesterday, that a substitute had been found in America for molasses, procurable from a substance which is the growth of the country, and of infinite plenty. A prohibition on the export of their molasses will effect every purpose, which we are providing against by restraining the imposition of duties. [Pg 128]
From these considerations it seems clear to me, that molasses are not such an important object as was stated; that the demand is more likely to diminish than increase ”

“ Add the molasses to the water and butter and stir this mixture into the dry ingredients, beating vigorously. Pour into a buttered shallow pan and bake twenty minutes in a moderate oven. If the molasses is taken from a freshly opened can, no acid will be present and the soda should be omitted and 3 teaspoonfuls of baking powder used instead.
Laboratory management.—Effective work in batters cannot be accomplished with less than 1⁄2 cup liquid, though a smaller portion is sometimes used. It is well to have some group work, so that the pupils may learn to beat larger quantities. ”

“ HOME MADE MAPLE SUGAR.—To two pounds of maple (bricks, not cakes) 1 pint water, one-third pipe cream of tartar (or four ounces of glucose is best) ; boil slow to a smooth degree, cool, skim. White sugar can be used.
To keep molasses from sugaring in the barrel; when making the molasses, to every barrel add twenty pounds of glucose, stir it in.
To lighten the color and aid the flavor of rank, dark molasses, do the same as above. To allow molasses to cool slowly makes it dark. It should be stirred lively until cool. ”

“ One should remember, however, that much sugar of any kind is not good for children. Molasses contains some acid. Because of modern methods of sugar refining, however, molasses is less acid than the sirup of former days. It also differs in flavor.
Sorghum is a sirup prepared from the sorghum plant. It contains ash and has a characteristic flavor. If the flavor of molasses or sorghum is too strong to be pleasant, a mixture of equal parts of corn sirup and molasses or sorghum may be found desirable. ”

“ Here is a recommended formula for molasses feeding on a lesser scale to working draft horses:
Molasses, 1 quart; water, 3 quarts; cut hay, 5 pounds; corn-meal, 4 quarts; coarse bran, 2 pints. Feed morning and night. Give usual quantity of oats at noon, and add long hay at night.
The Department of Agriculture, in Farmer’s Bulletin No. 107, states that molasses is an excellent food for horses and cattle. It produces energy, maintains the vital heat, stimulates the appetite and increases the digestibility of the other constituents of the ration. ”

“ Then what is left is boiled again until the sugar begins to separate from the molasses. The last boiling is a very delicate process and only workers of long experience can make really good sugar. From being a thin kind of syrup the sugar gradually becomes like porridge and thicker, and it is then run off into forms, containing one or two hundred pounds. From these forms runs the syrup not yet crystalized, and this is either boiled up once more or rejected and barreled as molasses.”
[175] “Then molasses is really sugar that won’t get hard,” said Frank. ”

“ Barrel molasses is the table molasses that is spread on butter bread, fried mush, scrapple, egg cheese, fritters, doughnuts and many other deep-fat-fried foods. For cookies, cakes and pies, baking molasses is used. In the pie category alone there are many uses. We use molasses for Shoo-fly Pies, Molasses Crumb Pies, Molasses Custards, Funny Cake Pies, Montgomery, McKinley, Quakertown, Union, Lemon Strip Pies, Shellbark Custards and Vanilla Pies. Yes, we like our molasses! ”

“ Inferior or common molasses falls short of producing [194] gallon for gallon by from 5 to 71⁄2 per cent. Now make an allowance for this deficiency; allow also for the quantity of foreign molasses consumed in the United States in other ways; allow likewise for the quantity of rum made from molasses, and not exported, but consumed at home: allow for these three items, and the conviction becomes irresistible, that whiskey was used in the distillation of rum in the year 1839, and exported with the benefit of drawback! ”

“ It is a dense, viscous liquid, varying in color from light yellow to almost black, according to the source from which it is obtained; it tests usually about 40° by Baume’s hydrometer. The molasses employed as a source of alcohol must be carefully chosen; the lightest in color is the best, containing most uncrystallized sugar. The manufacture is extensively carried on in France, where the molasses from the beet sugar refineries is chiefly used on account of its low price, that obtained from the cane sugar factories being considerably dearer. ”

“ These crackers and molasses taste good! I just love molasses candy, and this is next thing to it. I must have another mouthful before someone comes and cleans up this mess,” but he had not the time for just then the owner of the grocery entered the side door and seeing a stray dog in his store raised his leg to kick him out. But alas, as he lifted his foot, the other slipped in the molasses and he sat down squarely in it all. ”

“ But 1 gallon of dry alcohol, extended in 2 gallons of water, gives 3 gallons of liquor at 19°, which is called Holland, or first proof; a produce surpassing all what has been hitherto known to the distillers. I will prove it by an example: 1 gallon of molasses yields only 1 gallon of rum, at 19°, to the rum distiller; still, molasses is a true sirup, composed of 8lbs. of sugar, or sweet matter, more fermentable than sugar. 121⁄2 gallons of molasses, representing 100lbs. ”

“ Molasses; Theriaca (B. P.) , Theriaca, Sacchari fæx (Ph. L. & E.) , L. The viscid, brown, uncrystallisable syrup which drains from moist sugar during its formation (molasses) , and from the sugar-refining moulds (sugar-house molasses) . The last, according to Dr Ure, has generally the sp. gr. 1·4, and contains about 75% of solid matter.
Treacle is more laxative than sugar, and always contains more or less free acid. It is used as the vehiculum in some of the pill-masses of the Ph. L. See Sugar.
Treacle, German. Syn. Theriaca Germaniæ, L. An evaporated infusion or decoction of juniper berries. ”

“ An inferior sort of rum is fabricated from molasses, mixed with the skimmings and washings of the sugar pans. When molasses or treacle is diluted with twenty times its weight of warm water, and when the mixture has cooled to 78° F., if one twelfth of its weight of yeast be added, fermentation will speedily ensue, and an ardent spirit will be generated, which when distilled has none of the aroma of rum; proving this to reside in the immediate juice or substance of the cane, and to be dissipated at the high temperature employed in the production of molasses. ”

“ They are diluted, filtered through animal charcoal, and concentrated. The lighter the color the higher the price. The better qualities are called “Rock Candy Drips,” “Golden Drips,” etc.
Molasses.—The choicest are the New Orleans Fancy, Choice, Prime. Good, etc., down through the same grades of Porto Rico, to the Cuba Muscovado. The quality of molasses has deteriorated with improvements in the manufacture of sugar on plantations, and it is sometimes sold mixed with glucose.
Honey.—Consists of eighty parts in a hundred of pure grape sugar with an acid and aromatic principle. ”