Raw sugar

“ 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. ”

“ The juice is strained, boiled, and worked over to [258] remove the impurities, and then, in a brownish mass called raw sugar, is sent to great refineries to be made by more boiling and other processes into the white sugar we use daily. This sugar industry is very important, as figures show that each American, both grown-ups and children, consumes an average of more than seventy pounds of sugar a year.
A SUGAR REFINERY
Away down South is the land of cotton as well as the land of sugar, and there is no more beautiful sight than a field white with the opening bolls of the cotton plant. ”

“ Raw sugar is refined by redissolving it in water, adding to the solution albumen, under the form of serum of blood or white of egg, and, sometimes, a little lime-water, and heating the whole to the boiling-point; the impurities are then removed by careful skimming, and the syrup is decoloured by filtration through recently burnt animal charcoal; the clear decolorised syrup is next evaporated to the crystallising-point in vacuo, and at once transferred into conical earthern moulds, where it solidifies, after some time, to a confusedly crystallised mass ”

“ Every bag of sugar shipped from the plantation is marked to indicate the plantation from which it came. The net weight of the sugar in each bag is recorded, a sample of the sugar taken and its sucrose content ascertained, for it is on the basis of weight and sucrose content that raw sugar is bought and sold.
From the beginning to the end of the process of manufacture, [36] chemists are vigilantly alert sampling, testing, analyzing and supervising the operations. ”

“ Our excise authorities prohibit the entrance of glucose into a brewer’s premises in the liquid state. In the brewing of pale sparkling ales grape is esteemed more than either cane sugar or malt, and is said to yield a more sound and wholesome liquor, and one free from the acidity, impurity, and treacly sweetness frequently found in beers brewed from raw or inferior sugars. Glucose may also be obtained from cellulose, but the process is too expensive to admit of being practically worked. ”

“ By proper care the same tree may be tapped 20 or 30 years following. Unlike the sugar-cane the juice in the maple is the richest in sugar the higher it is found from the ground. The concentrated saccharine liquid is concentrated every 24 hours. The raw crystallised sugar undergoes no refining, and being made into blocks is then sent to market.
Sugar, Milk. C12H22O11.H2O. Syn. Sugar of milk, Lactin; Saccharum lactis (Ph. D.) , L. Prep. Gently evaporate clarified whey until it crystallises on cooling, and purify the crystals by digestion with animal charcoal and repeated crystallisations. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Sugar, from the strength of its own flavour, conceals and destroys in part other flavours, even that, the enjoyment of which we wish to preserve, such as the pleasant acidity of many fruits. A second inconvenience is this, that a large quantity of sugar is required in order to preserve a small quantity of some other vegetable matter; and hence the use of it is not only very costly, but even in many cases pernicious. [3] Thus the juices of certain plants cannot be reduced to a syrup or essence, but by means of nearly double the quantity of sugar. ”

“ Sugar is said to consist of about ninety-five per cent nutritive value.
Glucose is made by converting the starch in corn into sugar. It is pure, wholesome, and cheap, and, for this reason, it is often used to dilute other sugars. It is not as sweet as other sugars, and it ferments more readily. Many of the syrups on the market are made from it.
The common, granulated sugars are made from sugar cane or beets; beet sugar is becoming more generally used. ”

“ If you wish your sweetmeats to look bright and clear, use only the very best loaf-sugar. Fruit may be preserved for family use and for common purposes, in sugar of inferior quality, but it will never have a good appearance, and it is also more liable to spoil.
If too small a proportion of sugar is allowed to the fruit, it will certainly not keep well. When this experiment is tried it is generally found to be false economy; as sweetmeats, when they begin to spoil, can only be recovered and made eatable by boiling them over again with additional sugar ”

“ One ounce of sugar less per person, per day, is all our Government asks of us to meet the world sugar shortage. One ounce of sugar equals two scant level tablespoonfuls and represents a saving that every man, woman and child should be able to make. Giving up soft drinks and the frosting on our cakes, the use of sugarless desserts and confections, careful measuring and thorough stirring of that which we place in our cups of tea and coffee, and the use of syrup, molasses or honey on our pancakes and fritters will more than effect this saving. ”

“ The clarification of the juice forms one of the most important operations in sugar manufacture, since the higher the purity of the juice to be concentrated, the greater the percentage of sucrose that will crystallize, and the easier it will be to make a marketable sugar. If a high-grade sugar, or even yellow clarified sugar is to be made, this work should receive still greater attention. ”

“ Cane juice contains many ingredients besides sugar, the principal of which are albumen, gluten, gum, starch, resin, wax, coloring matter, and certain salts, all of which, either collectively or individually, have the power of preventing granulation, as may be proved by their addition to a syrup of pure sugar, which will then defy all attempts to make it crystallise. If, therefore, we want to make good sugar, we must endeavour to free our cane juice as much as possible from those substances. ”

“ 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. ”

“ If we add the molasses at a very small fraction, we may count the average consumption at 70 pounds per head at an average price of five cents a pound or $3.50 per head for refined sugar. But a quantity which cannot be measured is converted over into jams, jellies, preserves and condensed milk. In the latter industry one single establishment is reputed to consume more than the entire product of all the beet-root sugar factories in this country, estimated at about 150,000 tons. If sugar were free of duty an immense impulse would be given to agriculture and to fruit growing. ”

“ 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. ”

“ If peas or beans have a portion of copper, the label should state that fact. The various natural constituents of a food product need not be noted, for the presence of the usual condimentary substances employed in foods, viz., sugar, salt, spices, vinegar, and wood smoke. The term “sugar” is used in its usual signification, viz., sugar made from sugar cane, sugar beets, maple trees, sorghum etc. When sugars are made by the artificial hydrolysis of starch, by an acid or salt, that fact should be noted on the label by the term “glucose,” or starch sugar. ”

“ It is believed by many that all powdered sugar is adulterated with chalk, starch, white corn meal or similar substances. Such is not the case, and it is safe to assume that no mixing whatever is done by any refiner in America. Powdered sugar has a strong tendency to cake or become hard, and some manufacturers who buy coarse granulated sugar from the refiners for grinding purposes use starch to the extent of from two to three per cent. ”

“ In [106] the United States thirty-two factories are engaged in the manufacture of glucose, which consume about 40,000 bushels of corn daily, their annual production having an estimated value of 10 millions of dollars. In commerce, the term grape sugar is applied to the solid product, the syrup or liquid form being known as glucose. The chief uses of starch sugar and glucose are in the manufacture of table syrups, and as a substitute for malt in the brewing of beer and ale. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ On an average, the sugar content of the cane is 13.5 per cent and the recovery is about 7.5 per cent muscavado sugar and 3.5 per cent molasses. It is evident that imperfect crushing and crude manufacturing methods cause a considerable loss in sugar on most of the estates. ”

“ 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." ”

“ It is unnecessary to enlarge upon the sources of starch and its obvious utility to mankind. Previous to its being consumed by the plant in which it is amassed, it is by various means, but chiefly by diastase, transformed into sugar. Following this natural transition, I shall next consider sugar as an article of diet. In temperate climates, sugar is regarded as a luxury, one indeed which is nearly indispensable, but in tropical countries it is a universal article of subsistence, partly as real sugar, and partly, and more generally, as it occurs in the cane. ”

“ Invert sugar is so called because the mixture of glucose and fructose which forms the “invert” is laevo-rotatory, whereas cane sugar is dextro-rotatory to the plane of polarized light. The preparation of invert sugar by the acid process consists in treating the cane sugar in solution with a little mineral acid, removing the excess of the latter by means of chalk, and concentrating to a thick syrup. ”