When I was a boy my grandmother taught me how to drink coffee while holding a sugar cube in my teeth. Cubes in the market today cannot withstand the moisture and pressure and immediately disolve. What is a Norsk coffee drinker to do?
Lump sugar: "Lump sugar is refined sugar which has been pressed or cast into a particular shape. Chemically speaking, refined sugar is ultrapure sucrose which has been obtained from white sugar by dissolution and recrystallization. Its sucrose content is 99.9%. Refined sugar is pure white in color with sparkling crystals. Refined sugar has no secondary odors or flavors. The crystals are readily soluble.
Sugar cubes are available as either pressed or cast cubes.
Pressed cubes:
Sugar cubes were first made in 1840 by the Austrian Jacob Christoph Rad. Cubes were initially made by pressing moistened sugar and casting it in sheets, which were broken up first into strips and then into cubes.
Today, fine-grain refined sugar with 2 - 3% of added water is still pressed into sheets and strips, which are dried and divided into cubes. The dividing surfaces of pressed cubes may vary between smooth and very uneven as the strips are not always uniform in structure.
Since pressure bonds the sugar crystals together firmly only at the surface, pressed cubes are easily crushed and then break apart completely.
Cast cubes:
Refined sugar massecuite is allowed to solidify in a sheet mold. The sheets of sugar are then centrifuged and washed once more with saturated refined sugar solution. Then they are dried and divided into cubes.
Cast cubes are stronger, harder and somewhat more porous than pressed cubes. The sugar crystals are clearly recognizable. Due to their porous structure, cast cubes dissolve in liquids more easily than pressed cubes.
Sugar cubes are often arranged in neat rows in their packaging.
Loaf sugar:
Sugar loaves are also produced by the pressing process and used, for example, in traditional German burnt punch and in jam making."
No comments:
Post a Comment