Sugar - a sweet seduction
The annual sugar consumption in Germany is about 35 kg per German, which corresponds to 96 grams, that is 6.5 tablespoons or 24 teaspoons per day. However, we do not consume most of the sugar in the form of sweets, but about two-thirds of that amount is in industrially manufactured foods such as baked goods, spreads, drinks and dairy products. Not only ready meals, coke, fruit juices and sodas contain very large amounts of sugar, even in sausage, ham, pizza, salad dressing, canned food, cereals and fish fillet etc. - everywhere you will find on the list of ingredients the sugar. There are hardly any products that contain no sugar.
But sugar is not equal to sugar - there are many different sugars and sugar products.
Sugars and sugar products
1. Sugars according to the raw material:
table sugar is the normal refined white sugar, which is mostly made from sugar beet or sugar cane and mainly consists of sucrose.
cane sugar It is extracted from the juice of the sugar cane and contains many minerals. A distinction is made between whole cane sugar, for which the sugar cane is squeezed out, filtered, boiled into syrup and ground after cooling (it has a strong taste in itself), and raw cane sugar, for which the sugarcane juice is thickened, forming brown sugar crystals, which are then mixed with water washed, centrifuged and dried. This is how the light raw cane sugar is made.
beet sugar one gains from the juice of the sugar beet.
maple sugar is derived from the juice of the Canadian sugar maple tree, which is first boiled down to maple syrup. This contains only about 5 percent sucrose. For 1 liter of syrup, 40 liters of tree juice are needed. The liquid is allowed to evaporate from the syrup, then the maple sugar is produced.
The Dattelzucker is obtained directly from the fruits by first drying them and then grinding them.
For the palm sugar The stalks of the inflorescences of the Arenga palm are scratched and the exuding juice containing 15 percent sucrose is used liquid, concentrated or dried.
coconut sugar arises from the juice of the coconut palm, which is boiled thick and then dried and ground. He has a slight caramel taste.
2. Sugars according to grain or shape:
refined sugar or granulated sugar is the best-known table sugar made from sugar cane or sugar beet in various grain sizes. It is a specially purified (refined) white sugar containing at least 99.96 percent sucrose.
caster sugar and castor sugar are crystal sugars with a medium grain size.
caster sugar is a granulated sugar with a particularly fine grain.
Powdered sugar (icing sugar) is created by grinding granulated sugar. It is used for dusting, caramelizing and glazes.
Instant sugar is made by a special spray-drying process. It is very porous and dissolves very quickly in cold liquid. Therefore, it can be used well for powder blends with cocoa, flavors or spices.
rock candy consists of coarse sugar crystals in the size between 3 and 30 mm, which result from a slow crystallization of a thickened sugar solution. From pure sugar solution of the white and from caramelized sugar solution of the brown candy. Candy is used to sweeten tea, punch, grog or mulled wine.
Grümmelkandis is finely crushed brown candy, which is easier to dissolve and with its fine caramel taste is particularly suitable for sweetening coffee and tea and for refining desserts, spicy pastries or exotic salads.
granulated sugar is produced by granulation of refined sugar and has a particle size of 2 to 3 mm. He will z. B. used for sprinkling pastry, cake or bread.
lump sugar is made from moistened refined sugar, which is pressed into cubes or cuboids and then dried again. It also exists in other forms such as: As hearts, shamrocks and is also pressed in brown color of brown cane sugar.
The Zuckerhut, a conical sugar product with a rounded tip, is pressed tightly from white refined sugar and was formerly the usual commercial form for sugar. Nowadays it is usually used only for Feuerzangenbowle.
3. Sugars after additions:
Crystallized is a coarse-grained refined sugar, which is particularly pure and due to its coarse structure ideal for canning of fruits and vegetables, because it does not clump when dissolving in larger quantities as with the fine crystalline sugar.
Gelierzucker is white sugar with the addition of pectins as a gelling agent and citric or tartaric acid as an acidulant, sometimes with preservatives.Gelierzucker is available in different varieties, it is suitable for the rapid production of jam, jam and jelly.
brown sugar is fine brown cane sugar, which is darker colored by the addition of caramel and molasses. It consists of 90 percent sucrose and also contains minerals, trace elements and vitamins.
sugar syrup is a liquid sugar, which is boiled from water and sugar in the ratio 1: 1. It is used as a sweetener in the preparation of cocktails, for glazing pastries such as gingerbread, junk, macaroons and puff pastry and for soaking cakes and pies.
fondant is a soft stirred mass of boiled sugar and glucose syrup for the preparation of glazes for pies and pastries and for filling in confectionery, chocolates and fondant confectionery.
vanilla sugar is the mix of white sugar with real vanilla pulp.
For vanilla White sugar is mixed with vanillin, a synthetically produced flavoring agent, instead of real vanilla. As a result, vanilla sugar has a fairly artificial taste and it tastes even better when baking than when using vanilla sugar.
