Search Results for: molasses

Reader Jimma brought up a good point yesterday: beet sugar can — or once did — have a distinctive smell. Indeed once upon a time beet sugar makers had trouble refining their product to the same degree that cane makers did. This was for a couple of reasons. First, beets grow in soil, so residual soil, molds and bacteria can get into the batch if they’re not thoroughly washed off. Second, beets contain toxic compounds called saponins that they use for defense. As the name implies, these chemicals are related to soaps, which means that they not only have a funky flavor, they can create foam or scum in syrups.

So what is sugar and where does it come from? That’s a good place to begin, I think. The answer is that — at least classically — sugar is the distilled, evaporated and crystallized juice of sugarcane, a giant grass that’s native to India. There it’s thought sugarcane was cultivated starting in about 3,000 B.C..

Back about the time of the bourbon festival, reader Julie asked for a few bourbon-infused baking ideas. This morning reader Linda kindly forwarded this link full of boozy recipes. If there are any keys to successful baking with bourbon, I’d say they are: a.) employ it only in very sweet preparations, since bourbon is a comparatively sweet liquor; b.) combine it with similar vanilla and especially caramel flavors like brown sugar and molasses, and; c.) unless you want a strong alcohol flavor, employ it only in situations where the alcohol can easily cook out: sauces or things made in shallow pans (thin pies, bars or cookies). Remember, however, that even a sauce that’s thoroughly boiled won’t rid itself of every vestige of alcohol. So if you don’t want any in your dessert, use a different flavoring. Thanks Linda!

Two related comments came in over the weekend in regard to sugar and soda. First this observation from reader Julie:

Another thought on the baking soda: milk heated with acid will curdle every time, and caramelized sugar becomes more acidic as it darkens. I like my caramel reasonably dark, so I’ve run into problems with curdling milk on more than one occaision. I find it also helps to use plain refined white sugar, as a blonde organic sugar (with a little residual molasses left in) will contribute to curdling.

That’s an excellent question (thanks, Christine G.). The distinctions between cakes, layer cakes, tortes and gâteaux are rarely discussed. Most people simply assume they’re just different words people use to describe the same things, but that’s not really true. The distinctions between them can be fine but they’re real and worth noting. I’m not aware of any definitive resource on the subject, so all I can do is try to create my own. Pastry enthusiasts, chime in if you want to add or correct anything.

Cakes are single-layered sweetened and enriched “breads” for lack of a better word. Usually round and almost always flat, their primary ingredient is grain or grain flour (wheat, oat, barley or the like). Cakes can be sweetened with sugar, molasses or honey and enriched with eggs, solid fat or oil. They can be leavened naturally (yeast), mechanically (egg foam) or chemically (baking powder or soda).

I wrote a little about this last week, but now that mincemeat is an official project, the subject bears a little more scrutiny. Someone who’s never heard of the stuff before might be forgiven for thinking it’s simply minced meat. But of course it isn’t. At least not these days. Meat hasn’t been a common ingredient in mincemeat for over 100 years.

The “mince” part of the name, well, that’s still accurate. Although I should mention that on this side of the pond we don’t use the word “mince” very much. We employ words like “grind”, “chop” and “shred” to the same end.

So what’s “minced” in mince meat?