Sugar is a must-have in the kitchen. Many recipes, both sweet and savory, use a pinch of sugar, and of course, it plays a major role in baking. I always like to have sugar in my pantry, but how do I store it properly? Is there anything I need to keep in mind?
Storing sugar
Sugar must always be stored in a dry place. It is best if it is also kept well-sealed in a plastic bag. I always transfer it into plastic containers because paper bags quickly develop holes, which leads to sugar being scattered all over the shelf.
If you want to store brown sugar for a longer period, place it in a plastic bag in the refrigerator.
The history of sugar
As early as 6000 BC, people in East Asia knew how to handlesugar cane. From there, the coveted commodity reached India and Persia. The Persians themselves then developed a method for extracting sugar. The hot sugar cane juice was poured into cone-shaped clay and wooden vessels and processed into syrup. The crystallizing sugar mass dripped through a small opening at the tip of the cone – what remained was thesugarloaf,
which is still known today. With the Crusaders around 1100 AD, Europeans finally got to know and love sugar. This pleasure was particularly reserved for kings and princes. From 1500 onwards, sugar was grown on plantations worldwide and shipped to Europe. This made sugar a popular, but also expensive, luxury. In 1747, Andreas Sigismund Marggraf discovered that the sugar beet contains the same sugar as sugar cane – as a result, the world's firstbeet sugar factorywas founded in Silesia.
From 1850 onwards, there was a real competitive struggle between the sugar factories. This struggle also caused the price of the sweet commodity to drop. To this day, sugar is an indispensable part of everyday life and is still as popular as it was centuries ago.
How is sugar produced today?
With the realization that sugar could be obtained from beets, various factories were founded. One after another, they sprang up like mushrooms and produced the sugar we know today. But how is sugar actually made?
In the spring, sugar beets are planted in the fields and harvested in the autumn. The sugar beets are delivered to the factories, where they are shredded after an initial washing. These beet chips are preheated in a so-calledbeet pulp mashand transported into an extraction tower. There, the beet pieces can be stored at70° Celsius– this creates a beet juice, which experts refer to asraw juice. After the juice is purified, a thin juice is created, which already contains about 16% sugar content. But the journey continues: this thin juice is now slowly heated in several stages. This heating process creates a golden-brown thick juice, which already contains approximately 67% sugar. During this boiling process, the first crystals form, shimmering golden-yellow in the thick juice. The sugar is still yellow because it is coated with syrup. Through acentrifugationprocess, the syrup is spun vigorously.The result:the syrup separates from the sugar crystals – what remains is crystal-clear, white sugar.
Through further crystallization,refined sugaris now created – a sugar of the highest purity. The sugar can now be dried, cooled, and stored in special silos until it is packaged.
What happens after sugar production?
The sugar is, of course, packaged – this involves both large-scale packaging for industry and catering, as well as small packages for domestic use. Around 80% of all sugar production is used for the manufacture of confectionery, beverages, baked goods, and similar products. Just under 20% goes to retail and ends up in our kitchen cupboards.
What happens to the waste products?
By-products such as beet pulp and similar items are returned to thenatural cycle.The beet pulp is fed to livestock, and the molasses (thick juice residue) is passed on to the yeast and mixed feed industry as well as the pharmaceutical industry. The lime produced during juice purification is used by farmers as fertilizer for their soil – this prepares the earth and gets it ready for the next sugar beet season.
Read also:Â Sugar rim on glasses
Image by Janine, meinhaushalt.at
