Sugar
When speaking of sugar in the bakery, granulated, powdered, icing sugars, and possibly corn sugar come to our minds. There are numerous other sugars. However most of them are little known by the baker.
The sugar most commonly used in the bakery is that derived from the sugar cane and the sugar beet. It is used in the form of granulated sugar and various degrees of powdered sugar such as XX, XXX and XXXX powdered. The uses of these different forms of sugar are well known to the baker, and need not be treated.
Most of this sugar is made from the sugar cane which grows in tropical countries and in some of the Southern States in our country. The soil in which this sugar cane is planted is well cultivated so that the best possible crops are produced. The cane, after it reaches the proper growth, is cut down, much in the same manner as corn stalks are cut when they have reached the proper growth. It is then placed on carts or cars and forwarded to the sugar mill. Here the cane is cut and macerated and then pressed to extract the juice. The juice is then run into purifying tanks where the impurities such as fiber, protein, ash and coloring matter are removed, after which it is concentrated by evaporating some of the moisture. When the sugar (sucrose) crystallizes, the crystals of sugar are removed from the mother liquid by placing it on draining shelves or by putting it into baskets which are then placed in centrifugal machines where the liquid is whirled off. To obtain the highest grade of crystallized sugar it is necessary to again put the crystals into solution by adding pure water and again crystallizing them from the solution. After the sugar crystals have been removed the liquid which remains is further concentrated and lower grades of sugar are crystallized from it. The liquid which remains serves for the manufacture of molasses of various grades depending upon the quality of the syrup. To make the various grades of powdered sugar these crystals are ground into different degrees of fineness. Sugar as a rule is very pure, usually running about 99.7 sucrose. When the finer grades of icing sugars are made, starch is sometimes added in small quantities to prevent the fine sugar from becoming lumpy. This is only done with the so-called icing sugar.
In making granulated and other forms of sugar from the sugar beet, the sugar beets are extracted from the ground, then thoroughly washed and scraped to remove any adhering dirt. After cleaning they are cut into small disks and whirled in water to extract the sugar present. After a thorough extraction has been made, the juice is concentrated until the sugar begins to crystallize from the solution. After crystallization is completed the crystals are separated from the liquid in the same manner as was mentioned under cane sugar. The crystals are thoroughly ground, if fine sugar is desired, to various degrees of fineness depending upon the kind of sugar wanted.
If the sugars from both sources are refined to the same degree of fineness, there will be no difference in their quality. The sugar will be sucrose in both cases. -