On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 1293

candies.

Crystalline and glassy candies. Left:When a
hot syrup cools slowly enough for the
molecules to cluster together, they form
tightlyorganizedcrystals.Right:Whenavery
concentrated syrup cools quickly and traps
the sugar molecules in place before they can
cluster, they solidify into a disorganized,
noncrystallineglass.
InvertSugarTheoriginalinterferingagents
wereglucoseandfructose,or“invertsugar”
(p.655).Whenheatedalongwithasmall
amountofacid(oftencreamoftartar),
sucroseisbrokendownintoitstwo
components,glucoseandfructose.Glucose
andfructoseinterferewithsucrose
crystallizationbybondingtemporarilytothe


crystalsurfaceandblockingthewayof
sucrosemolecules.Honeyisanaturalsource
ofinvertsugar,and“invertsyrup”isan
artificialpreparationofaglucose-fructose
mixture.Thankstotheirfructosecontent,both
honeyandinvertsyrupreadilycaramelizeand
cancauseundesirablebrowninginsome
sweets.Acid-invertedsyrupsbrownless
becausetheiracidityslowscaramelization.
CornSyrupBecauseacidtreatmentofsucrose
is somewhat unpredictable, most modern

confectionersinsteadusecornsyrup,whichis
an especially effective inhibitor of
crystallization,
and
doesn’t
readily
caramelize. The assorted long glucose chains
formatanglethatimpedesthemotionofboth
sugarandwatermoleculesandmakesitmore
difficultforthesucrosetofindacrystalonto
which to fit. The glucose and maltose
molecules interfere in the same way that
invert sugar does. Corn syrup also provides