On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 1275

rangesfrommildcarameltostrongmolasses.
UsingBrownSugarsBrownsugarissoftand
clingybecauseitsmolassesfilm—whose
glucoseandfructosearemorehygroscopic
thansucrose—containsasignificantamount
ofwater.Ofcourse,ifbrownsugarisleft
exposedtodryair,itwillloseitsmoisture
throughevaporationandbecomehardand
lumpy.Itcanbekeptmoistbystoringitinan
airtightcontainer,andresoftenedbyclosingit
upwithadamptowelorpieceofapplefrom
whichitcanabsorbmoisture.Becausebrown
sugartendstotrapairpocketsbetweengroups
ofadheringcrystals,itshouldbepackeddown
beforeitsvolumeismeasured.
MolassesandCaneSyrups
MolassesMolasses,whichiscalledtreaclein
the United Kingdom, is generally defined as
the syrup left over in cane sugar processing
after the readily crystallizable sucrose has
beenremovedfromtheboiledjuice.(Thereis


such a thing as beet molasses, but it has a
strong,unpleasantodor,andsoisusedtofeed
animals and industrial fermentation
microbes.)Inordertoextractasmuchsucrose
aspossiblefromcanejuices,crystallizationis
performed in several different steps, each of
whichresultsinadifferentgradeofmolasses.
“First”molassesistheproductofcentrifuging

off the raw sugar crystals, and still contains
some sucrose. It is then mixed with some
uncrystallizedsugarsyrup,recrystallized,and
recentrifuged. The resulting “second”
molasses is even more concentrated in
impurities than the first. Repeating this
process once more yields “third,” or final, or
“blackstrap”molasses(fromtheDutchstroop
for “syrup”). The brown-black color of final
molassesisduetotheextremecaramelization
of the remaining sugars and to chemical
reactions induced by the high temperatures
reached during the repeated boilings. These
reactions,togetherwiththehighconcentration