On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 1280

Nowadays, enzymes from the easily cultured
moldsAspergillus oryzae (also used in Japan
to break rice starch down into fermentable
sugars forsake) andA. niger are used almost
exclusively. In Europe, potato and wheat
starcharethemainsourcesformakingwhatis
called“glucose”or“glucosesyrup,”whichis
essentiallythesameasAmericancornsyrup.
FructoseCrystals
Crystallinefructosehasbeencommercially
available for only a few decades. Fructose
issohygroscopic,orwater-absorbing,that
it’s hard to get it to crystallize from a
water solution. It’s now made by mixing
high-fructose corn syrup with alcohol, in
which fructose is much less soluble. If
fructose crystals are sprinkled onto a food
as decoration, they’ll quickly disappear
into a thin, sticky syrup as they absorb
moisture from the food and air and
dissolve.


ThePropertiesandUsesofCornSyrups
Amongtheusualsweetenersavailabletothe
cook,cornsyrupsarealoneinprovidinglong
carbohydratemoleculesthatgettangledup
witheachotherandslowdownthemotionof
allmoleculesinthesyrup,thusgivingita
thickerconsistencythananybutthemost
concentratedsucrosesyrups.It’slargelythese

longtanglymoleculesthathavemadecorn
syrupincreasinglyimportantinconfectionery
andotherpreparedfoods.Becausethe
tanglinginterfereswithmolecularmotion,it
alsohasthevaluableeffectofpreventing
othersugarsincandyfromcrystallizingand
producingagrainytexture.Allmoleculesin
thesyrupareflowingveryslowly,andthe
sucrosecrystalfaceskeepgettingcovered
withchainsthatcan’tbecomepartofthe
crystal.(Thesamebehaviorhelpsminimize
thesizeoficecrystalsinicecreamandfruit
ices,thusencouragingasmooth,creamy
consistency.)Anotherconsequenceofcorn