Caramel

By the application of heat, at 4000 F., refined cane sugar is melted, browned, and converted into a non-crystallisable fluid substance called caramel, having a slightly bitter but agreeable taste. Comparatively insipid farinaceous food, such as cornstarch and farina, may be flavoured with it for invalid diet. Burned flour may be used in the same manner, but its flavour is less agreeable. Caramel is also useful for flavouring milk, custards, etc.

At 3200 F. sugar melts to an amber fluid, which, on cooling, is brittle and transparent. In this form it is called " barley sugar," and is much used in confectionery.

When sugar is cooked with acid fruits it is partly converted by the heat and acid to less sweet substances, hence to sweeten cooked fruits the sugar should be added when the cooking is completed.

Sugar differs from starch by containing another molecule of water. Starch, which forms fully three fourths by weight of the solid ingredients of wheat flour, is altered into sugar by heating with a little sulphuric acid, or even by prolonged heating alone or "torri-fication." The latter process converts it into dextrin, sometimes called "British gum," on account of its substitution in commerce for gum arabic. With prolonged heat there is a further change in the starch, which becomes of a brownish and finally black hue, passing through a stage analogous to the formation of caramel from sugar, and with extreme heat forming a residue of black carbon, all the water having been driven off. A hard, dried, thoroughly browned bread crust or toast is therefore similar to caramel, and every one is familiar with its gain in flavour.

Sugar candy is made by extremely slow crystallisation.

Sorghum is a variety of grass or cane from which sugar can be extracted, but in this country it is used more for the manufacture of molasses.

Candy And Confectionery

Candy contains from 75 to 90 per cent of sugar, to which may be variously added butter or other fats, nuts, fruits, starch, glucose, flavouring extracts. Cheap varieties are coloured with aniline dyes, and are composed largely of glucose and starch. Children assimilate candy better than adults because they are less liable to dyspepsia, and because of their relatively active muscular energy and relatively large body surface for losing heat, in proportion to their size. They do not, as a rule, care for fat meat, and prefer sweets as a natural substitute.

An infant taking two quarts of milk per diem consumes nearly three ounces of sugar in the form of lactose. In later childhood the ability to digest starches replaces to some extent the need for sugar. It is, however, important that the taste for candy and sugar common to all children should not be permitted to interfere with a wholesome and natural appetite for other foods, especially fresh vegetables and fruits. The value of sweets in the adult dietary has of late years found recognition in armies. The British War Office shipped 1,500,000 pounds of jam to South Africa as a four months' supply for 116,000 troops, and one New York firm during the Spanish-American War shipped over fifty tons of confectionery to the troops in Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines. The confectionery consisted of chocolate creams, cocoanut macaroons, lemon and other acid fruit drops.