Sugar is an ingredient that makes people happy. Sugar is not only just used for sweetening in pastries or desserts, but also an important role in different dishes.
Types of sugar
Most of the common sugar come from cane. It is suitable for cooking. You may easily see some common sugars like Demerara sugar, brown sugar, white sugar, rock sugar, maltose syrup, maple syrup, etc. In addition to the different plants from which they are extracted, sugars are often distinguished by their degree of refinement.
Demerara sugar, white sugar, brown sugar, and rock sugar are all sucrose, which are disaccharides made of glucose and fructose and are usually extracted from sugar beets or sugar cane.
Fruit sugar is sweeter than sucrose and is also known as “fructose”. It is usually extracted from fruits and honey. For the same sweetness, the amount of fructose used is lower than that of sucrose. We should draw attention on it.
Maple sugar comes from the sap of maple trees. It has its own unique rich aroma, which is sweet and slightly sour. It can be stored at room temperature when it has not been opened. After opening, it is recommended to refrigerate in the refrigerator.
Roles in cooking
Sugar is certainly best known for adding sweetness in cooking. In addition to this, sugar has many functional roles in cooking. For examples,
- Sugar can help absorb moisture from food ingredients absorb moisture and prevent them from drying out.
- Sugar can prevents proteins from gluten development in the mixture of dough and dairy products during the bread making. Hence, it makes bread softer.
- Sugar can make the texture more smoother if you add sugar into custard.
- Sugar can lower the freezing point of water.
- Sugar can absorb the moisture from the air. Hence it can let us keep the baked food softer for a little longer while.
- Sugar can be shaped if sugar is heated and then cooled.
- Sugar can let food to have more layers of flavours after caramelisation.
- Sugar can be added to the sauce to enrich the flavour of the sauce.
In cooking, there are a number of functions of sugars. When sugar meets a little bit of salt, the sweetness of the sugar will be greatly increased. In this situation, the amount of the sugar we put should be adjusted accordingly. This is also a tip you need to pay attention to when we cook.
