Sugar! Without it there would be no chocolate, cakes or diversion from the afternoon meltdown-nothing exciting to eat with a coffee! Sugar is a wondrous ingredient that is used in a myriad of ways. This guide will attempt to answer several questions, such as... Just how do all the different types of sugars and syrups that we have on our shelves at the Essential Ingredient work in cooking? Can I substitute one for another? What is the difference between molasses and treacle, golden syrup and honey? To understand sugar's role in cooking it helps to take a small detour into science so we can break it down into its basic parts.

Sugars are the simplest forms of carbohydrates, also known as saccharides. Sugars can be monosaccharides (mono meaning a single sugar molecule), which are the most basic building blocks of carbohydrates, and disaccharides (di meaning double), which are simply two monosaccharides bonded together. Our body actually breaks down almost everything we eat into these sugars, which are then combined to form more complex carbohydrates like starch. These complex carbohydrates, made up of long chains of sugars, are called polysaccharides and are generally no longer sweet.

What does this all mean? Well, it means that natural sugars are present in many foods and there are many different types of sugar which vary in sweetness. For example the sweetness of honey and golden syrup is quite different to the sweetness of brown sugar, because they differ in chemical composition. This difference in composition also causes different sugars to act differently when cooked or baked, and will result in different levels of sweetness or a finished product that may brown easily or have a crumbly texture.

Glucose is a monosaccharide and is less sweet than other sugars. Fructose, on the other hand, is the sweetest known monosaccharide. Sucrose, or common sugar, has 1 part glucose and 1 part fructose. Sometimes knowing what parts certain sugars or syrups break down into can help when choosing a substitute.

How is sugar made?

Making sugar is a process that begins with boiling juice from the plants with lime (calcium oxide), which partially purifies and clarifies the syrup. The syrup is then evaporated and concentrated and subsequently put into a centrifuge to draw off more liquid (molasses). The raw sugar is then dissolved again and stripped of colour, filtered and re-crystallized to granulated sugar. A further crystallization occurs to produce granules of specific sizes.

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