Sucrose syrup

[tara]

First time I made sucrose syrup, I did it by heating water and sugar in a pan as others have described. It worked fine. My current procedure is even easier and less messy, though it's best started the day before.

1. Three-quarters fill a glass bottle with sucrose.
2. Nearly fill with clean water.
3. Shake.
4. Leave it till later. Some of the sugar will dissolve into the water, some will stay solid on the bottom.
5. Shake again. Some of the sugar will still be solid, but the liquid on top should be pretty saturated, and you can pour it off as you want it.
6. When there's not much liquid left, add more water and shake again. Use liquid. Repeat till no solids left.

I use a 1l bottle, and use this to add to OJ and other stuff as I want it. Lasts a few days for me. I sometimes add more sugar, but if I keep the same bottle going for too long the top gets too gummed up.

 

[tara]

Mittir posted elsewhere about not knowing whether heat is needed to separate glucose and fructose molecules in syrup, and some people finding it easier to digest if they were separated. I don't know the answer to this either. As far as I know I can digest this stuff.

 

[BingDing]

Tara, did you think the syrup made that way was as sweet as the heated version? I use two parts sugar and one part water, when it gets to the melting point of sugar it is supersaturated.

The bond between the two in sucrose is easy to break but I think you need heat or acid. When you put sugar in hot coffee the bond gets broken, producing invert sugar. Fructose binds to the receptors on the tongue more closely than sucrose, which is why it tastes sweeter than the same amount of sugar in cold coffee. Come to think, syrup made with heat is probably invert sugar, too, and probably adds to the sweetness over just being supersaturated.

FWIW, we break the bond in our stomachs quickly, I think it's the same enzyme that breaks the glucose-glucose bond in starch. That's why starch digests so quickly (I think). I should research that some more, so don't bet money on it being true. :)

 

[tara]

Tara, did you think the syrup made that way was as sweet as the heated version? I use two parts sugar and one part water, when it gets to the melting point of sugar it is supersaturated.

Hi Bing Ding, Can't say about relative sweetnesss - I always mix it in with other things, and I never measure precisely. It may too be as sweet, or as saturated, but for my purposes I'm not sure if it matters. I could try starting the process with hot water next time, and maybe some of it would convert.