Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

What are Invert and Caster Sugars?


Othafa9

Recommended Posts

In England they use:

'icing sugar' for 'confectioner's sugar'

and

'caster sugar' for 'granulated sugar'.

Inverted sugar sounds interesting; I've never heard of it but it almost sounds like it would be chemically inverted...

"Under the dusty almond trees, ... stalls were set up which sold banana liquor, rolls, blood puddings, chopped fried meat, meat pies, sausage, yucca breads, crullers, buns, corn breads, puff pastes, longanizas, tripes, coconut nougats, rum toddies, along with all sorts of trifles, gewgaws, trinkets, and knickknacks, and cockfights and lottery tickets."

-- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1962 "Big Mama's Funeral"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

invert sugar

Invert sugar is created by combining a SUGAR SYRUP with a small amount of acid (such as CREAM OF TARTAR or lemon juice) and heating. This inverts, or breaks down, the SUCROSE into its two components, GLUCOSE and FRUCTOSE, thereby reducing the size of the sugar crystals. Because of its fine crystal structure, invert sugar produces a smoother product and is used in making candies such as fondant, and some syrups. The process of making jams and jellies automatically produces invert sugar by combining the natural acid in the fruit with granulated sugar and heating the mixture. Invert sugar can usually be found in jars in cake-decorating supply shops.

© Copyright Barron's Educational Services, Inc. 1995 based on THE FOOD LOVER'S COMPANION, 2nd edition, by Sharon Tyler Herbst

this was taken from epicurious which took it from "the food lover's companion"

am i allowed to cut and paste like this if i cite the reference? or should i just post a link?!

i'm not too sharp on copyright infringement.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Invert sugar is regular white sugar that has been processed so that the sucrose molecules have been broken into their constituent parts: fructose and glucose. It is semi-liquid in form - kind of thick and pasty. It's also sweeter than white sugar, and it actually has the mouthfeel of honey, but without the honey flavor. That's because honey is actually a form of invert sugar and you can use honey in place of invert sugar in most recipes, as long as you account for the flavor difference.

I think most Amercian pastry chefs use the Trimoline brand of invert sugar - at least most people I've met just refer to it as "trimoline", sort of like "kleenex". And I know of no retail source where the average consumer can buy it.

(Edit: looks like alanamoana beat me to it)

Edited by nightscotsman (log)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...