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Sweet Science
By Linda | February 29, 2008
It’s the fuel that feeds the human brain. Plants manufacture it through photosynthesis and kids of all ages crave it. What is it? Well, sugar of course! We all consume some of it every day but hardly give a thought to what we’re eating.
What is Sugar?
The white stuff we know as sugar is sucrose, a molecule composed of 12 atoms of carbon, 22 atoms of hydrogen, and 11 atoms of oxygen (C12H22O11). Like all compounds made from these three elements, sugar is a carbohydrate. It’s found naturally in most plants, but especially in sugarcane and sugar beets—hence their names.
Sucrose is actually two simpler sugars stuck together: fructose and glucose. In recipes, a little bit of acid (for example, some lemon juice or cream of tartar) will cause sucrose to break down into these two components.
If you look closely at dry sugar, you’ll notice it comes in little cubelike shapes. These are sugar crystals, orderly arrangements of sucrose molecules.
Sugar Crystals
Read about the science behind all sorts of foods like pickles, bread and spices at a truly interesting website called The Accidental Scientist - Science of Cooking.
Topics: Food Science |
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March 1st, 2008 at 6:54 pm
[…] Sweet Science It’s the fuel that feeds the human brain. Plants manufacture it through photosynthesis and kids of all ages crave it. What is it? Well, sugar of course! We all consume some of it every day but hardly give a thought to what we’re eating. What is Sugar? The white stuff we know as sugar is sucrose, a molecule composed of 12 atoms of carbon, 22 atoms of hydrogen, and 11 atoms of oxygen (C12H22O11). Like all compounds made from these three elements, sugar is a carbohydrate. It’s found naturally […]