Maccaroni, VERMICELLI, Spaghetti.—These are all made from the dough of the hardest and most glutenous Southern wheat, and the domestic are inferior to the Italian or French. The best will merely swell and soften after long boiling, and still retain its form. Maccaroni is in small tubes, spaghetti in small stems, and vermicelli in threads or shreds. Letters, stars, and other figures are also made from the same material or paste; all are largely used in soups. Egg noodles are ribbon maccaroni.
SUGAR AND THE SWEETS.
This necessity of modern life ranks as one of the most important articles among the grocers’ goods. Two hundred years ago it was sold chiefly by the apothecaries, but is now consumed in all parts of the world to the extent of many millions of tons annually. Sugars have been divided into four kinds, viz.: cane sugar, found in stems; grape sugar, found in fruits; manna sugar, found in leaves; and milk or animal sugar.
There are many varieties of the sugar cane which contain from twelve to twenty per cent. of sugar; these are cut, crushed, and the juice boiled down and clarified with lime, etc.; the sugar crystallizes and leaves the molasses. The sugar beet contains from seven to thirteen per cent. of sugar, which, when raw, is unpleasant, but when refined is identical with cane sugar. The fact that the molasses of the sugar beet, although colorless, is very disagreeable, has retarded the beet sugar manufacture, but it is a great and growing industry. The sap of the sugar maple contains about two per cent. of MAPLE SUGAR, which is identical with cane sugar, and may be made white, but is preferred brown, as containing more of the rich maple flavor. About seven thousand tons of maple sugar are annually made in the New England States. Maple syrup is extensively sold by grocers in cans, bottles, etc.
Grape sugar or glucose.—The sweetness of ripe fruits is due to the starch which they contain, passing, under the ripening influence of nature, into grape sugar. Substances may consist of the same elements, but different proportions may greatly vary their properties. For instance, starch and sugar consist merely of carbon and water. Grape sugar contains more water than starch, and cane sugar more than grape sugar.
Now, long boiling of starch in pure water produces little change upon it; but it was found that if a little sulphuric acid is added, the starch will take up more water and become entirely converted into grape sugar. And this is substantially the way in which commercial glucose is made. The acid is neutralized by lime, and the liquor boiled down into solid grape sugar or syrup.
Cane Sugars are sweeter than grape sugars in the proportion of five to three; hence, three pounds of cane sugar are worth five pounds of grape or starch sugar for sweetening purposes. This is the reason why grape sugar is used to adulterate cane sugar, and it is the only adulterant used at present to any extent.
One pound of water will dissolve three pounds of cane, but only one pound of grape sugar. The latter has a gummy taste on the tongue and dissolves slowly. A small grained sugar may carry some glucose and perhaps escape detection, but the crystals of a large grained sugar will always be brilliant in contrast with its contaminating ingredients, and thus proclaim the fraud. In other words, inferior sugars have a dull look, while good sugars are bright. Glucose sugars melt at one hundred and five degrees, C., while cane sugars melt only when heated to one hundred and thirty-seven degrees, C. Raw sugars are no longer used. They should be refined to free them from the repulsive sugar mite and other impurities. The best sugar is always the most economical.
The Best Grades of Family Sugar are the cut loaf, cubes and crushed. Next in market value, in the order in which they stand, are powdered, granulated, A sugars, C sugars, white, yellow, extra golden, etc., down to common yellow.
Syrups.—These are the uncrystallized residue in refining brown sugars. They are diluted, filtered through animal charcoal, and concentrated. The lighter the color the higher the price. The better qualities are called “Rock Candy Drips,” “Golden Drips,” etc.