The powdered sugar extracted, the remainder drops into another screen where a similar sifting action takes place, the silk of the second screen being coarser than that of the first, and bar sugar is the result. Such grains as are too large to pass through the bar screen are carried back to the rolls and reground. The bar screen has about five thousand openings per square inch.
Bar sugar, as the name implies, is generally used in preparing beverages. It dissolves almost instantly when dropped in water. Singularly enough, the average housewife is not aware of the advantages attending the use of this grade of sugar. It does not become caked as readily as powdered sugar does, and is the ideal sweetening for berries and cereals served at the breakfast meal. It is far more desirable than powdered sugar for most of the purposes for which the latter is commonly used.
It is believed by many that all powdered sugar is adulterated with chalk, starch, white corn meal or similar substances. Such is not the case, and it is safe to assume that no mixing whatever is done by any refiner in America. Powdered sugar has a strong tendency to cake or become hard, and some manufacturers who buy coarse granulated sugar from the refiners for grinding purposes use starch to the extent of from two to three per cent. Chalk is never used, nor are other non-edible or deleterious substances. Starch is not introduced for the purpose of making a greater profit, but to prevent the powdered sugar from caking. The adding of starch, in all probability, increases the cost of making powdered sugar, as starch costs almost as much as sugar, and the expense of handling it and feeding it into the grinding machinery is quite an item.
FILLING, WEIGHING AND SEWING 2-POUND, 5-POUND AND 10-POUND BAGS
YELLOW SUGARS
Yellow sugars, or “softs” as they are usually called, comprise fifteen grades, ranging in color from a creamy white to a dark brown. These sugars are used chiefly by bakers in making gingerbread, pies and cakes, although a small quantity finds its way directly into households for ordinary domestic consumption.
The characteristics of yellow sugars are that they have a small grain and contain a sufficient amount of molasses to make them moist to the touch, properties brought about by a radically different method of boiling from that applied to white sugars. They also contain a certain amount of invert sugar which preserves the softness of grain and prevents subsequent caking or hardening.
To properly explain how yellow sugars are boiled, reference must be made to the method of boiling white sugars, which may be briefly summarized as follows: