Aspartame as Sweetener in Cooking

Like saccharin, aspartame was discovered by accident. In 1965, James Schlatter was doing research on ulcer drugs when he licked his finger to pick up a piece of paper and noticed that the finger tasted sweet. He realized that the sweetness came from an earlier spill in the laboratory. What Schlatter discovered was a substance that is 180 times sweeter than sucrose. Read more »

Saccharin as an Alternative Sweetener

Saccharin was discovered as a sweetener in 1878 by Constantin Fahlberg. The researcher noticed that his dinner roll tasted strangely sweet and traced it back to a saccharin substance he had accidentally spilled on his hands while working in his university research lab. Saccharin is now available as acid saccharin, sodium saccharin, and calcium saccharin. Read more »

Alternative Sweeteners
Saccharin, aspartame, acesulfame-K, and sucralose. are alternative sweeteners which are also known as intense sweeteners, defined as those that are substantially sweeter than sucrose (by weight). Their intensity of sweetness ranges from 30 to several thousand times that of sucrose. Read more »

Sugar Alcohols
Sugar alcohols are found naturally in fruits and vegetables or are synthesized by hydrogenating certain sugars. They include sorbitol, mannitol, xylitol, maltitol, isomalt, lactitol, and erythritol. Although primarily sold to food manufacturers as ingredients, isomalt is available to professional chefs. Read more »

About Invert Sugar

Invert sugar is available only in clear, liquid form and is sweeter than granulated sugar. This type of sugar resists crystallization and is commonly used by professional confectioners who need a sugar that yields a smooth, melt-in-the-mouth texture. Read more »

Maple Syrup

Native Americans were the first to collect the sap from maple trees and boil it into a smooth, tasty syrup. Long ago, sap was harvested by drilling holes into a maple tree, inserting a spout, and catching the fluid in a bucket positioned under the spout. Newer methods eliminate the buckets, instead utilizing a network of plastic pipelines attached to the trees. Read more »

What is Molases

Molasses is the thick, yellow to dark brown liquid by-product of the juice of sugar cane or beets. The liquid is repeatedly boiled, but for the end product to be called molasses, it must contain no more than 75 percent water and 5 percent mineral ash. Most of the sugar in molasses is sucrose, which render the product darker with each boiling. The syrup’s ultimate color determines its grade. Read more »

Honey

Before sugar from cane became available, the world depended primarily on honey as a sweetener. Bees collect the thin, watery nectar of flowers and, during the flight back to their hive, convert it through enzymatic action into fructose and glucose molecules. The bees deposit the nectar in honeycombs, where most of the water evaporates to create a thick, sweetened syrup, which is further flavored with enzymes added by the bees. Read more »

Maltose

Maltose, also called malt sugar, lends certain milk shakes and candies their characteristic malt taste. It is used primarily as a flavoring and coloring agent in the manufacture of beer. During the malting process, barley and other grains are treated to convert the grain’s starch to maltose. Read more »

Glucose

Glucose, also known as dextrose, is the basic building block of most carbohydrates and is the major sugar found in the blood. Chief plants sources of this monosaccharide are fruits, vegetables, honey and corn syrup. Glucose can be obtained from starch by commercially treating it with heat and acids or with enzymes. Food companies often use glucose, which is half as sweet as sucrose, in candies, beverages, baked goods, canned fruit, and fermented beverages. Read more »