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Cooked Sugar
Appears in
Published 2012
Cooked sugar is used for a large variety of products. It is very versatile but can also be very temperamental, which is why it is crucial to understand what you are doing before you get started.
There are two ways to cook sugar for practically any preparation that requires cooked sugar: the wet method and the dry method.
The Wet Method for Cooking Sugar is as Follows:
- Make sure that you use a pot that is very clean. Any debris or grease will crystallize the sugar. Copper works very well but is expensive and hard to keep clean. Stainless steel also works very well. If you have copper pots and are willing to spend the time maintaining them, then all the better, but the cooking time is only reduced by a fraction.
- Make sure to use the correct size pot. If you are making a caramel, when you add the hot heavy cream into the bubbling sugar, it will increase in volume greatly due to the production of steam. If the pot is too short, it will bubble over.
- Combine the sugar in a sauce pot with enough sugar to hydrate all of the sugar crystals. A common ratio is 4 parts water to 1 part sugar, but you can use a lot less water to fully hydrate sugar. This reduced amount of water also helps cook the sugar faster. The more water there is, the longer the sugar will take to reach the temperature you are looking for, because the additional water takes longer to evaporate. Water is the vessel that will get the sugar hot and start the cooking process, but once the water evaporates, the sugar will continue to cook on its own. Make sure that all of the sugar has been fully hydrated. Any dry crystals will crystallize all of the sugar.
- Make sure that there are no sugar crystals on the side of the pot. These crystals can crystallize the rest of the sugar. Use a clean brush dipped in water to clean the inside of the pot. This brush should be a brush that is not used for anything other than this purpose. Pastry brushes with grease will drip grease into the pot and contaminate the sugar, crystallizing it.
- The optimal heat source for cooking sugar is an induction burner, since it heats from the bottom to the top. Flame heat can affect the cooking of the sugar negatively, causing it to cook unevenly. However, if you are using a copper pot, you will need to use a flame. Always cook sugar over the highest heat possible to prevent crystallization.
- Cook the sugar to the correct temperature; always use a thermometer.
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