Cooking and Sweetness

Appears in
Professional Cooking
Professional Cooking

By Wayne Gisslen

Published 2014

  • About
Young, freshly harvested vegetables have a relatively high sugar content that makes them taste sweet. As they mature, or as they sit in storage, the sugar gradually changes to starch. This is especially noticeable in corn, peas, carrots, turnips, and beets.
To serve sweet-tasting vegetables:
  1. Try to serve young, fresh vegetables that have been stored as short a time as possible.
  2. For older vegetables, especially those just listed, add a small amount of sugar to the cooking water to replace lost sweetness.