alone in having a pleasant taste even at the
very high concentrations found in candies and
preserves; other sugars can seem harsh.
Sucrose is also the second most soluble sugar
— two parts can dissolve in one part of room-
temperature water — and it produces the
greatest viscosity, or thickness, in a water
solution. Sucrose begins to melt around
320ºF/160ºC, and caramelizes at around
340ºF/170ºC.
When a solution of sucrose is heated in the
presence of some acid, it breaks apart into its
two subsugars. Certain enzymes will do the
same thing. Breaking sucrose into glucose and
fructose is often referred to as inversion, and
the resulting mixture is called invert sugar or
invert syrup. (“Inversion” refers to a
difference in optical properties between
sucrose and a mixture of its components
parts.) Invert syrups are about 75% glucose
and fructose, 25% sucrose. Invert sugar only
exists as a syrup, since the fructose
barry
(Barry)
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