and a viscous syrup. A few years later, he
discovered that malted barley had the same
effect as the acid (and thereby laid the
foundations for a scientific understanding of
beer brewing). We now know that starch
consists of long chains of glucose molecules,
and that both acids and certain plant, animal,
and microbial enzymes will break these long
chains down into smaller pieces and
eventually into individual glucose molecules.
The sugars make the syrup sweet, and the
remaining fragments of glucose chains give
the solution a thick, viscous consistency. In
the United States, the acid technique was used
to produce syrup from potato starch in the
1840s, and from corn starch beginning in the
1860s.
High-Fructose Corn Syrups The 1960s
brought the invention of fructose syrups.
These start out as plain corn or potato syrups,
but an additional enzyme process converts