On Food and Cooking

The Properties and Uses of Corn Syrups
Among the usual sweeteners available to the
cook, corn syrups are alone in providing long
carbohydrate molecules that get tangled up
with each other and slow down the motion of
all molecules in the syrup, thus giving it a
thicker consistency than any but the most
concentrated sucrose syrups. It’s largely these
long tangly molecules that have made corn
syrup increasingly important in confectionery
and other prepared foods. Because the
tangling interferes with molecular motion, it
also has the valuable effect of preventing
other sugars in candy from crystallizing and
producing a grainy texture. All molecules in
the syrup are flowing very slowly, and the
sucrose crystal faces keep getting covered
with chains that can’t become part of the
crystal. (The same behavior helps minimize
the size of ice crystals in ice cream and fruit
ices, thus encouraging a smooth, creamy
consistency.) Another consequence of corn