SUGAR
Edible
Series Editor: Andrew F. Smith
EDIBLE is a revolutionary new series of books dedicated to food and drink that explores the rich history of cuisine. Each book reveals the global history and culture of one type of food or beverage.
Already published
Apple Erika Janik Barbecue Jonathan Deutsch and Megan
J. Elias Beef Lorna Piatti-Farnell Beer Gavin D. Smith
Brandy Becky Sue Epstein Bread William Rubel
Cake Nicola Humble Caviar Nichola Fletcher Champagne
Becky Sue Epstein Cheese Andrew Dalby Chocolate Sarah
Moss and Alexander Badenoch Cocktails Joseph M. Carlin
Curry Colleen Taylor Sen Dates Nawal Nasrallah Dumplings
Barbara Gallani Eggs Diane Toops Figs David C. Sutton
Game Paula Young Lee Gin Lesley Jacobs Solmonson
Hamburger Andrew F. Smith Herbs Gary Allen
Hot Dog Bruce Kraig Ice Cream Laura B. Weiss
Lemon Toby Sonneman Lobster Elisabeth Townsend
Milk Hannah Velten Mushroom Cynthia D. Bertelsen
Nuts Ken Albala Offal Nina Edwards Olive Fabrizia Lanza
Oranges Clarissa Hyman Pancake Ken Albala
Pie Janet Clarkson Pineapple Kaori O Connor
Pizza Carol Helstosky Pork Katharine M. Rogers
Potato Andrew F. Smith Pudding Jeri Quinzio Rice Renee
Marton Rum Richard Foss Salmon Nicolaas Mink Sandwich
Bee Wilson Sauces Maryann Tebben Soup Janet Clarkson
Spices Fred Czarra Sugar Andrew F. Smith Tea Helen Saberi
Tequila Ian Williams Truffle Zachary Nowak Vodka Patricia
Herlihy Whiskey Kevin R. Kosar Wine Marc Millon
Sugar
A Global History
Andrew F. Smith
REAKTION BOOKS
To Meghanne, Reilly, Ethan and Owen
may you enjoy sweets in moderation
Published by Reaktion Books Ltd
33 Great Sutton Street
London EC1V 0DX, UK
www.reaktionbooks.co.uk
First published 2015
Copyright Andrew F. Smith 2015
All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers
Page references in the Photo Acknowledgements and
Index match the printed edition of this book.
Printed and bound in China
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
eISBN: 9781780234786
Contents
Prologue
From birth, humans are attracted to sweet-tasting foods, and for good reason: all 10,000 taste buds in the mouth have special receptors for sweetness. Sweet foods cause the taste buds to release neurotransmitters that light up the brains pleasure centres. The brain responds by producing endocannabinoids, which increase appetite. This may have an evolutionary explanation: about 40 per cent of the calories in breast milk come from lactose, a disaccharide sugar that is readily metabolized into glucose, the bodys basic fuel. The sweetness leads infants to eat more, making them more likely to survive.
Naturally bitter plants may signal toxicity, while sweet foods are generally safe to eat and are usually good sources of simple carbohydrates. Once we become conditioned to consume sweet foods, even the sight of them will cause us to salivate; the saliva will help begin the process of breaking down the carbohydrates, signalling to the digestive system that nutrients are on the way.
For millennia, our ancestors cultivated and bred sweet fruits and vegetables and sweetened foods with juice from fruit, berries, figs, dates, nuts and carrots, saps from carob, maple or palm trees, nectar from flowers, and the leaves and seeds ofsweet herbs. Over the centuries humans have learned to harvest, refine or concentrate sweeteners such as maltose from grains, glucose from grapes, fructose from fruits, berries and corn, and sucrose from sugar cane and sugar beet. Humans have even harnessed the bee to provide honey, the Old Worlds first important sweetener.
The most common sweetener for the past 500 years, however, has been table sugar, or sucrose (C12H22O11), a disaccharide composed of two monosaccharides glucose and fructose that are linked in chemical combination. These separate during digestion; the glucose molecules pass into the bloodstream through the small intestine and are distributed to the organs, where they are metabolized into energy (any surplus not needed for energy is stored in fat cells). Fructose, the sweetest natural sweetener, is mainly metabolized in the liver, where enzymes convert it into glucose.
Most plants contain sucrose, but the greatest concentrations are found in the Saccharum genus, a very tall bamboo-like member of the grass family. The genus likely originated in South or Southeast Asia and it consists of several species, each with numerous varieties. Only two species Saccharum robustum and S. spontaneum can propagate in the wild, and they contain comparatively little sugar. S. robustum originated on New Guinea, and from it indigenous peoples domesticated S. officinarum or Creole cane, which has a higher sugar content than other species. It was such a success that by about 8,000 years ago it had been widely disseminated to the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Southeast Asia and China. In India, S. officinarum hybridized with S. spontaneum, a cane native to South Asia, to create S. barberi, a common sugar cane cultivated in India. In China, S. officinarum hybridized again with S. spontaneum, this time creating S. sinense, a sugar cane commonly grown in southern China.
The eyes or nodes on sugar cane. | |
Humans have cultivated and tapped the sweet juice of various members of the Saccharum species for thousands of years, but S. officinarum has dominated the sugar cane industry, although other species and varieties have been used for breeding purposes since the late eighteenth century. Growing and processing cane is a labour-intensive activity. All domesticated canes are propagated asexually sections of the stalk with at least one bud (also called an eye or node) are cut and planted. The cane fields had to be weeded and fertilized, and irrigated in many places. When ripe, the canes had to be cut down. These tasks were accomplished by hand until the invention of mechanical devices in the twentieth century.
Under ideal conditions, cane stalks can grow as much as 5 cm (2 inches) per day for several weeks. When mature, they are about 2 inches thick, and they grow to heights of 3.6 to 4.6 metres (12 to 15 feet). They reach their optimum sugar content at anywhere from nine to eighteen months. When the stem begins to flower, the sucrose is at its maximum level (ideally 17 per cent). The stalks are cut off just above the root in a process called ratooning. The root then grows a new stalk, which will be lower in sugar content and less resistant to disease; still, stalks can be ratooned a few times before it is more efficient to remove the roots and plant new stem cuttings.