Smith - Sugar : a global history

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 EC V DX , 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

e ISBN : 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 of sweet 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 ( CHO ), 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.

Humankinds dedication to the cultivation of sugar cane clearly demonstrates our millennia-old appreciation of its sweet taste. Initially people consumed the cane juice by simply chewing or sucking on pieces of stalk. It is difficult to preserve or store cut canes for any length of time: once cut, the stalk quickly deteriorates and turns into a brown mush. It is possible to squeeze the juice from the cane, but once exposed to air, it begins to ferment. This characteristic is a definite advantage if the desired end product is alcohol, but not helpful if what is wanted is a sweetener that can be preserved. How our ancestors worked out how to process cane juice so it could be preserved, and how the implementation and improvement of this process affected human history, is the subject of this book.