THE CHEMISTRY OF COOKERY. 821 



This return to the crystalline condition is retarded by adding vine- 

 gar or mucilaginous matter to the heated sugar, hence the confection- 

 ers' name of " barley-sugar," which, in one of its old-fashioned forms, 

 was prepared by boiling down ordinary sugar in a decoction of pearl 



barley. 



The French cooks and confectioners carry on the heating of sugar 

 through various stages bearing different technical names, one of the 

 most remarkable of which is a splendid crimson variety, largely used 

 in fancy sweetmeats, and containing no foreign coloring-matter, as 

 commonly supposed. Though nothing is added, something is taken 

 away, and this is some of the chemically-combined water of the origi- 

 nal sugar, in the parting with which not only a change of color occurs, 

 but also a modification of flavor, as anybody may prove by experi- 

 ment. 



When the temperature is gradually raised to 420, the sugar loses 

 two equivalents of water, and becomes caramel a dark-brown sub- 

 stance, no longer sweet, but having a new flavor of its own. It further 

 differs from sugar by being incapable of fermentation. Its analogies 

 to the crust of bread and the " brown " of cooked animal food will be 

 further discussed in my next. 



XIV. 



In my last I described the dissociation of sugar by heat and the 

 formation of caramel, to illustrate by simple example the " browning " 

 of other kinds of food. I might have added, in connection with this 

 cookery of sugar, an historical connection with one of the lost arts of 

 the kitchen viz., the " spinning " of sugar. Within the reach of my 

 own recollection no evening party could pretend to be stylish unless 

 the supper-table was decorated with a specimen of this art a temple, 

 a pagoda, or something of the sort done in barley-sugar. These were 

 made by raising the sugar to 320, when it fused and became amor- 

 phous, or vitreous, as already described. The cook then dipped a 

 skewer into it, the melted vitreous sugar adhered to this and was 

 drawn out as a thread, which speedily solidified by cooling. While in 

 the act of solidification it was woven into the desired form, and the 

 skillful artist did this with wonderful rapidity. I once witnessed with 

 childish delight the spinning of a great work of art by a French cook 

 in St. James's Palace. It was a ship in full sail, the sails of edible 

 wafer, the hull a basket-work of spun sugar, the masts of massive 

 sugar-sticks, and the rigging of delicate threads of the same. As 

 nearly as I can remember, the whole was completed in about an hour. 



But to return from high art to chemical science. The conversion 

 of sugar into caramel is, as already stated, attended with a change of 

 flavor : a kind of bitterness replaces the sweetness. This peculiar 

 flavor, judiciously used, is a powerful adjunct to cookery, and one 

 which is shamefully neglected in our ordinary English domestic 



