MOLASSES 



3876 



MOLD 



MOLASSES, mo las' ez, from the French 

 molasse, meaning flabby, is a dark brown, 

 sometimes yellowish, uncrystallizable substance, 

 having the appearance of a thick, sticky syrup. 

 It is one of the by-products of sugar cane 

 manufacture, and is extensively used in cooking 

 and in making confectionery. Molasses and 

 treacle are sometimes used as synonymous 

 terms, but the latter properly refers to the 

 syrup obtained in sugar refining. 



How It Is Made. Molasses is the liquid 

 which in the process of manufacturing sugar is 

 separated from the mass containing the sugar 

 crystals, this crystallization being brought about 

 by two methods, the "open kettle" and the 

 vacuum pan. The former consists of boiling 

 the juice of the cane in circular or rectangular 

 open pans having steam coils. After several 

 boilings the juice is reduced to the form of 

 syrup, and this in turn to a stiff mass of 

 syrup and crystals, called the massecuite. The 

 massecuite is drawn off into hogsheads and the 

 molasses seeps out through perforations in the 

 bottom. Molasses made in this way is of ex- 

 cellent flavor, but as this process has been 

 largely replaced by the vacuum-pan methods, 

 the product described above is not found on 

 the market in large quantities. 



By the other method, the one which is gen- 

 erally used in the large modern sugar factories, 

 the massecuite is obtained through a series of 

 boilings i'n vacuum pans. It is then conveyed 

 to a mixer, where it is thoroughly stirred, the 

 crystals and syrup being kept from separating 

 by a set of revolving paddles. The massecuite 

 is then conveyed to cylindrical vessels (known 

 as centrifugals), having walls of copper gauze 

 sufficiently fine in texture to prevent the crys- 

 tals from passing out through the meshes. 

 Each vessel contains a shaft which makes about 

 1,000 revolutions a minute, and in the course 

 of this rapid motion the molasses is separated 

 from the sugar crystals and thrown out through 

 the perforations in the gauze. 



The molasses thus obtained contains about 

 50 per cent of sugar, and is usually reboiled 

 until all of the crystallizable sugar has been re- 

 moved. 1 In Louisiana, however, some of the 

 product fresh from the centrifugal is diluted 

 with water and sold to local customers as table 

 molasses, and to the manufacturers of glucose 

 syrup. The first reboiling produces "second 

 sugar" and "second molasses," the second re- 

 boiling "third sugar" and "third molasses," and 

 so on. The refuse molasses obtained through 

 several boilings is utilized to some extent in 



feeding stock, in fertilizing and in the distilla- 

 tion of rum. "Third molasses" is mixed with 

 glucose to make a table syrup, and the so- 

 called New Orleans molasses is largely glucose 

 flavored with molasses. 



The United States Department of Agriculture 

 has ruled that standard molasses shall not con- 



Water, 25.1 



FOOD VALUE OF MOLASSES 

 The fuel value is 1,290 calories per pound (see 

 CALORIE). 



tain more than 25 per cent of water nor more 

 than 5 per cent of ash. See FOOD, subhead 

 Chemistry of Foods. 



Production. The production of molasses is 

 confined to the sugar cane countries of the 

 world, chief of which are Cuba, Java, Hawaii, 

 the United States, Porto Rico, Brazil, Peru, 

 Mauritius, Queensland, Argentina and the Phil- 

 ippine Islands. The greater part of the mo- 

 lasses made in the United States comes from 

 Louisiana, which has a yearly output of about 

 23,000,000 gallons. B.M.W. 



MOLD, the furry covering that appears on 

 food left in a damp place, or on decaying mat- 

 ter, is a minute vegetable growth. Mold starts 

 from a dustlike particle called a spore, which 

 swells, bursts and sends out threads, some of 



a &i b 



MOLD 



(a) Black mold; (&) greatly magnified spore 

 case, or sporangium. 



which are like roots, others like branches. Each 

 branchlike thread develops a sporangium or 

 spore case, no larger than a pinhead, in which 

 thousands of spores appear. When the cases 

 break open these spores float away with the 

 dust of the air, ready to reproduce themselves 

 in any damp place. Mold will not grow in cold 

 air, and will wither in sunlight. The bread 



