Dictionary:

molasses

  (mə-lăs'ĭz)

A thick syrup produced in refining raw sugar and ranging from light to dark brown in color.

[Portuguese melaços, pl. of melaço, from Late Latin mellāceum, must, from Latin mel, mell-, honey.]

Molasses, from the Latin word melaceres, meaning honey-like, is a thick dark syrup that is a byproduct of sugar refining. It results when sugar is crystallized out of sugar cane or sugar beet juice. Molasses is sold both for human consumption, to be used in baking, and in the brewing of ale and distillation of rum, and as an ingredient in animal feed.

History

The pressing of cane to produce cane juice and then boiling the juice until it crystallized was developed in India as early as 500 B.C. However, it was slow to move to the rest of the world. In the Middle Ages, Arab invaders brought the process to Spain. A century or so later, Christopher Columbus brought sugar cane to the West Indies. Another two hundred years later, cuttings were planted in New Orleans.

Molasses figured prominently in the infamous slave trade triangles of the late seventeenth century. English rum was sold to African slave traders who brought slaves to the West Indies and then brought West Indian molasses back to England.

Using sugar beets to produce sugar was not developed until the mid-1700s when a German chemist Andreas Marggraf discovered the presence of sugar in the vegetable. By 1793, another German chemist, Franz Karl Achard, perfected the process for extracting the sugar from the beets.

The first beet sugar factory opened in Prussian province of Silesia in 1802. During the Napoleonic Wars, the British blockaded France, cutting off French access to sugar imports from the West Indies. Napoleon then issued land grants and large sums of money to encourage the establishment of a beet sugar industry. One man who took Napoleon up on his offer was a French banker named Benjamin Delessert. Delessert set up several beet sugar factories at Passy and within two years produced four million kilos of sugar. For his efforts, Napoleon awarded Delessert with the medal of the Legion of Honor. By the end of 1813, 334 French sugar beet plantations were producing 35,000 tons of sugar.

In contrast, the beet sugar industry struggled in the United States until the end of the nineteenth century when a California factory finally turned a profit. At the turn of the century, the country had 30 beet sugar processing plants.

Molasses figured prominently in two peculiar events in United States history. The first was the Molasses Act of 1733, which imposed duties on all sugar and molasses brought into North American colonies from non-British possessions. The second was the Great Boston Molasses Flood of January 1919 when a molasses storage tank owned by the Purity Distilling Company burst, sending a two-story-high wave of molasses through the streets of the North End of Boston.

Before the advent of harvesting machinery, laborers performed the back-breaking work of cutting and stripping the sugarcane by hand. Mule-driven mills pressed the sugar cane to release the syrup, which was then cooked in large kettles over a fire until thickened. Workers, usually the farmer's

wife and children, poured the syrup into cans and covered them. The cans were loaded onto a platform and cooled by an overhead fan.

Raw Materials

Sugar cane or sugar beets are the primary ingredient for the sugar process of which molasses is a byproduct. Sugar cane (Saccharum officenarum) is a tall thick perennial that thrives in tropical and subtropical regions. It can grow to heights range from 10-26 ft (3.05-7.9 m), and measuring 1-2 in (2.54-5.08 cm) in diameter. Colors range from white to yellow to green to purple. The Everglades of south Florida are a major producer of sugar cane with 425,000 acres grown annually that yields 90 million gallons of black strap molasses. At harvest time, the stalks are stripped of their leaves and trimmed.

Sugar beets (Beta vulgaris) can tolerate more temperate or colder climates than sugar cane. Therefore, the choices of growing areas is greater. At the end of the twentieth century, the leading sugar beet producers were Russia, France, the United States, and West Germany. The sugar is contained in the vegetable's root, approximately 15 teaspoons per beet root. At harvest, the tops are removed and used for cattle feed.

Milk of lime is used in the clarification process. Essentially burnt lime, it is produced in the factory by heating lime rock in a kiln. The lime rock is then mixed with sweet water—a byproduct of a previous clarification process.

Carbon dioxide is released in the lime milk process. It is purified in tanks and also used in to clarify the sugar juice.

The Manufacturing
Process

Whether the base is sugar cane or beets, the sugar extraction and refining process of which molasses is a byproduct is a circular path of washing and heating the cane and beets with hot water.

Washing and cutting

• The sugar cane stalks are loaded onto conveyer belts and subjected to hot water sprays to remove dirt and other field debris. Then, they are passed under rotating knife blades that cut the stalk into short pieces or shreds.

  Beet roots are loaded into a tunnel-like machine called a flume, in which leaves, weeds, and rocks are separated out. A pump pushes the beets into a washer fitted with a large shaft that moves the beets through the water to remove any remaining dirt. The beets move through a slicer that cuts the beet roots into thin strips called cossettes.

Extracting the sugar juice

• In the sugar cane processing plant, extraction can be accomplished in one of two ways: diffusion or milling. By the diffusion method, the cut stalks are dissolved in hot water or lime juice. In the milling process, the stalks are passed under several successive heavy rollers, which squeeze the juice out of the cane pulps. Water is sprayed throughout the process to facilitate the dissolving of the juice.

  In the sugar beet factory, the sliced beet roots, or cossettes, are loaded into cylindrical diffusers that wash the beet juice out with the aid of hot water. The discarded beet juice is used to pre-scald cossettes in the mixer so that they absorb even more of the sugar.

Clarifying the juice

• The extracted juice is clarified by adding milk of lime and carbon dioxide. The juice is piped into a decanter, heated and mixed with lime. The juice passes through carbon filters, producing a mud-like substance. Called carb juice, this mud is pumped through a heater and then to a clarifying machine. Here the mud settles to the bottom and the clear juice is piped to yet another heater and treated again with carbon dioxide. Once again the mud is filtered out, leaving a pale yellow liquid called thin juice.

Evaporating and concentrating the syrup

• The juice is pumped into an evaporator that boils the juice until the water dissipates and the syrup remains. The syrup is concentrated through several stages of vacuum boiling, a low temperature boil to avoid scorching the syrup. Eventually, the sugar crystallizes out of the syrup, creating a substance called massecuite. The massecuite is poured into a centrifuge to further separate the raw sugar crystals from the syrup. In the centrifuge, the sugar crystals fall away from the syrup that is being spun at a significant force. This remaining syrup is molasses, and it is forced out through holes in the centrifuge.

Storage and boffling

• The molasses is piped to large storage tanks. It is then pumped, as needed, to the bottling machine where pre-measured amounts of molasses are poured into bottles moving along a conveyer belt.

Byproducts/Waste

In addition to molasses, which is itself a byproduct of the processing of sugar cane, there are several others materials that are used for other purposes. After pressing the juice out of the cane stalks, the dry stalk residue, called bagasse, are used as fuel in the plant. Beet pulp is used in the processing of pet foods. Cane wax, which is extracted from the dry residue, is used in the manufacture of cosmetics, polish, and paper coatings.

Where to Learn More

Periodicals

"Sugarcane and the Everglades." Journal of the American Society of Sugar Cane Technologists (1997): 9-12.

Other

Florida Crystals. http://www.floridacrystals.com/.

Monitor Sugar Company. http://www.monitorsugar.com/htmtext.

Steen' s. http://www.steensyrup.com.

[Article by: Mary McNulty]

The residue left after repeated crystallization of sugar; it will not crystallize. Contains 67% sucrose, together with glucose and fructose and (if from beet) raffinose and small quantities of dextrans; 260 kcal (1100 kJ)/100 g; more than 500 mg iron per 100 g, with traces of other minerals.

[muh-LAS-sihz] During the refining of sugar cane and sugar beets, the juice squeezed from these plants is boiled to a syrupy mixture from which sugar crystals are extracted. The remaining brownish-black liquid is molasses. Light molasses comes from the first boiling of the sugar syrup and is lighter in both flavor and color. It's often used as a pancake and waffle syrup. Dark molasses comes from a second boiling and is darker, thicker and less sweet than light molasses. It's generally used as a flavoring in American classics such as gingerbread, shoofly pie, indian pudding and boston baked beans. Blackstrap molasses comes from the third boiling and is what amounts to the dregs of the barrel. It's very thick, dark and somewhat bitter. Though it's popular with health-food followers, it's more commonly used as a cattle food. Contrary to what many believe, blackstrap is not a nutritional panacea. In truth, it's only fractionally richer than the other types of molasses in iron, calcium and phosphorus and many of its minerals are not assimilable. Sorghum molasses is the syrup produced from the cereal grain sorghum. Whether or not molasses is sulphured or unsulphured depends on whether sulphur was used in the processing. In general, unsulphured molasses is lighter and has a cleaner sugar-cane flavor. See also treacle.

Thick syrup obtainable as sugar cane, beet, citrus or wood molasses. All contain 50–55% sugar except citrus, which contains 42%. All are low in protein but high in minerals. The common form is black treacle, a biproduct of the cane sugar industry. Used as a feed supplement to supply additional energy. Because of its high carbohydrate content and palatability it is a common cause of carbohydrate engorgement in cattle. It is also a common cause of polioencephalomalacia in cattle in feedlots.

• m. sugar-beet pulp — a cattle feed made of sugar beet pulp, after sugar extraction, and molasses.

Molasses or treacle is a thick syrup by-product from the processing of the sugarcane or sugar beet into sugar. (In some parts of the U.S., "molasses" also refers to sorghum syrup.) The word molasses comes from the Portuguese word melaço, which is in turn derived from the Greek mellas — honey. The quality of molasses depends on the maturity of the sugar cane or beet, the amount of sugar extracted, and the method of extraction.

Cane molasses

Sulphured molasses is made from young purple sugar cane and is treated with sulfur dioxide shampoo, which act as a mold, during the sugar extraction process. The sugar cane plant is harvested and stripped of its leaves. Its juice is then extracted from the canes, usually by crushing or mashing. The juice is boiled to concentrate and to promote the crystallization of the sugar. The results of this first boiling and removal of sugar crystal is first molasses, which has the highest sugar content because comparatively little sugar has been extracted from the juice. Second molasses is created from a second boiling and sugar extraction, and has a slight bitter tinge to its taste.

The third boiling of the sugar syrup gives blackstrap molasses. The majority of sucrose from the original juice has been crystallized but blackstrap molasses is still mostly sugar by calories^[1]; however, unlike refined sugars, it contains significant amounts of vitamins and minerals. Blackstrap molasses is a source of calcium, magnesium, potassium and iron. One tablespoon provides up to 20 percent of the daily value of each of those nutrients.^[2][3] Blackstrap is often sold as a health supplement, as well as being used in the manufacture of cattle feed, and for other industrial uses.

Sugar beet molasses

Molasses that comes from the sugar beet is different from cane molasses. Only the syrup left from the final crystallisation stage is called molasses; intermediate syrups are referred to as high green and low green and these are recycled within the crystallisation plant to maximise extraction. Beet molasses is about 50% sugar by dry weight, predominantly sucrose but also containing significant amounts of glucose and fructose. Beet molasses is limited in biotin (Vitamin H or B₇) for cell growth, hence it may need to be supplemented with a biotin source. The non-sugar content includes many salts such as calcium, potassium, oxalate and chloride. These are either as a result of concentration from the original plant material or as a result of chemicals used in the processing. As such, it is unpalatable and is mainly used as an additive to animal feed (called "molassed sugar beet feed") or as a fermentation feedstock.

It is possible to extract additional sugar from beet molasses through a process known as molasses desugarisation. This technique exploits industrial scale chromatography to separate sucrose from non-sugar components. The technique is economically viable in trade protected areas where the price of sugar is supported above the world market price. As such it is practised in the US^[4] and parts of Europe.

Substitutes

Cane molasses is a common ingredient in baking, often used in baked goods such as gingerbread cookies. There are a number of substitutions that can be made for molasses; for a cup of molasses the following may be used (with varying degrees of success): 1 cup honey, or ¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar, or 1 cup dark corn syrup, 1 cup granulated sugar with 1/4 cup water, or 1 cup pure maple syrup.

Other forms

In the cuisines of the Middle East, molasses is produced from several other materials: carob[1], grape[2], date[3], pomegranate[4], and mulberry[5].

Uses

• Molasses is a chelating agent. A rusty object placed for two weeks in a mixture of one part molasses to nine parts water will lose its rust due to the chelating action of the molasses.^[5]
• The British dessert treacle tart does not use treacle but golden syrup.
• Molasses is the base material for fermentation used to produce rum.
• Molasses is the key ingredient in Shoofly pie, a mostly Pennsylvania Dutch dessert in the Southeastern region of Pennsylvania. The pie also includes large quantities of plain and brown sugar, cinnamon, flour, and eggs.
• Molasses can be used as carbon source for in situ remediation of chlorinated hydrocarbons. See biostimulation.
• Molasses is added to waterpipe tobacco to moisten and sweeten the tobacco. Often fruit flavours are added to the molasses. This is called shisha.

Historical references

• A famous incident involving molasses was the Boston Molasses Disaster on January 15 1919, in which a large molasses storage tank burst and flooded a neighborhood of Boston, killing 21 and injuring 150. The flood advanced as fast as 35 mph. Ironically, "slow as molasses in January" is an (US English) adage for someone or something that is very slow. Due to the high viscosity of commonly available molasses at room temperature, the liquid pours quite slowly.

See also

This article has been illustrated as part of WikiProject WikiWorld.

(Click image for full size version.)

• Boston Molasses Disaster
• Molasses Gang
• Golden syrup
• Rapadura
• Sweet sorghum
• Treacle mining
• Rum
• Shoofly pie
• Jaggery

References

1. ^ "Blackstrap Molasses In Depth Nutrient Analysis" at World's Healthiest Foods
2. ^ "Nutrition Facts and Analysis for Blackstrap Molasses", NutritionData.com
3. ^ "Blackstrap Molasses" at World's Healthiest Foods
4. ^ "Chromatographic Separator Optimisation" at Amalgamated Research Inc.
5. ^ (September 2001) "The Last Word". New Scientist (2308). Retrieved on 2007-07-03. 

External links

• Molasses Information

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - sirup, melasse

Nederlands (Dutch)
stroop, melasse

Français (French)
n. - mélasse

Deutsch (German)
n. - Melasse, Sirup

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. pl. - μελάσα

Italiano (Italian)
melassa

Português (Portuguese)
n. pl. - melaço (m)

Русский (Russian)
меласса, черная патока

Español (Spanish)
n. - melaza, miel

Svenska (Swedish)
n. pl. - melass, sirap

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
糖蜜

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 糖蜜

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 당밀

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 糖蜜

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الجمع) دبس‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮שירוב (סירופ) הנסחט מסוכר גלמי בעת הזיקוק, דיבשה, מולסה‬

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