[Sca-cooks] Re: Wine Must and Honey?

[Decker, Terry D.]

You win the seegar.

Sugars are a class of water-soluble crystalline carbohydrates.  Must is not
a sugar.  It is a liquid in which naturally occurring sugars are dissolved.
Honey is also a liquid containing dissolved sugars (which turns into a
crystalline semi-solid as the water evaporates).

In usage, must refers to the expressed juice of ripe fruit, while verjuice
refers to the expressed juice of unripe fruit.  The primary difference
between the two juices is the percentage of sugar they contain.  Sugar in
fruit juice increases as the fruit ripens.  Unripe fruit contains very
little sugar, making verjuice an astringent, rather than a sweetner.  As the
fruit ripens, the natural sugars form and sweeten the juice.  Must is a
sweetner.

While verjuice and must can be made from the same fruit and can be used
interchangeably in cooking, they produce different flavors due to the wide
variance in the sugar content.

Must and honey are sweetners.  So is saccharin (benzosulfimide).  But
saccharin is not a sugar.  In some recipes, these sweetners can be used
interchangeably.  Therefore, the idea that because ingredients can be used
interchangeably in cooking makes them the same thing (in this case "sugar")
is a fallacy.

Bear

> Bear clarified:
>
> >Must is the juice of pressed grapes, in other words, the basis of
> grape
> >wine. It has naturally occurring sugars which can be fermented.
>
> So... must _has_ sugars but it isn't a sugar, correct?  I want to be
> very careful about the concept and the words so that I am absolutely
> clear about it.  As I noted earlier, my friend would read the above
> quote and come to the conclusion (as s/he has already done) that
> must is therefore a sugar.  "Containing" a sugar and "being" a sugar
> are two different things to me...
>
> Alys Katharine