[Sca-cooks] Re: Sugar

[Mark S. Harris]

Ardenia replied to my questions with:
> Ardenia mentioned:
> > I heated the ginger sugar to 225...and it started to harden before i
> > even got the strings in, so I had to add water and try reheating it a
> > bit higher
> >    The rose sugar got up a bit higher(about 235) , and seemed to have
> > a better chance
> > The lavender sugar was in a metal pan, so ended up significantly
> > hotter...260ish... so we'll see what kind of action we have when I ge
> > home

> I was heating the solution, as opposed to just the sugar.  I used 1 1/4
> c. sugar to  1/2 c water as my ration, making smaller batches, but
> using the ratio that I was given from the other rewcipes.
>
> so farl, I have a few crystals, and  bunch of sugar crystalizing in the
> sottom of the jars.

Okay. With the temperatures you were mentioning I didn't see how you 
could have much if any water in there. That and because I thought there 
was some comment about it solidifying solid. Apparently the addition of 
sugar raises the boiling point of the water much higher than I expected 
it to.

Since ideally what you want is a super-saturated solution, which is one 
in which a lot of the sugar is kept in solution only because of the 
elevated water temperature, I think the easiest way to accomplish this 
is to continue to add sugar to the boiling water until it stops all 
being dissolved. Then put in your strings, take the pot off the stove 
and let the contents cool down.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****