Sugar Syrup

Syrup

 

When scientifically speaking about syrup, the word means a liquid with high viscosity which is also generally residual, however in cooking, syrup is known as a thick, viscous liquid containing large amounts of dissolved sugars.

 

The word syrup is derived from the Arabic word sharab, meaning beverage, via the Latin word known as siropus. Syrups can be used both pharmaceutically and culinary, pharmaceutical syrup is made by adding 1kg of refined sugar to 500 mL of distilled water and then heating until dissolved, adding more water until the total weight is 1.5 kg, after this process, medicine is added to the solution. Culinary syrup is not very different from pharmaceutical syrup, the only difference is that flavoring is added, one kind of syrup, called syrupus aromaticus is flavored by adding certain quantities of orange and cinnamon flavoring to the compound.

 

There are two different kinds of syrups when mixing drinks and such in bars, these are known as simple syrup, which is prepared the same way as abovementioned syrup without adding flavoring, and Gomme syrup, which is made with the highest sugar to water ratio possible and with an added ingredient known as Gum Arabic, or Gum Acacia, which prevents the sugar from crystallizing and adds a smooth texture to the syrup. One popular kind of syrup, known as maple syrup, is said to originate from native-americans living in the northeastern part of what is now known as North America.

 

These people claim to have been producing maple syrup and maple sugar from maple sap long before the arrival or Europeans in the region, this statement is also backed up by archaelogical evidence. Modern maple syrup is made the same way as any other syrup with the exception that the water and sugar compound is heated to temperatures way above normal which makes it possible for more sugar to bind to the water, making maple syrup super-saturated.