Skip to main content
Dessert

Extracting the Sugar

A method for extracting sugar from sliced beets using hot water and heat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Extracting the Sugar

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the beets and place them in a barrel.

  2. Cover the slices with hot water, ensuring no excess water is present.

Soak and strain

  1. Cover the barrel with several layers of canvas to retain heat.

  2. Soak the beets for 60 minutes, agitating the barrel occasionally without uncovering it.

  3. Draw off the liquid and strain it through cheesecloth.

Concentrate

  1. Heat the juice in a kettle slowly until it evaporates to the desired consistency.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Beets
Source of sugar-rich juice that is extracted into the hot water.
Hot water
Dissolves the sugars from the beet slices so they can be drawn off as liquid.

The step that matters

Heat the juice slowly. Sugar darkens and can caramelize or scorch if overheated, so gentle, slow heating keeps the juice light in color and flavor while water evaporates.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

White CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesSpice CakeSpice Cake344 recipes