Molasses

Molasses is a thick, dark, and sweet liquid that is the by-product of producing crystalized sugar. While it can be made from sugar beets, grapes, sorghum, and other plant products, it most often is made from sugarcane. Molasses was a common sweetener in colonial America. It is still used in a number of cakes and cookies, and it is partly responsible for the characteristic taste and texture of gingerbread. Molasses can also be used as a component in animal feed and to produce the fuel product known as ethyl alcohol. It is also a key ingredient in rum.

Background

The word molasses comes from an old Latin word mel, which means "honey." This became the Latin mellacium, which changed to melaco when it moved to the Portuguese language. In the sixteenth century, when the Portuguese carried the thick substance around the world during the Age of Exploration, its name became molasses. The name refers to its honey-like texture and sweetness.

The recorded history of molasses begins in the late fifteenth century, when Italian explorer Christopher Columbus carried sugarcane to the West Indies. Although the sugar produced from the sugarcane was highly prized, molasses, the by-product of sugar production, quickly became another important commodity, valued for its sweetness and stability in storage.

The production of molasses usually begins with sugarcane. Sugarcane is a plant that grows in tropical and subtropical climates with ample sun and water. The plants can reach harvesting maturity in six to twenty-four months, at which point the canes are cut down. New plants can regrow from the roots. This can happen many times before the plant is worn out and must be replaced.

Once it is harvested, the sugarcane is taken to a factory where it is processed. The canes are crushed to extract the juice inside. The fibrous part of the plant is sent to be burned, often to fuel part of the production plant, while the juice is sent to be strained and skimmed to remove field dirt and other impurities. This is often done with the aid of slaked lime, which helps the dirt and other undesirable debris to settle to the bottom of the large tanks where the cane juice is processed.

Once the dirt is removed, the cane juice is treated with steam to evaporate most of the liquid. The next step is to boil the syrupy juice to help it form sugar crystals. After the juice has produced all the crystals it can, the crystals and remaining liquid are spun in a centrifuge, a special piece of equipment that uses centrifugal force to separate the crystals and the liquids. The juice is now a mixture of raw sugar and molasses. The final step in the process separates the molasses from the white sugar crystals, and each becomes a separate form of sweetener. Molasses can then be boiled a third time, which results in blackstrap molasses. The process of producing sugar, molasses, and blackstrap molasses is similar whether the raw material used is sugarcane, sugar beets, or some other plant material.

In the past, there was not always a market for molasses. During the seventeenth century, there was an increase in the demand for sugar, but no corresponding increase in the demand for molasses. This left sugar makers with an abundance of molasses and no practical way to dispose of it short of dumping it into the ocean. Eventually, someone discovered a way to ferment the molasses. The result was the alcoholic beverage known as rum. At first, this new drink did not taste very good. Over time, people found ways to improve it. Soon, sugar producers could obtain three products—sugar, molasses, and rum—from one crop.

Overview

While molasses is the by-product of sugar production, it has some advantages over refined white sugar. During the refining process, many of the nutrients present in the raw sugarcane end up in the molasses. These include several vitamins and some minerals, such as calcium, magnesium, and potassium. Molasses also contains antioxidants, or substances that help prevent damage at the cellular level. Although molasses is high in calories, it provides more nutrition for those calories than other sugars. The darker the molasses, the more nutrients it has. This means that blackstrap molasses has more nutrients than other forms of molasses.

Historically, molasses was more available to common people than refined white sugar, which was often too expensive for anyone but the wealthy. As a result, molasses was used in many favorite foods in Europe and the American colonies, including gingerbreads and other cookies, mince and pumpkin pies, baked beans, and other regional treats. It was also made into candy, such toffee. Molasses was incorporated into savory dishes as well, serving as part of the coating for baked hams and other pork dishes. It was added to some drinks as a sweetener too.

Interestingly, molasses has been part of some serious historical events. The Molasses Act of 1733 was a tax imposed on the import of sugar and molasses coming into the American colonies. Many historians believe this helped to incite the colonists to take up arms in the American Revolution (1775–1783).

In January of 1919, a molasses tank ruptured in a processing plant on Commercial Street in the North End of Boston, Massachusetts, spilling two and a half million gallons of steaming hot molasses out into the city. An eight-foot wall of molasses rushed down the street and poured into nearby cellars, killing twenty-one people and dozens of horses. Buildings and the elevated train supports were knocked down, and many people were burned or injured because of the spill, which took weeks to clean up. In contemporary times, an accidental spill of hundreds of thousands of gallons of molasses near Honolulu, Hawaii, in September of 2013 killed thousands of fish. The molasses sank to the bottom of the ocean, carrying the trapped fish with it.

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