Wednesday 1 January 2014

Sugar work

The reason I decided to write a post about sugar work is because I found the technique itself impossible. I was hoping that with a little dedicated investigation and practice that I could demystify hot sugar for myself and hopefully create a basic guide for anyone else who finds this craft complicated.



Early into my study I learned that I had been making a huge amount of mistakes in my efforts to work with caramels. Everytime I tried to melt a pot of sugar I was left with a frustrating mound of crystallisation and a destroyed pan. I spoke to the Sous Chef of La Boheme who explained that there are many things that can affect the process itself, most importantly impurities in the sugar itself or a saucepan that was not perfectly clean. You can help avoid crystallisation as a result of these things by skimming the sugar with a clean ladle fight as it is coming to boiling point. I also realised that I was not supposed to put water into the pot with the sugar when it is initially melting - this had been my mistake all along. EEJIT.




Sugar work can lend the most beautiful and elegant touch to a dish when done correctly. More and more ways of creating and designing melted sugar are always being developed but there are some basic sugar working techniques that anyone can master with practice.



The most popular techniques include the sugar cage, sugar corkscrews and spun sugar. There are variations on these methods but once the classical method is learned you can lend any type of imaginative development you wish.