Dictionary Definition
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Verb
sugared- past of sugar
Adjective
- Of food or drink, containing sugar.
- Kellogg's Frosted Flakes® is a sugared breakfast food.
Derived terms
Extensive Definition
Sugaring is a food preservation method similar to
pickling. Sugaring is
the process of desiccating
a food by first dehydrating it, then packing it with pure sugar.
This sugar can be crystalline in the form of table or raw sugar, or
it can be a high sugar density liquid such as honey, syrup or molasses.
The purpose of sugaring is to create an
environment hostile to microbial life and prevent food spoilage.
Sugaring is commonly used to preserve fruits as well as vegetables
such as ginger. From time
to time sugaring has also been used for non-food preservations. For
example, honey was used as part of the mummification process in some
ancient Egyptian rites.
A risk in sugaring is that sugar itself attracts
moisture. Once a sufficient moisture level is reached, native yeast
in the environment will come out of dormancy and begin to ferment
the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide. This leads to the
process of fermentation.
Although fermentation
can be used as a food preservation method, it must be intentionally
controlled, or the results will tend to be unpleasant.
Sugaring also describes the following processes:
- The collection and production of maple syrup.
- Hair removal using a sticky paste (see "sugaring (epilation)").