Who You Calling Simple?

Saucepants – What is Simple Syrup and why is it simple?

Simple Syrup is simple because it has only two ingredients, sugar and water. More specifically, white table sugar. The majority of table sugar comes from two main sources – sugarcane, which accounts for about 65% of the world’s sugar or beets making up about 30% of the supply. Both are essentially sucrose, 99.85% sucrose to be exact.

Sucrose is an important ingredient in keeping syrup simple: It is extremely soluble, becomes more viscous than other sweeteners in a solution, the sugar will not caramelize unless heated to a moderately high temperature (340ºf – 171C) and sucrose doesn’t develop an off or aftertaste even when concentrating its flavor.

Simple Syrup is also simple in the chemical sense. The more complicated syrups - inverted syrups, like corn syrup, have an acid added to them. An acid, like cream of tartar, breaks down sucrose into two smaller sugars – glucose and fructose. The presence of glucose and fructose inhibit crystallization – nothing is wrong with crystallization, sucrose naturally bonds with itself to form orderly crystals. The only issue is when you wish to avoid sugar crystals. This, along with lower cost, is why soda makers love corn syrup. On a less industrial level, undissolved sugar at the bottom of iced tea makes for some sweet tea that isn’t so sweet.

Mostly at home, simple syrup is kept around to sweeten cocktails. Occasionally a bar professional, you know the type, they refer to themselves as mixologists a little too self-consciously, will recommend 2 parts sugar to 1 part water, arguing the more concentrated sweetness will not water down a drink. Fair enough, not the way I shake but there is nothing to argue with. Some recipes will recommend flavoring the simple syrup, vanilla, chili, ginger - these additions make for syrup-syrup, not simple syrup. Even though sugar inhibits microbial growth, sometimes even the addition of the smallest additive can cause fermentation, which you would think would be cool because we are talking about alcohol, but sometimes what inadvertently grows in a glass container isn’t potable.

To make Simple Syrup, add one 1 sugar and 1 part water in a pan, usually a cup of each is enough to keep the Saucybar stocked with Simple Syrup for weeks on end. Whisk together, bring the two ingredients to a boil, count to 10, and remove from heat. Once your newly co-joined syrup is cool store it in a clean container. Even though sugar dissolves in liquid, the heating part makes things much easier - the alternative is shaking sugar and water together for at least 10 minutes, this does bypass the need to cool the syrup down before using but 10 minutes of constant shaking requires some serious arm strength. While Saucyman may not have the Arms of Steel to pull that off, he does have a stove and a fella has to work with what he has.