Sucrose

Definition

A disaccharide of glucose and fructose. Nectar is largely sucrose; honey is largely not, because the bee-added enzyme invertase splits it during ripening. A high residual sucrose figure in finished honey suggests either immature honey or sugar feeding, which is why regulatory limits exist for it.

Where the word gets used loosely

Elevated sucrose is sometimes presented as proof of adulteration. It can equally indicate honey extracted before it was ripe, and some floral sources are naturally higher than others.

Guide records that discuss this

• How honey is madeNectar is mostly water. Honey is mostly sugar. Everything interesting about honey happens in the gap between those two sentences.
• Honey in dessertsHow much of a honey survives a dessert depends almost entirely on how hot it got and for how long. Custards keep nearly everything; cakes keep almost nothing.
• Why different bees make different honeyNectar is only the raw material. What reaches the jar has been through a specific animal's crop, enzymes, evaporation behaviour and storage vessel — and change the animal and you change the product.
• The sugars in honeyFour fifths of honey is sugar, and almost everything honey does — how sweet it tastes, whether it sets, how it behaves in a pan — follows from which sugars and in what proportion.
• The enzymes in honeyHoney is the only common food that arrives carrying the enzymes of the animal that made it. Two of them made the honey, one defends it, and all of them are read in a laboratory as a record of how it has been treated.
• Why honey tastes sweeter than sugarHoney is about 80 per cent sugar and table sugar is 100 per cent sugar, yet honey tastes sweeter spoon for spoon. The reason is fructose, and it explains several kitchen results that otherwise look like folklore.