Palm sugar

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Palm sugar from Thailand, made up as cakes

Palm sugar (outdated also Jagara or Jagre ) is a type of sugar that is obtained from the bleeding sap by boiling and crystallization, primarily from the inflorescences of various types of palm. If it is made from the juice of the coconut palm , it is also called coconut sugar or coconut blossom sugar . Palm sugar is less sweet than ordinary table sugar and has a slightly malty or caramel-like flavor. The main ingredient is sucrose . Palm sugar has a low glycemic index at around 40 .

Origin and history

Palm sugar is obtained mainly in Southeast Asia, but also in India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Africa, South America and the Caribbean from various palm species , including nipa palm ( Nypa fruticans ), sugar palm ( Arenga pinnata ), palmyra palm ( Borassus flabellifer ), silver date palm ( Phoenix sylvestris), sago palm ( Methroxylon sagu ) and coconut palm ( Cocos nucifera ).

The bleeding juice from sugar palm was very popular as a drink during colonial times in Indonesia , especially when it was lightly fermented, and known as Sagueer, Saguweer, Saguwaar , Sagero or Zachwehr (ind. Tuak , laying ).

Sugar-containing juice is extracted from the Canary Island date palm ( Phoenix canariensis ) and processed into syrup, but no palm sugar is made from it. On La Gomera, for example, the Canary Island date palm syrup has been known as "palm honey " (Miel de Palma) since the 16th century . The juice of other palm species is also sugary. So already introduced Pliny established in ancient times that the juice that one of the after knocking off the top Wedel European fan palm ( Chamaerops humilis ) wins, taste sweet.

Manufacturing

The sugary sap (nectar) of the palm trees is obtained from the ripe inflorescences by cutting and collecting it in containers. The juice must now be processed quickly, otherwise a natural fermentation process will start quickly . Palm juice contains up to 15% sugar and can also be fermented into palm wine or palm vinegar . After sifting solid parts of the plant and other foreign matter, the palm sap is first boiled down to a syrup . This is then further heated in an open pan while stirring and beating until crystallization begins. The still hot mass is filled into flat molds (e.g. coconut shells) or bamboo tubes to cool down and solidify.

use

Like cane sugar, palm sugar is used to sweeten food and drinks. Before use, the hard cakes or cylinders must be crushed by beating or rubbing. Alleged healing effects from the consumption of palm or coconut sugar have not been proven.

Individual evidence

  1. Hartmut Hoffmann, Werner Mauch, Werner Untze: Sugar and sugar products . Behr's Verlag, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-86022-937-0 , p. 42.43 .
  2. ^ Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon, Volume 15. Leipzig 1908, p. 345
  3. ^ Ernst Christoph Barchewitz : travel description 1751, Liber II, Cap. XXXII-XXXIII
  4. Pliny XIII, 54
  5. Andreas Bärtels. Tropical plants. Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-8001-3937-5 , p. 37

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