Sugar

Name Variations

 * Regular sugar
 * fine granulated sugar
 * table sugar
 * standard granulated sugar
 * extra-fine granulated sugar

About Sugar


In general use, English-speakers understand sugar as referring to sucrose (also called "table sugar" or saccharose), a disaccharide in white crystalline solid form. It has become the most commonly-used sweetener for altering the flavor and properties (such as mouthfeel, preservation, and texture) of food and drinks. Sugar-producers commonly extract commercially-available table sugar either from sugar cane or from sugar beet.

The "simple" sugars, or monosaccharides, such as glucose, provide a store of energy which biological cells tap.

Any word on packaged foodstuffs' ingredient lists that ends with "-ose" may denote some sort of chemical sugar.

For information on other sugars, see monosaccharide and disaccharide.

In precise culinary terms, sugar consists of a type of food associated with one of the primary taste sensations, that of sweetness.