whimsical shapes, hidden pockets of hissing gas, and burningly excessive doses of acidity or spice In the kitchen, sugar is a versatile ingredient Because sweetness is one of a small handful of basic taste sensations, cooks add sugar to dishes of all kinds to fill out and balance their flavor Sugar interferes usefully with the coagulation of proteins, and so tenderizes the gluten network of baked goods and the albumen network of custards and creams If we heat sugar enough to break its molecules apart, it generates both appealing colors and an increasing complexity of flavor: no longer just sweetness, but acidity, bitterness, and a full, rich aroma And sugar is a sculptural material Provide it with some moisture and high heat, and we can coax from it a broad range of shapeable consistencies, creamy and chewy and brittle and rock hard The story of sugar is not all sweetness and light Its appeal was a destructive force in the history of Africa and the Americas, whose peoples were enslaved to satisfy the European hunger for it And today, by displacing more nourishing foods from our diet, sugar contributes indirectly to several modern diseases of affluence Like most good things in life, it’s best enjoyed in moderation And like that other good thing, fat, it’s easy to consume a lot of sugar in manufactured foods without realizing it Chocolate, the cooked, sculptable paste of a South American tree seed, has been married to sugar ever since its arrival in Europe nearly 500 years ago, and is in some respects sugar’s complement Where sugar is a single molecule purified from complex plant fluids, chocolate is a mixture of hundreds of different molecules produced by fermenting and roasting a plain bland seed It’s one of the most complex flavors we experience, and yet it lacks and is completed by basic, simple sweetness ... chocolate is a mixture of hundreds of different molecules produced by fermenting and roasting a plain bland seed It’s one of the most complex flavors we experience, and yet it lacks and is completed by basic, simple... contributes indirectly to several modern diseases of affluence Like most good things in life, it’s best enjoyed in moderation And like that other good thing, fat, it’s easy to consume a lot of sugar in manufactured foods without realizing it...history of Africa and the Americas, whose peoples were enslaved to satisfy the European hunger for it And today, by displacing more nourishing foods from our diet, sugar contributes indirectly to several modern