Corn syrup - at least the high-fructose type - is being blamed for everything from obesity to liver disease.
What is it? Corn syrup is derived from corn - not the sweet type we eat as a vegetable but the starchy varieties used as cattle feed. Through a complex process, the starch is converted into the clear liquid sweetener known as corn syrup.
What's it used for? To sweeten everything from baked products to sweets to cola drinks, and even many savoury items. Like other sweeteners such as sugar, glucose and honey, it attracts and retains moisture, so baked goods don't dry out as quickly. It's gained favour with many commercial food manufacturers because it's cheaper than sugars made from cane or beets, and it has a neutral taste, unlike honey.
How is it available? In many products in the supermarket. If you look at an ingredients label and it lists 'sweetener', it's probably corn syrup. Pure corn syrup is sold in bottles.
What else? High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is different from 'regular' corn syrup in that it's manufactured so it contains fructose and glucose (corn syrup contains only glucose). It's now believed our bodies metabolise HFCS differently than other sugars and this can lead to obesity and heart disease.
How to use: fortunately, the corn syrup sold in bottles is usually the 'regular' type, which isn't implicated in nutritional and scientific studies. Corn syrup is occasionally used by pastry chefs, usually in small amounts and almost always combined with sugar. Because it retains moisture, goods baked with corn syrup stay soft and fresh for a longer time. It can also help prevent crystallisation in mixtures with a high sugar density, such as icings and jellies. It's often used in recipes for candied fruit. This is a long process, with the fruit cooked then allowed to cool in increasingly dense sugar solutions over several days (longer with larger fruit). When it's ready, the fruit is completely saturated with sugar but retains its shape.
