Cooking with sugar is criminally underrated. It’s just not done enough and the main reason why is because most people just don’t even know that they can cook with sugar.
Most commonly used as a sweetener for cereal and beverages, sugar is just as comfortable is your pots and pans as it is in your tea cups and cereal bowls- and not just as a sweetener.
Sugar gives your meals bulk, consistency and structure. It is also a pretty useful preservative and helps your food last longer.
The more you know about the benefits of cooking with sugar, the more in love you will fall with it and we’re here to help.
Below is a list of 6 fantastic recipes that are better with Sugar:
Boiled Yam
Have you ever had a “where have you been my whole life” moment? If not, you are sure to have one after you’ve had some sugar-sweetened yam.
The next time you have a pot of yam boiling on the stove, drop in a few cubes or sprinkle in a handful of granules.
The result will be sweet and soft yam that you will simply not be able to get enough of.
French Toast
World French Toast Day is this month- on the 28th, to be exact- and you should celebrate it by whipping up a delicious batch.
French Toast can be made without sugar, but it’s way tastier with it. Add sugar-to-taste to your French toast batter and let your bread slices soak in it before laying it in your frying pan.
Your toast will turn out golden-brown, soft and sweet.
Spaghetti Sauce
Tomatoes are quite acidic, so adding a bit of sugar has, for a long time, been a way to neutralize said acidity. But mostly, it is done for the taste.
For the uninitiated, sweet and spicy spaghetti sauce will be a flavorfully pleasant surprise.
The amount of sugar you put into your sauce depends entirely on you. To ensure that it does not turn out too sweet, sprinkle in a little sugar a time, stir and taste.
Keep doing this till your sauce has attained the perfect sweetness.
Sugar Salad
Sometimes, eating leafy salads can seem like a chore- especially when the vegetables are not particularly tasty.
A sprinkle of sugar, however, can make your bland salad more palatable.
What you want to do is sprinkle it into a mixture of vinegar and soya oil. Then, pour the mixture into your salad and toss it properly.
Beef Steaks
You can’t just snap your fingers and make a steak appear on your plate. You’ve got to cut the steak, marinate it, then grill, fry or boil it.
So, after all, that is done, you want to enjoy a juicy, soft steak, not a dry, chewy one and that is where sugar helps.
Sugar gives your steak the needed tenderness so your teeth slice right through it. There are two ways to sugar your steaks.
You could create a sweet and spicy rub made up of sugar, salt and your preferred spices, then coat your steak in it.
Alternatively, you could create an oil-based marinade and let your steak soak in it for a while.
Sweet Boiled Corn
First, the case must be made for why you should boil your own corn as opposed to buying it by the roadside.
Roadside corn sellers are unregulated and they do not adhere to any hygiene guidelines.
In your own kitchen, you can prepare or supervise the preparation of your corn to ensure it is washed properly and boiled in a clean pot with clean water.
With hygiene taken care of, you can focus on taste and that’s where sugar comes in. Put in as much as you need to satisfy your sweet tooth.
More and more people are warming up to the idea of cooking with sugar.
So, the next time you taste a meal and think yourself “This food sweet o. E be like say sugar dey am”, you just might be right.
