Molasses is a thick, sweet, sticky syrup. It is yellowish or dark brown. Molasses is used for brewing, cooking, candymaking, and distilling alcohol, and as a livestock feed.
Most molasses is obtained as a by-product in the manufacture of sugar from sugar cane. Therefore, countries that grow sugar cane produce most of the world’s molasses (see Sugar cane ). In the United States, Florida and Hawaii are centers of molasses production.
Molasses is the liquid that remains after sugar crystals are removed from concentrated cane juice. Molasses may be made by the open kettle method or by the vacuum pan method. In the open kettle method, the cane juice is boiled in a large open pan. After it has been boiled several times, most of the water evaporates. The syrup that remains receives additional boiling until it becomes a stiff mass of syrup and crystals called massecuite. The massecuite is placed in barrels with tiny holes in the bottom. The molasses seeps through these holes, leaving sugar crystals inside the barrels.
Large sugar factories generally use the vacuum pan method, in which the massecuite is boiled in large, covered vacuum pans. After being boiled several times, it is thoroughly stirred in a mixer. The mixture is then spun in rotating containers called centrifuges. The centrifuges have walls of fine copper mesh that permit the molasses to pass through but hold the sugar crystals.
Further boiling of the molasses produces varying grades. The molasses left after several boilings is called blackstrap. It is used in fertilizer and is commonly mixed with hay to serve as feed for farm animals. The distillation of molasses produces ethyl alcohol, which is used in the chemical industry and as a combustion fuel. Molasses is also distilled to make rum.
