Sugaring is a food preservation method similar to
pickling
Pickling is the process of preserving or extending the shelf life of food by either anaerobic fermentation in brine or immersion in vinegar. The pickling procedure typically affects the food's texture and flavor. The resulting food is cal ...
. Sugaring is the process of
desiccating a food by first dehydrating it, then packing it with pure sugar. This sugar can be crystalline in the form of table or raw sugar, or it can be dense liquid saturated with sugar such as
honey
Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...
, syrup or
molasses.
Sugaring creates a hostile environment to microbial life, and is commonly used to preserve fruits as well as vegetables such as
ginger. There are also applications of sugaring for non-food preservations. For instance, honey was used as part of the
mummification
A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay furt ...
process in some ancient Egyptian rites.
A risk in sugaring is that sugar itself attracts moisture. Once a sufficient moisture level is reached, native
yeast
Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are estimated to constit ...
in the environment comes out of dormancy and begins to ferment the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide. This leads to the process of
fermentation. Although
fermentation can also be used as a food preservation method, it must be controlled, or the results could be unpleasant.
References
{{sugar
Food preservation
Sugar