The Process of Sugar Production From Potatoes

You can make sugar from sweet potatoes.

Potatoes are starchy vegetables, and starches are compounds formed from sugars. You can soak the starch in potatoes to extract some of these sugars. George Carver described the process used for such conversion in November 1936. While both potatoes and sweet potatoes are high in starch, sweet potatoes have a higher sugar content so they are better for making sugar. Does this Spark an idea?

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Increasing Potato Sugar Content
- Certain factors can increase the sugar content of potatoes, which is composed of a combination of fructose, glucose and sucrose. Storing potatoes for longer than seven months, or at temperatures below 7 degrees Celsius, can cause the amount of sugar found in potatoes to increase, according to an article published in 1990 in "Plant Physiology."
Potato Starch
- The first step in making potato sugar is to extract the potato starch. Grate the potatoes very fine and wrap them in cheesecloth or other fine cloth. Soak this cloth filled with grated potato in water, then squeeze out as much of the water as you can, collecting the water in a container. Repeat this process until the water that comes out is clear and not milky. Allow the expressed water to sit for approximately six hours until the particles settle. These particles are the potato starch.
Potato Sugar
- To produce potato sugar, carefully pour off the water from the container into a pan, leaving behind the potato starch. Boil down the water in the pan until it reaches the consistency of a syrup. This syrup will be sweet, since the water contains dissolved sugars. It won't form into sugar crystals, so you can't use it exactly the way you would use granulated sugar. You may be able to use it in recipes similar to the way you use honey or maple syrup.
Considerations
- The potato starch left behind after creating the potato sugar can be dried and used in the same manner as corn starch, although if you used sweet potatoes to make the starch it may impart a slightly sweet taste to the items you use it in. Use the grated potatoes in soups or for potato pancakes to avoid wasting anything during the sugar-making process.