The chemistry of making cotton candy
The chemistry of making cotton candy
Learn how the heating elements of the cotton candy machine act upon the granulated sugar and convert it into cotton candy.
© American Chemical Society (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
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Transcript
RICH HARTEL: Hi. I'm Rich Hartel. I'm a professor of food engineering here at the University of Wisconsin. And what we're going to do here today is make some cotton candy.
[CHEERING]
To make cotton candy, we're going to start with sugar. This is the tutti-frutti flavor of cotton candy sugar. And I'll pour into a beaker here so you can see what it looks like. But it's basically just granulated sugar with some colors and flavors on the outside of those sugar crystals.
What we're going to do is pour this sugar crystals into the center of a spinning device. So this is a cotton candy machine. And inside here are heating elements, similar to a toaster coil. That heating element, once I turn it on, is going to warm this sugar up above its melting point. So it's going to heat it above 190 degrees centigrade and turn it into a liquid.
And then there's holes on the outside of this spinning device. And the liquid inside here is going to be spun out through those holes by centrifugal force. It's going to cool down to room temperature really, really quickly. And in doing so, it's going to form into a glass.
OK. I'm going to take this cotton candy sugar and pour it into the spinning device. And now I'm going to turn the motor on.
[LAUGHTER]
Once the heater does its job and melts the sugar, then it's going to spread that liquid candy out into the cotton candy shape here.
[BELL DINGING]
So you can see that threads are starting to form as those sugar strands are being sent out through that disc shape. You can see them being collected here on the outside to collect a cone of cotton candy.
[CROWD CHATTERING]
[CHEERING]
To make cotton candy, we're going to start with sugar. This is the tutti-frutti flavor of cotton candy sugar. And I'll pour into a beaker here so you can see what it looks like. But it's basically just granulated sugar with some colors and flavors on the outside of those sugar crystals.
What we're going to do is pour this sugar crystals into the center of a spinning device. So this is a cotton candy machine. And inside here are heating elements, similar to a toaster coil. That heating element, once I turn it on, is going to warm this sugar up above its melting point. So it's going to heat it above 190 degrees centigrade and turn it into a liquid.
And then there's holes on the outside of this spinning device. And the liquid inside here is going to be spun out through those holes by centrifugal force. It's going to cool down to room temperature really, really quickly. And in doing so, it's going to form into a glass.
OK. I'm going to take this cotton candy sugar and pour it into the spinning device. And now I'm going to turn the motor on.
[LAUGHTER]
Once the heater does its job and melts the sugar, then it's going to spread that liquid candy out into the cotton candy shape here.
[BELL DINGING]
So you can see that threads are starting to form as those sugar strands are being sent out through that disc shape. You can see them being collected here on the outside to collect a cone of cotton candy.
[CROWD CHATTERING]