Treacle

Creep of polymers is a major design problem. The glass temperature Tq, for a polymer, is a criterion of creep-resistance, in much the way that is for a metal or a ceramic. For most polymers, is close to room temperature. Well below Tq, the polymer is a glass (often containing crystalline regions - Chapter 5) and is a brittle, elastic solid -rubber, cooled in liquid nitrogen, is an example. Above Tq the Van der Waals bonds within the polymer melt, and it becomes a rubber (if the polymer chains are cross-linked) or a viscous liquid (if they are not). Thermoplastics, which can be moulded when hot, are a simple example well below Tq they are elastic well above, they are viscous liquids, and flow like treacle. 

If the spring and weight had been immersed in oil or treacle, a viscous reaction would have been opposed to the motion, but since this is proportional to the velocity, it can be made as small as we please by executing the process very slowly and vanishes in the limit. Viscous reactions do not, therefore, prevent a system from existing in a state of true equilibrium provided all changes are made infinitely slowly they merely retard change, and the retardation vanishes in the limit. 

Molasses (Treacle). There are several types of molasses, differing as to method of prepn and source whether from beet root or cane sugar. 

Gustafson 1956). The essential differences between skin and leather are in their stability in damp and humid environments when damp or humid for extended periods of time, even at ambient temperatures, skin is gradually hydrolyzed into a viscous treacle leather remains practically unaltered even after prolonged immersion in boiling water (Stambolov 1969). 

Setting retarder Extending workability time Sugar, treacle, fruit syrup, blood, egg white, gluten... 

Firmer Increasing firmness Treacle, fruit syrup, fats, oils... 

Molasses are the product left when no more sugar can be extracted. Beet sugar molasses are unpleasant in taste and are not normally used for human food. Cane sugar molasses do have some food use, normally in the form of treacle, which is clarified molasses. The ratio of sugar to invert sugar in treacle can be altered to some extent to assist product formulation. In practice different sugar syrups are blended with the molasses to give the desired product. Treacle is normally stored at 50°C to maintain liquidity. 

Rut give it to the clod, lo the self-indulgent, to the blase—to the average man, in a word—and he is lost. He flays, and his logic is perfect This is what 1 want. He knows not, neither can he know, the true path and the false path is the only one for him. There is cocaine at his need, and he takes it again and again. The Contrast between his grub life and his butterfly life is too bitter for his unphilosophic soul to bear he refuses to take the brimstone with the treacle,... 

Griffin JP. Venetian treacle and the foundation of medicines regulation. Br J Clin Pharmacol 2004 58 317-25. 

There are numerous examples where food extensional properties are relevant from the product quality perspective - some obvious examples include the extensibility of doughs, stretching of Mozzarella or Pizza cheese melts, extrusion-cooking of cereals, flow of honey and treacle. Overall, dough products have received the most attention. The importance of extensional viscosity in food processing has been reviewed by Escher (44 and references therein). 

Liquorice is a slightly unusual example of a starch gel instead of separating the starch, wheat flour is used directly. It is also a product where brown sugars and treacle are used. Liquorice paste is typically made from treacle, wheat flour, liquorice extract and caramel. Caramel in this context means the brown colour produced from sugar and not a form of toffee. Industrial caramel is made by the action of ammonium hydroxide on a carbohydrate, typically glucose syrup. The resulting product is not well defined chemically, and for this reason its use is recommended to be limited to 0.2% maximum. 

You may have heard the expression as slow as molasses in February (or was it January ), referring to the fact that this byproduct of refining sugar (called treacle... 

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