Volcanic Sugar

It's just about that time to get out, refresh and start using the mothing sugar. So, I set about the annual routine which I fully expected would take less than an hour and give me time to update the records database / blog.

500ml of some obscure cheap 'strong brown ale' from the Co-op went into the pan and brought to the boil. So far so good. Then in went 500g of the cheapest darkest unrefined molasses sugar I could find. Still going good. Then in went the unused contents of 3 jars of sugar from last year. In fact, within this mix is the sugar from the year before that etc etc. It's a perpetual recycling event - whether it works is another matter of course. Still looking good, and I left the pan on a very low heat to ensure all sugar dissolved and old/new sugary mixes nicely amalgamated.

'Whilst that's on, I'll just nip to the garden and put this box that the sugar came in and the beer bottle in the recycling bins' I thought.

It must have been only 30 seconds, but when I returned to the kitchen there was a brown syrup volcano erupting from the pan all over the built in hob and flowing down the front of the oven onto the floor and under the kick board. Christ all-fecking mighty!

The sugar is actually pretty easy to clean up - from a nicely accessible surface. However it took me a good hour and a half to return the area to the pre-event condition. I did think about grabbing a couple of photos before cleaning up to illustrate - but the look on Nichola's face suggested this would be a bad idea ......