Rescues · TO GLAZE
Black, bitter patches.
Why it happens
Applied too early. Sugar carbonises well below roasting temperature, so a glaze needs the last few minutes, not the first hour.
Recovering it
A thin glaze is simply reduced further, which is the fix and the technique in one. Burnt glaze is bitter and should be scraped off if it is on the surface only. A glaze that has set too hard can be loosened with a spoonful of warm water and a little butter over low heat. None of these are difficult, which is why the only failure worth real caution is applying it too early.
The mechanism
A glaze works because sugar concentrates as water leaves, and concentrated sugar syrup is viscous and sticky. Applied to a hot surface, the remaining water flashes off and what is left clings rather than runs. The timing constraint is the whole technique: sugars begin to caramelise around 160°C and carbonise not far above, so a glaze applied at the start of a long cook is black long before the food is done. It goes on at the end, and usually in thin successive coats, because each coat dries and the next has something to grip. In a pan glaze — vegetables finished in butter, stock and sugar — the same thing happens in miniature as the liquid reduces to a syrup that coats each piece. Fat in the glaze keeps it glossy and stops it setting hard as it cools.
The full TO GLAZE lesson — how to tell, where to practise it, what it carries to.