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The Great Molasses Flood

Horrifying History
Horrifying History
Episode • Jan 24, 2024 • 24m

There are many types of of sweetener that a person can choose from. Some come in granular form like sugar, while others come in a syrup form like corn syrup. Another is molasses which is considered to be a liquid sugar that contains sucrose, and small amounts of fructose and glucose. It isn’t sweet like refined sugar, and is usually thicker and stickier than other liquid based sweeteners.

Molasses is the ingredient that makes brown sugar brown, and gives its flavour and moisture. It is also used to give moisture and consistency to many different bakery items like cookies, gingerbread, and pies. It gives thickness to baked beans, and sauces, and it is also used in distilling rum. It used to be the primary sweetener used until refined sugar pushed it towards the back of people’s cupboards. In the year 1919; molasses was everywhere.

But in Boston, Massachusetts in the United States; saying that molasses was everywhere is an understatement. It is because of molasses that twenty one individuals died, and an additional one hundred and fifty were injured in a disaster that is still spoken about today.

So get comfortable my spooky friends…you are about to hear the tale of the Great Molasses Flood.

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