Natural brown sugar, raw sugar or whole cane sugar is a sugar that retains some of the molasses from the mother liquor (partially evaporated sugarcane juice). Depending on the weight, brown cane sugar provides up to 70% white sugar when fully refined, the degree depending on the amount of molasses remaining in the sugar crystals, which depends on whether or not the brown sugar is centrifuged. [6] [7] As there is more molasses in natural brown sugar, it contains low nutritional value and low mineral content. Some natural brown sugars have certain names and properties and are sold as turbinado, demerara or raw sugar if they have been centrifuged to a large extent. Brown sugars that have only been slightly centrifuged or unrefined (non-centrifuged) retain a much higher proportion of molasses and are referred to worldwide by different names depending on the country of origin: for example. panela, rapadura, jaggery, muscovado, piloncillo, etc. For domestic purposes, one can create the equivalent of brown sugar by mixing white sugar with molasses. The appropriate proportions are about one tablespoon of molasses with each cup of sugar (one-sixteenth of the total volume). Molasses accounts for 10% of the total weight of brown sugar[3], or about one-ninth of the weight of white sugar. Due to the different properties and colors of molasses products[3] for lighter or darker sugars, reduce or increase its proportion according to your tastes.
Brown sugar adds flavor to desserts and baked goods. It can be replaced by maple sugar and maple sugar can be replaced in recipes. Brown sugar caramelizes much more easily than refined sugar, and this effect can be used to brown glazes and sauces during cooking. At the end of the 19th century. In the nineteenth century, the newly consolidated refined white sugar industry, which did not have full control over brown sugar production, launched a smear campaign against brown sugar and reproduced microscopic photos of harmless but repugnant microbes that lived in brown sugar. The efforts were so successful that around 1900, a best-selling cookbook warned that brown sugar was of inferior quality and susceptible to infestation with “a tiny insect.” [4] This disinformation campaign was also felt in other sectors where raw or brown sugar such as brewing was used. Fish sauce and brown sugar form a strong umami spine, so you crave another spoon before you even swallow your first. Brown sugar is often made by adding sugar cane molasses to fully refined white sugar crystals to more carefully control the ratio of molasses to sugar crystals and reduce manufacturing costs. Brown sugar made in this way is often much coarser than its unrefined counterpart, and its molasses can be easily separated from the crystals by simple washing to expose the underlying white sugar crystals; In contrast, washing with unrefined brown sugar reveals underlying crystals of cream color due to the inclusion of molasses. Muscovado, Panela, Piloncillo, Chancaca, Jaggery and other natural dark brown sugars have been minimally centrifuged or not at all. Typically, these sugars are produced in smaller factories or “cottage industries” in developing countries, where they are manufactured according to traditional practices that do not use vacuum evaporators or industrialized centrifuges. They are usually cooked in open pots on wood-fired ovens until the sugarcane juice reaches about 30% of the previous volume and the crystallization of sucrose begins.
They are then poured into molds to solidify, or on cooling pans, where they are beaten or vigorously treated to create a crystallized brown sugar. In some countries, such as Mauritius or the Philippines, a natural brown sugar called Muscovado is made by partially centrifuging evaporated sugarcane juice and crystallizing to create a porridge rich in sugar crystals that can flow under gravity to produce a different molasses content in the final product. This process approaches a slightly modernized practice introduced in the 19th century to produce a better quality of natural brown sugar. [7] [11] [12] [13] Molasses commonly used for food is obtained from sugar cane because the flavor is generally preferred to beet sugar molasses, although sugar beet molasses is used in some regions, particularly in Belgium and the Netherlands. The white sugar used can come from beets or sugar cane, as the chemical composition, nutritional value, color and taste of white sugar fully refined for practical purposes are the same regardless of the plant from which it comes. Even with imperfect refining, the small differences in color, smell, and taste of white sugar are obscured by molasses.