sugar-sources-msg - 3/5/17 Modern sugar sources. Types of sugar. NOTE: See also the files: Roses-a-Sugar-art, sugar-paste-msg, honey-msg, Sugarplums-art, candy-msg, carob-msg, sugar-msg. KEYWORDS: sugar cost refining medieval honey turbinado brown molasses sugarcane period history ************************************************************************ NOTICE - This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday. This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter. The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors. Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s). Thank you, Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous Stefan at florilegium.org ************************************************************************ Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 04:24:21 EST From: CorwynWdwd at aol.com Subject: Re: SC - sugar raspings Stefan, Dunno where you are right off the top of my head, but considering your address, you MIGHT try a hispanic market. Believe it or not, cone suger is still available there. I honestly don't know if it's exactly like the Medieval product. It's dark, but it is molded into the cone shape that sugar loafs have always LOOKED like. Check it out and see if this is a reasonable substitute. Corwyn Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 08:01:07 -0600 (CST) From: alysk at ix.netcom.com (Elise Fleming) Subject: SC - Re: sugar raspings Greetings! Stefan wrote: >I would assume these are slivers of sugar sliced from a sugar cone. >Or would these just be large particles rather than slivers? "Rasping" is the clue. Rasping involves a grater-like tool rather than a knife, although a serrated knife might work. >What is the best modern source? Just use granulated sugar? Make >a sugar syrup and dry into a block of sugar and then shave slivers >off with a peeler or grater of some sort? Or is there a ready-made >suger confection, such as for cake decorations, that would approximate >this? You could probably get by with just granulated sugar. You might want to try "turbinado" sugar which has larger crystals, or a mixture of both. Modern sugar cones (which I found in a German import shop here in Cleveland) would produce a "fine-ish" crystal if it were rasped, but I suspect that as one "rasped" the cone, larger chunks might fall off. The question would be...Would the cook then select the smaller crystals to put on the food, picking out the larger chunks or perhaps smashing them down, or would they be going for a larger-crystal size? Alys Katharine Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 19:34:07 +0000 From: Gilly Subject: Re: SC - sugar raspings At 01:12 15-2-98 -0600, Stefan li Rous wrote: >What is the best modern source? Just use granulated sugar? Make >a sugar syrup and dry into a block of sugar and then shave slivers >off with a peeler or grater of some sort? Or is there a ready-made >suger confection, such as for cake decorations, that would approximate >this? Cones of sugar can be purchased at Colonial Williamsburg. No idea if they do any sort of mail-order business, though. Alasdair mac Iain Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 15:57:29 EST From: Varju at aol.com Subject: Re: SC - sugar raspings A mail order source for cone sugar is : Jas. Townsend &sin, Inc. P.O. Box 415 Pierceton, NJ 46562 1-219-594-5852 --Information 1-800-338-1665-- orders Cone sugar : Catalog number SG-953 $2.50 a 7 oz cone of natural brown sugar. All this information is from the most recent catalog so it should all be correct. Noemi Date: Fri, 27 Feb 98 10:19:34 -0600 From: rudin at okway.okstate.edu Subject: SC - Grating Sugar I am woefully behind on reading the list postings so forgive me if someone has mentioned this already. I just got the latest King Arthur Flour catalog. They are selling small cones of unrefined sugar from Mexico that, IIRC, they are calling piloncillos. (Of course, I left the catalog at home this morning!) The piture looks like brown sugar but the description simply says "unrefined" sugar. I was wondering if these might be comparable to the cones of sugar used in the MA. The catalog actually specifies that this is meant to be grated and they even sell a little grater to do it with. I can post more info on Monday if anyone is interested or call them at 800-827-6836 or visit their web page at http://home.kingarthurflour.com [King Arthur Flour Company PO Box 1010 Rt. 5 South Norwich, VT 05055 1-800-827-6836] I don't have any affiliation with them (unless lusting after several things in their catalog counts!) I just thought the sugar cones were interesting. Mercedes rudin at okway.okstate.edu Date: Sun, 14 Jun 1998 13:35:58 EDT From: THLRenata at aol.com Subject: Re: SC - Redheads (actually re: sugar) Katja writes: >>Seriously, I thought I'd found a reasonable facsimile of cone sugar in the King Arthur Flour catalogue, but it's compressed raw sugar. The local cooking laurel here, Mistress Michaele del Vaga, told me that the sugar would have been refined, in keeping with the medieval noble's desire to have everything pure and white (such as flour). I'm wondering how they refined it in period. Any comments?<< Cone sugar can usually be found in the Latin or Hispanic section of the supermarket (if your local store has one) under the name piloncillo. It smells and tastes like browm sugar but is very, very hard. I mostly use it for demos, and have to break the cones with a hammer to pass out pieces. While I've been too lazy to refine it into white sugar myself (so far) I would think that to do so one must melt it -- without added additional liquid (very tricky -- use a pot with a very heavy bottom and stir the sugar constantly until it liquidfies) and then bring it to a boil and remove the resulting scum that rises to the top. Then continue boiling until the whole batch re- crystalizes -- pour it into a pan *before* it sets in your pot. When it cools, chip off pieces and grind them to the desired constancy in a mortar. Elizabethan recipes I've seen say to boil and scum the sugar, then go on with the recipe, thereby avoiding the setting phase of the refining operation. Warning -- be very careful with hot sugar! If it splashes on you it is like napalm -- it sticks and causes terrible burns. Likewise, try to keep it off your stovetop, where it will harden to a rock-like consistancy that won't scrub or even chip off! Renata Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 08:57:12 -0400 From: "Alma Johnson" Subject: Re: SC - Sugar Questions >I've taken blake sugre to mean an unrefined sugar, similar to Mexican pilon >or piloncillo or panela (which are produced by boiling down sugar cane >juice in an iron kettle> For piloncillo without the flies, the Baker's Catalog from King Arthur Flour is the place to go. They can be reached at 1-800-827-6836 or at http://www.kingarthurflour.com . Rhiannon Cathaoir-mor Date: Mon, 6 Jul 1998 07:36:24 EDT From: Balano1 at aol.com Subject: SC - Sugar Questions Turbinado and muscovado sugars are less refined sugars and are sometimes sold as 'raw sugar'. They usually have a larger crystal than the more processed sugars and have a decidedly molasses-ey taste. I have seen them in most of the markets where we've lived around the US. You can sometimes find the little brown packets of raw sugar with the white sugar and chemical sweeteners when you order coffee or tea out. - Sister Mary Endoline Date: Mon, 6 Jul 1998 09:21:05 -0500 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - Re: Sugar Questions "Black sugar" is the result of the first boiling and skimming of juice from the crushed cane. The product is a molasses laden sugar which resembles fudge. This is next to impossible to find in the US. Muscovado is sugar which is more refined, but still retains some molasses. The derivation of the word is confusing. It is either Portuguese or Spanish. The Portuguese derivation would mean "less refined" or "impure". The Spanish derivation would mean "more refined." Turbinado is raw sugar which has not been refined to pure white, but from which the molasses has been removed. Mucovado and turbinado are both used as marketing terms rather than true descriptions, so the actual product may vary. Originally, white sugar was all that was imported into Europe. By the 15th Century, the wily Venetians were importing "black sugar" and refining it, so they could pocket the refiner's profits. This suggests that the less refined sugars would be more available in later period cooking than in earlier period cooking with exceptions for sugar producing regions. Bear From: EAM Newsgroups: rec.org.sca Subject: Re: Sugar in period/SCA Date: 22 Oct 1998 20:14:19 GMT Organization: Serendib Polymathics Craig Levin, clevin at ripco.com writes: >the product could be either like brown >sugar, turbinado, or white sugar. Brown, naturally, was cheaper >than the others. It came in "loaves." I've seen _modern_ sugar >loaves made from brown suar, and they're kind of neat. More like >cones the size of an ice cream cone than like loaves of bread, >IMO. More than you ever wanted to know about sugar, from someone who does extensive late-period cookery and used to live just around a river bend from the C&H plant: Brown sugar, as we know it now, isn't like 'brown sugar' in period. The stuff you get in boxes and bags at the grocery store is ordinary, modern, white, granulated sugar, with a portion of the molasses added back for color, texture, and flavor. This is why it's vaguely moist and packs into the measuring cup. Period brown sugar would have been more on the order of the brown sugar cones you can buy in Mexican markets called 'piloncillo' (or less- polite things related to the cones' perceived resemblance to male sexual organs). These really are unrefined sugar, with all the molasses left in, and the form hasn't changed much in centuries. They're not typically very big, ranging from about 2"/ 5 cm to 4"/ 10 cm high, and are about 1"/ 2.5 cm across the base, and the texture is about what you'd expect for solidified cooked-down cane juice, fairly hard and uniform. Turbinado sugar is partially refined (in centrifuges, hence the name) and usually coarsely granulated. Raw sugar in the markets is a similar end product, but is usually made by a different process. (Truly raw sugar, made directly from the cane juice, is awfully hard to find outside of piloncillo, although it does occur as a particularly snooty kind of British coffee sugar.) These sorts of products have a portion of the molasses left in, and are therefore light brown in color (or 'blond' as one manufacture advertizes it); the health- food crowd makes much of the fact that there are some vitamins and minerals in the molasses that are therefore present in turbinado/ raw sugar and absent in white sugar. It's tempting to think that period sugar would have resembled raw sugar, since it's deliberately 'more natural' that white sugar, but at least some of it didn't. Receipts for sugar- based illusion foods specify 'the whitest and best' sugar to make simulated plates and glassware from what we would now call gum paste. These recipes clearly expect that the sugar is actually _white_, and appearance is more important than taste in these applications. White sugar is pure or nearly pure sucrose, with every trace of molasses removed. In period (well, late- and post- period, which is all I'm really familiar with), it came in cones like modern piloncillo, only perhaps a bit larger (up to 6"/ 15 cm high and 4"/ 10 cm across the base). The cook crushed bits of the cone or scraped it to get something pretty much resembling modern granulated sugar. Colonial Williamsburg used to sell cone sugar, wrapped in the traditional blue paper, since the form continued through their period and later, and you can see representations of them (with and without the blue wrapping) as charges on some guild and wealthy- Victorian- grocer heraldry, or hanging outside very old grocery shops as signs. You can get lumps of white sugar, very similar in texture to the Williamsburg cones and that are intended for tea and coffee, at your friendly neighborhood gourmet store; the brand I buy has a parrot on the label (and I believe is called 'Perrico', which is Spanish for parrot...). Molasses is the liquid part that is separated out from the solid sugar in the manufacture; it can be fairly light (close to the original cane juice, just cooked down) to 'blackstrap', which is what's left after you've cooked and squeezed every bit of sucrose you can out of the original juice. Such vitamins and minerals as are in cane juice (not a lot, anyway) stay in the molasses or are broken down by the heat. If you live in or mail order from Louisiana, you can get 'cane syrup', which is cane juice boiled down but otherwise un- messed- with, and is wonderful stuff. (British 'golden syrup' is similar, but not in the same league, taste- wise, since I believe these days they add corn syrup for density.) -- Elizabeth From: EAM Newsgroups: rec.org.sca Subject: Re: Sugar in period/SCA Date: 23 Oct 1998 03:49:24 GMT Organization: Serendib Polymathics Daniel W. Butler-Ehle, dwbutler at mtu.edu writes: >British "demerara >sugar" is also available from such sources, but again I don't >know what's special about it (or if it would be of any interest >to medievalists). The Demerara sugar I've had was pretty much like turbinado sugar, except maybe a little more golden. Nice stuff, but not worth paying extra over, say, Hain. The Demerara is a river in Guyana, whence this sugar originally came. -- Elizabeth Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1999 08:50:43 -0000 From: "=?iso-8859-1?Q?Nanna_R=F6gnvaldard=F3ttir?=" Subject: Re: SC - SC: Castor Sugar Adamantius wrote: >I've heard it said that caster sugar is named for the fact that it could >be cast (i.e. sprinkled from a gizmo like a salt shaker) on things like >fritters, doughnuts, that kind of thing. That gizmo is in fact called a castor. - Castor or caster sugar is somewhat coarser than icing sugar (confectioner´s sugar) and my sources say the nearest American equivalent to castor sugar is superfine sugar. Larousse says that in Britain castor sugar is mostly boiled to a small crystal size, not crushed or ground. Nanna Date: Thu, 06 Jul 2006 07:37:41 -0700 From: Susan Fox Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Sugars To: Cooks within the SCA Debra Hense/Kateryn de Develyn wrote: > I found the following two sugars in my SuperTarget store. Maybe > they are in one near you too. > Billington's: Dark Brown Molasses Sugar and Light Brown Muscovado Sugar > I found them in the sugar/flour baking supplies section. For a > pound they run about two dollars less than Williams-Sonoma. > I like both for their flavor. When working with a medieval recipe > calling for black sugar - I use the dark brown molasses sugar. > When calling just for sugar - I tend to use the light brown > muscovado sugar. > You should try them in your recipes instead of plain white. It > adds a whole new level of flavor. > Kateryn de Develyn Oh yes, great stuff! In parts of the US where Latin American products are sold, they offer "piloncillo", Mexican cone sugar, made in the same way as hundreds of years ago. I use it in cooking and sometimes place it on the table with a grater so diners may "strew with sugar" to their own taste. http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/piloncillomexicansugar.htm Selene Date: Thu, 6 Jul 2006 11:27:22 -0700 (PDT) From: Tom Vincent Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Sugars To: Cooks within the SCA Here's a great summary of the various types of sugar: http://www.foodsubs.com/Sweeten.html I also love a good coffee sugar for the exotic look it gives a dish when sprinkled on top. There's a new variety called GemSugar -- that is sugar colored with herbs -- which sounds intriguing. Sort of like all the salt varieties that were introduced a few years ago (red, black, every variety of sea salt, etc.). Duriel Date: Mon, 7 Aug 2006 16:59:47 -0500 From: "Terry Decker" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] powdered sugar question take 2 To: , "Cooks within the SCA" > I am curious as to what the grain size of medieval powdered sugar would > be...would it be like our bakers sugar, or finer? > > --Anne-Marie From a mortar and pestle experience, it will be finer than baker's sugar, but I didn't get it down to a super fine powder like the modern powdered sugar. Bear Date: Thu, 04 Jan 2007 17:43:28 -0500 From: Johnna Holloway Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] hard brown sugar versus soft brown sugar To: Cooks within the SCA Rose Levy Beranbaum did a full run down on sugar on her website http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/2005/12/sugar.html#more Rose's Sugar 101 (Bible) was published in Food Arts Magazine April 2000 She won an award for the article-- http://www.thecakebible.com/articles/articles-rosessugarbible.html Johnnae Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2007 18:25:42 -0600 From: "Terry Decker" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] sugar cane To: "Cooks within the SCA" > Uh, Bear, isn't "evaporated Cane juice" kinda the same stuff as sugar? > > Lady Anne du Bosc >> As a small aside, Smuckers is producing some soft drinks, ginger ale, >> vanilla cream soda, root beer, etc., with evaporated cane juice rather >> than high fructose corn syrup. They've got great flavor. >> >> Bear Sugar (sucrose) is "really" evaporated cane juice, or more precisely, it is a multicrystallized sugar having been processed multiple times. Evaporated cane juice is made in a single process where it is cooked out of the cane, filtered for impurities and cooked down to original consistency (I haven't found a good enough description of the process to figure out if the actually cook down to crystal and rehydrate). Presumably the product retains more of the character and nutrients of the natural cane juice. Bear Date: Sun, 5 Aug 2007 09:10:17 -0500 From: "Terry Decker" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Sugar sponge To: "Cooks within the SCA" "Candy, or Sugar-Candy, is a preparation of sugar, made by melting and crystallizing it six or seven times over to render it hard and transparent. It is of three kinds, white, yellow and red. The white comes from the loaf sugar, the yellow from the cassonado, and the red from muscovado." (Encyclopaedia Brittanica, 1771) Muscovado sugar is sugar from the first boiling of the cane juice which has not been "clayed" (set into clay molds to remove the molasses). Muscovado is "black sugar" and one source I encountered also refers to it as "red sugar." A second source says the red sugar candy referred to in the clip from the Encyclopedia Brittanica above is produced by the addition of Indian fig juice. Since I haven't found any corraborating sources the comments on red sugar and red sugar candy consider them suspect. Demerara sugar is a further, but not fully refined, sugar still containing some molasses. Turbinado is a partially refined refined raw sugar that has been steam cleaned (removing contaminents and more of the molasses than in Demerara). While Muscavado and Demerara are place names, the etymology of turbinado is obscure. I suspect, but have not been able to confirm, that Turbinado sugar is named for the process. Bear Date: Tue, 07 Aug 2007 16:30:14 -0400 From: Suey Subject: [Sca-cooks] Sugar sponge To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org Terry Decker wrote: > > . . .Muscovado sugar is sugar from the first boiling of the cane > juice which has not been "clayed" (set into clay molds to remove > the molasses). Muscovado is "black sugar" and one source I > encountered also refers to it as "red sugar." A second source says > the red sugar candy referred to in the clip from the Encyclopedia > Brittanica above is produced by the addition of Indian fig juice. > Since I haven't found any corraborating sources the comments on red > sugar and red sugar candy consider them suspect. > > Demerara sugar is a further, but not fully refined, sugar still > containing some molasses. Turbinado is a partially refined refined > raw sugar that has been steam cleaned (removing contaminents and > more of the molasses than in Demerara). > > While Muscavado and Demerara are place names, the etymology of > turbinado is obscure. I suspect, but have not been able to > confirm, that Turbinado sugar is named for the process. Kitchen Dictionary: turbinado sugar . http://www.recipezaar.com/library/getentry.zsp?id=45 states: "The term turbinado comes from the technique used in the making of this sugar. The sugar is spun in a cylinder or turbine. Turbinado sugar is brown looking like brown, but paler in color with a subtle molasses flavor. It can be used in recipes that call for brown sugar. Two popular brand names for turbinado sugar are: Muscavado and Demerara." Other sources uphold Terry's statement that turbinado sugar is not the same as Muscavado and Demerara but if we are talking about sugar spun by steam turbine engines aren't we talking about sugar processing technical changes that begin in the late 19th or early 20th century ? My queries have to do with food items not later than Nola. I just don't think Mr. Nola would buy that one that type. . . Suey Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2007 19:11:22 -0500 From: "Terry Decker" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Sugar sponge To: "Cooks within the SCA" The process for turbinado would be to spin the spin the sugar in some form of container and inject steam into the container to remove non-sucrose particles. It is not necessarily a process that would require a steam turbine engine, which is a different critter mechanically. I do suspect that the process is 20th Century and developed in Hawaii (with the caveat that I have no clinching evidence for either assertion). There is some evidence turbinado process is a modern variant of an earlier washing technique for sugar, but I don't have enough details to determine whether the process referred to is the slow moisture cleaning done in claying or a different kind of washing. Claying was the common medieval and renaissance technique. If there is a different washing technique, then it may not be pre-17th Century. Bear Date: Wed, 08 Aug 2007 20:31:16 -0400 From: Johnna Holloway Subject: [Sca-cooks] Rose's Sugar Bible To: Cooks within the SCA This might help with the descriptions of modern sugars that we commonly find in our North American markets. Johnnae http://www.thecakebible.com/articles/articles-rosessugarbible.html Rose's Sugar Bible Rose Levy Beranbaum Published in; Food Arts Magazine, April 2000 /Sugar 101 Wherein Rose Levy Beranbaum, the high priestess of pastry, answers all your questions and learns that the wide, wide world of sugar is, indeed, a very, very sweet place to live./ Date: Wed, 08 Aug 2007 20:53:52 -0400 From: Johnna Holloway Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Sugar sponge To: Cooks within the SCA **Sugar in the raw http://www.sugarintheraw.com/ which comes from Maui is Turbinado Sugar is made using 100% pure Hawaiian cane sugar from the initial pressing of the cane, allowing the natural molasses to remain in the crystals. The flavor is sweet and rich. The color is natural amber. Sugar In The Raw is a natural, unrefined sugar made from sugar cane grown in Maui. Juice is extracted from the sugar cane, and then crystallized through evaporation. These crystals are rinsed with a very small amount of water to remove just enough stickiness to make the product free flowing. We pack this turbinado sugar and market it as Sugar In The Raw. Johnnae Terry Decker wrote: > The process for turbinado would be to spin the spin the sugar in some form > of container and inject steam into the container to remove non-sucrose > particles. It is not necessarily a process that would require a steam > turbine engine, which is a different critter mechanically. I do suspect > that the process is 20th Century and developed in Hawaii (with the caveat > that I have no clinching evidence for either assertion).snipped > Bear Date: Thu, 09 Aug 2007 07:51:23 -0400 From: Johnna Holloway Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Sugar sponge To: Cooks within the SCA I checked the indexes of the books on sugar that I bought in Hawaii and "turbinado" isn't mentioned in the index of those three, so onto other sources. I've requested The sugar cane industry : an historical geography from its origins to 1914 by J.H. Galloway. Will see what it has. There's this description here: The crude juice is improved by removing impurities with slaked lime and carbon dioxide, and it is evaporated to form a brown syrupy product which can be readily converted into molasses. This was the source of the brown sugars (such as turbinado, Muscovado and Demarara) that were common in the 17-19th centuries. Sugar in impure form and molasses were brought to New England, and trading interests helped ensure that excess molasses was converted into rum. Refining of crude sugar results in white crystal sugar, which can be used in granulated or powdered forms or as lumps. In previous times, sugar loaves were marketed, while rich banquet hosts had their chefs produce sugar sculptures similar to ice sculptures. http://unitproj1.library.ucla.edu/biomed/spice/index.cfm?displayID=23 McGee in On Food and Cooking, 2004, talks about: Factory Brown Sugars "Factory" brown sugars were originally produced during the initial processing of the cane juice into unrefined sugar. These include demerara, turbinado, and muscovado sugars. Demerara (named after a region in Guyana) came from the first crystallization stage of light cane juice, and took the form of a sticky large yellow-gold crystals. Turbinado was raw sugar partially washed of its molasses during centrifugation, is also yellow-gold and large but not as sticky as demerara. Muscovado was the product of the final crystallization from the dark mother liquor; it was brown, small-grained, sticky, and strong-flavored." page 674 Johnnae Terry Decker wrote: > What they don't say is when and where the process for making turbinado sugar > was invented. Sugar In The Raw is the best known commercial brand. > > Bear Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:25:56 -0600 From: "Terry Decker" To: "Cooks within the SCA" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] old recipes - Cinkites <<< This looks very interesting - but what do they mean by "confectioners' (not powdered) sugar"? Sandra >>> Confectioner's sugar is industrial grade powdered sugar without the additives. I would expect you could use modern powdered sugar without a problem. Bear Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2012 01:37:08 -0800 (PST) From: Arianwen ferch Arthur To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org Subject: [Sca-cooks] powdered sugar vs confectioner's sugar (memories) I remember seeing the pink vs the blue boxes of powdered sugar? and wondering the difference but never asking, then I went to work in Australia and discovered there that the pink box was pure sugar and the blue boxes had corn starch added (to help with caking?) I went back to work in US and voila, blue boxes only, yes with corn starch listed on the ingredients box? (C&H? was pink and blue, I know Spreckles but remember it as always in yellow and my grandmother scathingly insisted on C&H as it was pure cane sugar not beet sugar) and I do remember reading that if you didn't have powdered sugar you could put it in the blender, but the one time mom had me try that I don't think she was too pleased with the result especially for the effort involved Other than reading the cornstarch on the labels these are memories and interpretations of things said, nothing I have researched or read about in passing, but I am curious what others know/remember Arianwen ferch Arthur Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:28:31 -0600 From: "Terry Decker" To: "Cooks within the SCA" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] ground powder sugar <<< My stainless steel grinder (which I use for the sugar) does get coated easily when I am grinding down. I like to use beet sugar, and maybe that is where the coating comes from. It isn't always a white product like cane sugar. And the odor too. I have to take it apart and put it in the dishwashera between powderings. :-)) Aldyth >>> The primary difference between beet and cane sugar is that beets convert carbon dioxide to sucrose using a three carbon molecule while cane uses a four carbon molecule. The two sugars can be differentiated at the isotopic level, but that should not cause any problems. Powdering pure sucrose should result in a white product, so color and odor makes me wonder. It may be that you are using a beet sugar that retains some of the "molasses" and that powdering it releases that into your powdered sugar. Humans do not like the taste of beet "molasses" which is why it is commonly used in producing animal fodder. If the beet sugar is releasing a minute amount of "molasses," then that might explain the problems you are encountering. Bear Edited by Mark S. Harris sugar-sources-msg 13 of 13