Demerara sugar

This article is about the sugar product. Brown sugar is a sucrose sugar product with a demerara sugar brown color due to the presence of molasses.

Commercial brown sugar contains from 3. Particle size is variable but generally smaller than granulated white sugar. Look up brown sugar in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. In the late 19th century, the newly consolidated refined white sugar industry, which did not have full control over brown sugar production, mounted a smear campaign against brown sugar, reproducing microscopic photographs of harmless but repulsive-looking microbes living in brown sugar. Raw sugars are all more or less liable to be contaminated with decomposing nitrogenous matters, fermentative germs, and other living organisms, both animal and vegetable. For this reason, raw sugars must always be considered dangerous brewing materials.

This section does not cite any sources. Brown sugar is often produced by adding sugarcane molasses to completely refined white sugar crystals to more carefully control the ratio of molasses to sugar crystals and to reduce manufacturing costs. The molasses usually used for food is obtained from sugar cane, because the flavor is generally preferred over beet sugar molasses, although in some areas, especially in Belgium and the Netherlands, sugar beet molasses is used. For the song by Metric, see Grow Up and Blow Away.

Although brown sugar has been touted as having health benefits ranging from soothing menstrual cramps to serving as an anti-aging skin treatment, there is no nutritional basis to support brown sugar as a healthier alternative to refined sugars despite the negligible amounts of minerals in brown sugar not found in white sugar. Turbinado, demerara and “raw” sugars are made from crystallized, partially evaporated sugar cane juice and spun in a centrifuge to remove almost all of the molasses. The sugar crystals are large and golden-coloured. This sugar can be sold as is or sent to the refinery to produce white sugar. Muscovado, panela, piloncillo, chancaca, jaggery and other natural dark brown sugars have been minimally centrifuged or not at all. Typically these sugars are made in smaller factories or “cottage industries” in developing nations, where they are produced with traditional practices that do not make use of industrialized vacuum evaporators or centrifuges. This is a regional specialty of Okinawa and is often sold in the form of large lumps.

It is sometimes used to make shochu. Okinawan brown sugar is sometimes referred to as ‘black sugar’ for its darker colour compared to other types of unrefined sugar, although when broken up into smaller pieces its colour becomes lighter. Brown sugar adds flavor to desserts and baked goods. It can be substituted for maple sugar, and maple sugar can be substituted for it in recipes. For domestic purposes one can create the equivalent of brown sugar by mixing white sugar with molasses. In following a modern recipe that specifies “brown sugar”, one usually may assume that the intended meaning is light brown sugar, but which one prefers is largely a matter of taste. Even in recipes such as cakes, where the moisture content might be critical, the amount of water involved is too small to matter.

Brown sugar that has hardened can be made soft again by adding a new source of moisture for the molasses, or by heating and remelting the molasses. Storing brown sugar in a freezer will prevent moisture from escaping and molasses from crystallizing, allowing for a much longer shelf life. Percentages are roughly approximated using US recommendations for adults. However, brown sugar packs more densely than white sugar due to the smaller crystal size and may have more calories when measured by volume. Any minerals present in brown sugar come from the molasses added to the white sugar. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.