Why is raw sugar expensive?

[nthach]

Originally Posted by Leo99
Originally Posted by nthach


C&H sugar is high quality for regular sugar, I buy in bulk from Costco or Whole Foods or the local hippie store for the raw stuff. C&H's brown sugar is the actual stuff with molasses before it gets refined and clarified with bone char, unlike store brands.


Does that make it better?

For some, yes. For most of us, no. I can see the texture difference between the two but if it's going into a baked good or BBQ sauce the taste will be the same.

 

[doitmyself]

Here's a pretty informative article about the Demerara type of sugar that C&H markets: https://doctor.ndtv.com/living-healthy/what-is-demerara-sugar-is-it-better-than-white-sugar-1863091

As nthach already mentioned, if you are vegan, then one of these less processed sugars is the only suitable type because bone char is used to process some/most white sugar.

I also learned that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration forbids sale of true "raw sugar" for human consumption: https://www.fda.gov/iceci/compliancemanuals/compliancepolicyguidancemanual/ucm074439.htm

Very educational thread. Thanks Kestas.

 

[Nyogtha]

Pure cane syrup is my ingredient for homemade BBQ sauce or pecan pie, not granulated sugar. Steen's is the most widely used brand. My dad put cane syrup on his pancakes; I've never seen any trees with syrup taps in Texas or Louisiana. No idea if it's vegan approved as I belong to the People for Eating Tasty Animals society.

 

[Nyogtha]

My favorite is pink Hawaiian salt, it's salt with red-pink mud from the island of Kauai, we saw the salt raker's ponds there when we visited. A premium price for a muddy product!

 

[hatt]

Originally Posted by BHopkins
Originally Posted by Kestas
BHopkins, thanks for the article. It mentions there are no health benefits to using raw sugar over refined sugar. It also states the raw sugar is slightly less refined.

I ask because I see health nuts go ape over these things. I think people are crazy spending excess amounts of money for no real gain in nutrition.

I also see the same thing with salts. (Shall I start a new topic?) I've analyzed (using energy dispersive spectroscopy) some salts for their mineral content and see no appreciable difference in elemental makeup. Only tiny traces of a few other elements, which are likely overshadowed by these same elements present in our food in much more massive amounts.

It makes my head spin when health nuts start talking about healthy this and healthy that. I've even seen them poo-poo grapefruit, salmon, and other foods because of too much this and too much that in the foods.



One of my past co-workers ate some health foods. One day she mentioned that she only used sea salt, as it was healthier. I mentioned to her that, if my understanding is correct, all salt deposits on earth are sea salt. At one time or another, all salt has come from a sea. She didn't have an answer for that.

I'm all for eating healthy. But I think it takes a little bit of common sense. Several years ago I ran across an article about a study that was conducted by what I believe to be the British equivalent of the FDA. It was a study of the health benefits of organic foods. Their data came from something like 80 studies that had been done by organizations across the world. The conclusion was that there was no health benefit to organic foods. Or if there was, it was so negligible as to be statistically insignificant. But if a family feels better by serving them, then by all means, they should.

You mean the studies that show more nutritional value and fewer chemicals with organic but the researchers decided it was the same? I don't get too caught up in the organic label because industrial scale organic isn't far from convention commodity garbage. There is a big difference between high quality food and conventional gut filling product in the nutrition and taste department.

 

[vavavroom]

Originally Posted by Kestas
As a followup, how is raw sugar different from brown sugar?


Raw and brown sugar have a caramelized taste compared to refined sugar. Raw and brown sugar has a higher moisture content than refined sugar and thus a bit less caloric content for an equal amount. White sugar is refined using sulfur dioxide, phosphoric acid, calcium hydroxide or carbon dioxide.

 

[Nyogtha]

For my cooking, I use turbinado / demerrara or even muscavado sugar as it doesn't burn as easily as fully refined sugar whether that refined sugar has molasses blended back in or not (BBQ rubs, BBQ sauces, brines, and marinades).

 

[aquariuscsm]

What is exactly is raw sugar? Can anyone post a link to the product?

 

[DBMaster]

This is about as good an explanation as I have seen.

http://mslimalicious.com/2012/04/white-raw-brown-sugar-what-are.html

 

[aquariuscsm]

Is this genuine raw sugar?

https://www.intheraw.com/using-itr/product/sugar-in-the-raw-granulated/

 

[doitmyself]

No. It is just sugar that is less processed than white sugar. The process might be more environmentally friendly and more PC correct, but the interweb states that there is little, if any effective nutritional difference. Labeling laws obviously allow the use of the term "Raw".

"Turbinado sugar, or "sugar in the raw", is the product of pure sugar cane extract that has gone through the first 6 steps of the process to make refined sugars." https://www.eatbydate.com/what-is-turbinado/

https://www.fda.gov/iceci/compliancemanuals/compliancepolicyguidancemanual/ucm074439.htm

 

[hatt]

The FDA is such a joke. No wonder Americans weight as much as cows.

 

[DBMaster]

Originally Posted by aquariuscsm
Is this genuine raw sugar?

https://www.intheraw.com/using-itr/product/sugar-in-the-raw-granulated/


Pretty much. It just isn't chemically bleached and doesn't have all the molasses and trace elements removed. It'll have slightly more "flavor" than white sugar, but other than that it's no healthier. Turbinado sugar generally has larger crystal's than the raw sugar you'll find on the grocery shelf. some producers also call it "evaporated cane juice."

 

[Nyogtha]

See the "Natural Sugars" section of this Wiki page for s pretty comprehensive explanation of the various forms.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_sugar

My uses have nothing to do with any perceived nutritional differences as I posted earlier.

Here's what I typically purchase to use in BBQ rubs and brining solutions, at my local HEB grocery store or Walmart.

https://www.floridacrystals.com/Demerara-Cane-Sugar-Jug

For darker brown I use Muscavado sugar with higher molasses content.

https://www.heb.com/product-detail/india-tree-dark-muscovado-sugar-from-mauritius/272066

For sauces, I typically use Steen's cane syrup but now that I'm back in Texas there are more opportunities for local small brands too. I used to have to get this by mail order when I lived in Ohio.

https://steensyrup.com

It's the only syrup my Dad ever put on his pancakes. I tend to blend it 50/50 with pure maple syrup for my uses as I'm not as hard core as the orevious generation in my family, plus maple sytup is thin visvosity in comparison. Makes a great rib glaze with some good coarsely grated horseradish blended in along with some other spices. I call my concoction Pig Paint

 

[aquariuscsm]

So what is an actual raw sugar that you can buy at the grocery store?

 

[Nyogtha]

I buy this at HEB or Walmart.

https://www.floridacrystals.com/Demerara-Cane-Sugar-Jug

To each his own, there's always Whole Foods and for us big city Texans HEB Central Market if you want more of an array than what's at HEB & WM.

 

[hatt]

Originally Posted by Nyogtha
See the "Natural Sugars" section of this Wiki page for s pretty comprehensive explanation of the various forms.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_sugar

My uses have nothing to do with any perceived nutritional differences as I posted earlier.

Here's what I typically purchase to use in BBQ rubs and brining solutions, at my local HEB grocery store or Walmart.

https://www.floridacrystals.com/Demerara-Cane-Sugar-Jug

For darker brown I use Muscavado sugar with higher molasses content.

https://www.heb.com/product-detail/india-tree-dark-muscovado-sugar-from-mauritius/272066

For sauces, I typically use Steen's cane syrup but now that I'm back in Texas there are more opportunities for local small brands too. I used to have to get this by mail order when I lived in Ohio.

https://steensyrup.com

It's the only syrup my Dad ever put on his pancakes. I tend to blend it 50/50 with pure maple syrup for my uses as I'm not as hard core as the orevious generation in my family, plus maple sytup is thin visvosity in comparison. Makes a great rib glaze with some good coarsely grated horseradish blended in along with some other spices. I call my concoction Pig Paint

Some old fellows make cane syrup a mile down the road. They grow the cane too. It's even wood fired. Not FDA approved.

 

[DBMaster]

Originally Posted by hatt
Some old fellows make cane syrup a mile down the road. They grow the cane too. It's even wood fired. Not FDA approved.


Do they ship? I'd love to get my hands on some of that!

 

[doitmyself]

Following up on Hatt's excellent wikipedia link, here is an article that seems to identify which sugar type is closest to being raw: https://www.quirkycooking.com.au/20...t-muscavado-turbinado-organic-raw-sugar/

It seems that maybe we should be investigating Jaggery and Gur also.

 

[Nyogtha]

Piloncillo is widely available here, and always has been from what my memory serves. It's typically pressed and rolled in a small truncated cone shape. When the price of sugar got really high in the 70s my parents bought a fiber drum of what the linked article calls Rapadura in Mexico. My mom draped some cloth over the drum, put a lamp on top, and it served as a nightstand table in their bedroom for years. It was fine for cooking; it gave iced tea a somewhat different flavor, but not in a negative way.