[Sca-cooks] Re:CAne vs Beet sugar
johnna holloway
johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu
Wed May 15 07:36:22 PDT 2002
Earlier this spring I posted a note
regarding an award-winning article
by Rose Levy Beranbaum called "Sugar 101."
One of the interesting things that she pointed
out was that although there is no difference
between pure cane and pure beet sugars, there
do seem to be differences between what we get
when we buy packages of both cane and beet sugar.
Beranbaum wrote:
"Beet sugar versus sugarcane sugar Because both are
sucrose and chemically identical, its been thought
that beet and cane sugars perform identically. But
some bakers have reported what they suspect to be
conflicting results and have concluded that cane sugar
is superior. Miriam Morgan hypothesized in a San Francisco
Chronicle article (March 31, 1999) that since both sugars
are 99.95 percent sucrose, the difference lies in the
remaining 0.05 percent, which is made up of trace differences
in minerals and proteins. Caroline Weil of The Bake Shop
in Berkeley, California, reports that her sugar syrups,
when made with beet sugar, crystallized into large,
chunky granules. Food writer and cookbook author
Flo Braker experienced a similar problem when making
sugar syrups in France, where beet sugar is prevalent,
before finding that the addition of a small amount of
cream of tartar as an interfering agent works well
when using beet sugar for syrups. Food writer and
cookbook author Marion Cunningham finds that cakes
such as angel food and sponge develop a coarse texture
with beet sugar. I havent noticed any change in the
outcome of my recipes using refined or partially refined
fine granulated sugar and would hypothesize that there
are many possible causes for variation. More extensive
scientific investigation is required to come to a definitive
conclusion."
see: http://www.afjonline.com/a01mxff3.htm
for the full article.
Johnna Holloway Johnnae llyn Lewis
"Pixel, Goddess and Queen" wrote:>
> My husband insists that he can tell the difference between cane and beet
> sugar by the smell, but AFAIK there is no real difference between the two
> sugars WRT chemical properties. I've used cane and beet sugar
> interchangeably for doing things like caramel andcooked fondant, and they
> act just the same.
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