[Sca-cooks] Re:CAne vs Beet sugar

[johnna holloway]

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, it’s 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 haven’t 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.