Cheap sugar

[Catherine Iino]

In the last year or so, the chain supermarkets I shop in have had 4 lb. bags of granulated sugar on the shelves, for substantially less per pound than the 5 lb. store-brand bags or, of course, the brand-name bags. The 4 lb. bags are called things like "Better Valu" and have rather generic lookiing packaging. The sugar seems the same as always, white, no off-flavors that I've noticed. So what makes this stuff cheaper? I can't help feeling suspicious.

[Shalmanese]

White sugar is white sugar is white sugar. Apart from coarseness, there's no discernible difference.

[djyee100]

I'm wondering whether the cheaper sugar is beet sugar, and the more expensive sugar is cane sugar. For what it's worth, you can read these articles. The rule of thumb I learned (about the time the first article came out), use cane sugar in baking because many of the old recipes were written for cane sugar; and cane and beet sugar do not bake up the same.

http://articles.sfgate.com/1999-03-31/food/17683415_1_sugar-industry-beet-and-cane-california-beet-growers-association

Go down the page to a discussion of beet vs cane sugar: http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/2005/12/sugar.html

I've never done any significant testing of beet vs cane sugar myself. I always use cane sugar in any case.

[HungryC]

Previous poster is probably right....I live in the "sugar bowl" of LA, and invariably the cheaper sugar on store shelves is not labeled "pure cane". In the interest of supporting the local sugar industry, I always buy pure cane sugar.

[Chris Amirault]

The Domino campaign -- message: use our sugar or stuff blows up -- would suggest that there's no difference among cane sugars, since they're inventing a ludicrous one.

[PopsicleToze]

I bought the cheap sugar for Christmas candy-making marathons, and what I noticed was that it clumped up with hard clumps. Had to break them down with meat pounder. I've never noticed anything like this before and have always purchased Domino's pure cane sugar before. I won't be using the cheap stuff again. That being said, there was no difference in the end product that I could tell.

Rhonda

[Catherine Iino]

Many thanks, as always for all the enlightening answers. I'm surprised I missed all the web discussion of cane vs. beet sugar before, since I'm a pretty avid culinary reader. I do have a couple of questions, though: Beet sugar is apparently prevalent in Europe, where there are some pretty good pastry chefs; how do they deal with it? Can the difference in coarseness be corrected at all by putting sugar in the food processor? And Chris, I'm afraid I don't know what Domino campaign you are referring to.

I will certainly experiment a bit with the different sugars.

[jmolinari]

how is cane sugar different from beet sugar? Sucrose is sucrose. I don't buy that they're different.

[Chris Amirault]

I bought the cheap sugar for Christmas candy-making marathons, and what I noticed was that it clumped up with hard clumps. Had to break them down with meat pounder. I've never noticed anything like this before and have always purchased Domino's pure cane sugar before. I won't be using the cheap stuff again. That being said, there was no difference in the end product that I could tell.

That sounds like a storage/humidity problem, not a production difference.

Catherine, the TV ads had cakes exploding in the oven and that sort of thing when people used store-brand sugars. They discontinued the ads when a Domino sugar production facility exploded. Oops.

[Shalmanese]

There was an article I remember reading way back about the difference between cane & beet sugar. In the end, it came down to them being different grain sizes which can affect baked goods (especially those involving meringues or creaming butter). Once it's dissolved, all sugar was indistinguishable.

Oh, one other difference is some vegans don't consider cane sugar vegan since it's filtered through bone char.

[Dave the Cook]

I'm wondering whether the cheaper sugar is beet sugar, and the more expensive sugar is cane sugar. For what it's worth, you can read these articles. The rule of thumb I learned (about the time the first article came out), use cane sugar in baking because many of the old recipes were written for cane sugar; and cane and beet sugar do not bake up the same.

http://articles.sfgate.com/1999-03-31/food/17683415_1_sugar-industry-beet-and-cane-california-beet-growers-association

Go down the page to a discussion of beet vs cane sugar: http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/2005/12/sugar.html

I've never done any significant testing of beet vs cane sugar myself. I always use cane sugar in any case.

The conclusions drawn by the San Francisco group have been debunked several times, including by me, for a piece I wrote for the Daily Gullet in 2003 (the article itself is in an archive that hasn't yet been restored since our latest upgrade). Differences that are attributed to beet v. cane sugar can be explained a number of ways, including -- most significantly -- granule size (more on that in a minute). In any case, even the American Sugar Alliance, a consortium of beet and cane sugar companies says, "There is no difference in the sugar produced from either cane or beet." As Jason points out, sucrose is sucrose, and refined white sugar is 99.95% pure. Even assuming that that last 0.05% is wildly different in beet and cane sugars (it's not, but whatever), there are so many other variables in baking that that tiny bit -- especially that tiny bit accompanied by many other ingredients -- is insignificant.

Previous poster is probably right....I live in the "sugar bowl" of LA, and invariably the cheaper sugar on store shelves is not labeled "pure cane". In the interest of supporting the local sugar industry, I always buy pure cane sugar.

Sugar producers are not required to state sources, because all refined white sugar is the same. It's entirely possible that unmarked sugar is cane; the producer doesn't say so because changing labels for individual production runs is expensive, and limits the producer in terms of sourcing.

Many thanks, as always for all the enlightening answers. I'm surprised I missed all the web discussion of cane vs. beet sugar before, since I'm a pretty avid culinary reader. I do have a couple of questions, though: Beet sugar is apparently prevalent in Europe, where there are some pretty good pastry chefs; how do they deal with it? Can the difference in coarseness be corrected at all by putting sugar in the food processor? And Chris, I'm afraid I don't know what Domino campaign you are referring to.

I will certainly experiment a bit with the different sugars.

Beet sugar is prevalent in Europe because cane doesn't grow well in that climate -- not to mention that, last time I checked, the EU was nearly as protective as the US when it came to protecting an indigenous industry, even when cheaper sources were available. So beet sugar is used in Europe, and recipes were developed with it. More important than cane v. beet is consistency of the product. If you develop a recipe with one granule size, and it's a recipe where granule size matters, there's a chance that changing brands will require reworking of the recipe.

There was an article I remember reading way back about the difference between cane & beet sugar. In the end, it came down to them being different grain sizes which can affect baked goods (especially those involving meringues or creaming butter). Once it's dissolved, all sugar was indistinguishable.

Oh, one other difference is some vegans don't consider cane sugar vegan since it's filtered through bone char.

Correct. From the aforementioned article: "Imagine that a sugar granule is a cube (it's not, but for purposes of this mental exercise, it's easier to think of it that way). One gram of standard granulated sugar contains about 5000 granules, and they would all stack neatly together in a cube, about 17 granules on a side. Now imagine a cube made up of granules that are half of the original granule in each dimension. You still have the same size cube, and it weighs the same, but now it comprises 20,000 granules. The effect this would have in melting, dispersion, cooling and recrystallization would have tremendous impact on finished goods -- I'm guessing far more than whatever difference there might be between cane sugar and beet sugar. The brownie and dry sugar tasting results [two of several experiments described in the piece] were affected by granule size and the greater dispersion smaller granule size afforded. Once in solution, granule size was no longer an issue, and the differences between cane sugar and beet sugar disappeared."

[djyee100]

If I understand correctly what is being said here:

(1) There is no significant difference in the chemical composition of beet and cane sugars. (Which makes sense to me.)

(2) There is a difference in granule size between beet and cane sugars, the beet sugar being coarser. The coarser granules in beet sugar may negatively affect mixing, dispersion, and crystallization in baked goods.

(3) However, when beet or cane sugar is dissolved, there are no significant differences between the two.

[Dave the Cook]

1 and 3 are correct. 2 is sort-of correct, and the misunderstanding is probably my fault.

A refiner can make pretty much any sized sugar crystal it wants; it's a simple matter of seeding and milling, and has nothing to do with the source of the sugar. This is reflected in some packaging -- it's common to see sugar labeled "extra-fine," for example. But there are no legal standards for crystal size, so one company's unlabeled sugar might be finer than another's ultra-fine. Either or both could be be beet- or cane-based.

Does that make more sense?

[djyee100]

1 and 3 are correct. 2 is sort-of correct, and the misunderstanding is probably my fault.

A refiner can make pretty much any sized sugar crystal it wants; it's a simple matter of seeding and milling, and has nothing to do with the source of the sugar. This is reflected in some packaging -- it's common to see sugar labeled "extra-fine," for example. But there are no legal standards for crystal size, so one company's unlabeled sugar might be finer than another's ultra-fine. Either or both could be be beet- or cane-based.

Does that make more sense?

Yes, it does. Thanks.

[Catherine Iino]

Many, many thanks, Dave. Since I had always thought that cane and beet sugar were identical, I consider myself re-bunked. It's interesting that every reference on this question seems to be to that one SFgate article. I look forward to seeing your 2003 piece when it gets back online.

[Jmahl]

Here in Texas I have noticed unbranded cane sugar at a lower price then the brands. The bags are marked product of Mexico in very small type in the bottom. I note no difference in quality.

Strangly, in Mexico white sugar is hard to come by. The sugar usually available has a slightly tan cast and bits and pieces of "stuff" can sometimes be noted. Personally I like the off white stuff and only use the white in baking where color is a consideration.

The lower price for the off-brand sugar may have to due with some kind of trade agreement but that is only rank speculation.

Edited January 18, 2010 by Jmahl (log)

[Lisa Shock]

Here in Phoenix, the Mexican tan stuff can be gotten fairly cheaply (2 pounds for 79 cents) and it is marked as cane sugar, I am assuming that it's slightly less refined. It does have a slightly 'brown sugar' taste, and I like using it for making simple syrup for cocktails because I feel that it's closer to the sugar that bartenders had available to them in the early 1800's.

[Shamanjoe]

Is there a difference between unrefined sugar and white sugar with molasses added back in? I heard from Alton Brown that most brown sugars these days are just refined white sugar with molasses added back to it.

[Catherine Iino]

For years I've been using white sugar and molasses in place of brown sugar. Rose Levy Beranbaum says, though, that this is how brown sugar is made from beet sugar but not from cane sugar. Don't know who to believe anymore, but the substitution works in just about every application I've tried, and it's a lot easier than storing and measuring brown sugar. If you are baking, for instance, you can just add the white sugar and the molasses without combining them first. I use, oh, maybe a couple of tablespoons of molasses to a cup of sugar (minus a couple of tablespoons of the sugar) (you get the idea).

[Lisa Shock]

The mexican stuff isn't brown sugar, which I do make by using molasses and sugar. The mexican stuff is more like turbinado, sort of.