1 hour ago, Tropicalsenior said:I'll probably never do it but I'd sure like to know how. I had no idea there was such a process or even a need for it. How is it used in Chinese cooking?
I haven't seen the cookbook you are referencing, so this is a guess, but hopefully an educated one!
They are probably talking about rock sugar - the most common type here - and people do rinse that to get rid of any dust or worse it may have picked up during processing, handling and distribution etc. I wrote about sugar in China a while back in this topic.
Rock Sugar
From your accounts, the cookbook certainly seems badly written, but not necessarily wrong.
