Brown sugar
[2] Based on total weight, regular commercial brown sugar contains up to 10% molasses.
The effort was so successful that by 1900, a best-selling cookbook warned that brown sugar was of inferior quality and was susceptible to infestation by "a minute insect".
Even with less-than-perfect refining, the small differences in color, odor, and taste of the white sugar will be masked by the molasses.
[16] If it were raw sugar in the generally accepted meaning of an unrefined product, the Food and Drug Administration would take action.
These traditional brown sugars are called various names across the globe often depending on their country of origin: e.g. muscovado, panela, rapadura, jaggery, piloncillo, etc.
[6][5] Muscovado, panela, piloncillo, chancaca, jaggery and other natural dark brown sugars have been minimally centrifuged or not at all.
They are commonly boiled in open pans upon wood-fired stoves until the sugar cane juice reaches approximately 30% of the former volume and sucrose crystallization begins.
They are then poured into molds to solidify or onto cooling pans where they are beaten or worked vigorously to produce a granulated brown sugar.
In some countries, such as Mauritius or the Philippines, a natural brown sugar called muscovado is produced by partially centrifuging the evaporated and crystallizing cane juice to create a sugar-crystal rich mush, which is allowed to drain under gravity to produce varying degrees of molasses content in the final product.
This process approximates a slightly modernized practice introduced in the 19th century to generate a better quality of natural brown sugar.
[21] Kokuto is commonly used as a flavouring for drinks and desserts, but can also be eaten raw as it has a taste similar to caramel.
Kokuto is also an important local industry on Amami Ōshima, Kagoshima Prefecture; sugarcane cultivation and the production of brown sugar in Japan was first recorded on the island around 400 years ago, using techniques that had been developed in Fujian Province, China, and spread across the Japanese archipelago after that point.
Due to varying qualities and colors of molasses products,[3] for lighter or darker sugar, reduce or increase its proportion according to taste.
Even in recipes such as cakes, where the overall moisture content might be critical, the amount of water contained in brown sugar is too small to matter.
Much more significant than its water content is the fact that darker brown sugar or more molasses will impart a stronger flavor, with more of a suggestion of caramel.
Storing brown sugar in a freezer will prevent moisture from escaping and molasses from crystallizing, allowing for a much longer shelf life.
In a 100-gram reference amount, brown sugar contains 15% of the Daily Value for iron, with no other vitamins or minerals in significant content (table).
