On 3/20/2016 12:31 PM, notbob wrote:
> Making some oaty-meal cookies. Calls fer 1/3 C brn sugar. Arghhh!
>
> What brn sugar I have is pretty caked up. So, I jes dumped a buncha
> lumpy brn sugar into my large wire strainer and used the fine particles
> that sifted through. I then tossed the reamaining brn sugar rocks in
> da' trash. I'll buy some new stuff next week.


Just last week I read in a cooking magazine (e.g., Cooking Light, Food &
Wine, Cook's Country, Cook's Illustrated, or Cuisine at Home) that
keeping a marshmallow or two in with the brown sugar will keep it from
bricking or getting clumpy. My guess is it works and might be a
preferable alternative to a slice of bread ;-)

Sky

================================
Kitchen Rule #1 - Use the timer!
Kitchen Rule #2 - Cook's choice!
================================

On 2016-03-21 4:54 AM, Sky wrote:
> On 3/20/2016 12:31 PM, notbob wrote:
>> Making some oaty-meal cookies. Calls fer 1/3 C brn sugar. Arghhh!
>>
>> What brn sugar I have is pretty caked up. So, I jes dumped a buncha
>> lumpy brn sugar into my large wire strainer and used the fine particles
>> that sifted through. I then tossed the reamaining brn sugar rocks in
>> da' trash. I'll buy some new stuff next week.
>
>
> Just last week I read in a cooking magazine (e.g., Cooking Light, Food &
> Wine, Cook's Country, Cook's Illustrated, or Cuisine at Home) that
> keeping a marshmallow or two in with the brown sugar will keep it from
> bricking or getting clumpy. My guess is it works and might be a
> preferable alternative to a slice of bread ;-)
>
>

What's wrong with a piece of bread in the sugar? It works almost like
magic. The bread in my sugar canister sits at the bottom and you don't
see it. You have no trouble digging your way down to it because it does
such a good job of keeping the sugar soft.

On Monday, March 21, 2016 at 9:13:20 AM UTC-4, Dave Smith wrote:
> On 2016-03-21 4:54 AM, Sky wrote:
> > On 3/20/2016 12:31 PM, notbob wrote:
> >> Making some oaty-meal cookies. Calls fer 1/3 C brn sugar. Arghhh!
> >>
> >> What brn sugar I have is pretty caked up. So, I jes dumped a buncha
> >> lumpy brn sugar into my large wire strainer and used the fine particles
> >> that sifted through. I then tossed the reamaining brn sugar rocks in
> >> da' trash. I'll buy some new stuff next week.
> >
> >
> > Just last week I read in a cooking magazine (e.g., Cooking Light, Food &
> > Wine, Cook's Country, Cook's Illustrated, or Cuisine at Home) that
> > keeping a marshmallow or two in with the brown sugar will keep it from
> > bricking or getting clumpy. My guess is it works and might be a
> > preferable alternative to a slice of bread ;-)
> >
> >
>
> What's wrong with a piece of bread in the sugar? It works almost like
> magic. The bread in my sugar canister sits at the bottom and you don't
> see it. You have no trouble digging your way down to it because it does
> such a good job of keeping the sugar soft.

Rather than mess around putting foreign objects in
my brown sugar, I tightly close the plastic bag
that it came in, then put it inside a Rubbermaid
container that is reasonably air-tight. I open
it every morning to get brown sugar for my oatmeal,
and it never gets hard. By the end of the bag it's
not as soft as when it was new, but it's eminently
scoopable.

Cindy Hamilton

On Mon, 21 Mar 2016 06:34:52 -0700 (PDT), Cindy Hamilton
> wrote:

> On Monday, March 21, 2016 at 9:13:20 AM UTC-4, Dave Smith wrote:
> > On 2016-03-21 4:54 AM, Sky wrote:
> > > On 3/20/2016 12:31 PM, notbob wrote:
> > >> Making some oaty-meal cookies. Calls fer 1/3 C brn sugar. Arghhh!
> > >>
> > >> What brn sugar I have is pretty caked up. So, I jes dumped a buncha
> > >> lumpy brn sugar into my large wire strainer and used the fine particles
> > >> that sifted through. I then tossed the reamaining brn sugar rocks in
> > >> da' trash. I'll buy some new stuff next week.
> > >
> > >
> > > Just last week I read in a cooking magazine (e.g., Cooking Light, Food &
> > > Wine, Cook's Country, Cook's Illustrated, or Cuisine at Home) that
> > > keeping a marshmallow or two in with the brown sugar will keep it from
> > > bricking or getting clumpy. My guess is it works and might be a
> > > preferable alternative to a slice of bread ;-)
> > >
> > >
> >
> > What's wrong with a piece of bread in the sugar? It works almost like
> > magic. The bread in my sugar canister sits at the bottom and you don't
> > see it. You have no trouble digging your way down to it because it does
> > such a good job of keeping the sugar soft.
>
> Rather than mess around putting foreign objects in
> my brown sugar, I tightly close the plastic bag
> that it came in, then put it inside a Rubbermaid
> container that is reasonably air-tight. I open
> it every morning to get brown sugar for my oatmeal,
> and it never gets hard. By the end of the bag it's
> not as soft as when it was new, but it's eminently
> scoopable.
>
I can't begin to tell you how many people don't do that - and then
they wonder why they have ants in the pantry.

--

sf

On 2016-03-21 9:34 AM, Cindy Hamilton wrote:
> On Monday, March 21, 2016 at 9:13:20 AM UTC-4, Dave Smith wrote:
>> On 2016-03-21 4:54 AM, Sky wrote:
>>> On 3/20/2016 12:31 PM, notbob wrote:
>>>> Making some oaty-meal cookies. Calls fer 1/3 C brn sugar. Arghhh!
>>>>
>>>> What brn sugar I have is pretty caked up. So, I jes dumped a buncha
>>>> lumpy brn sugar into my large wire strainer and used the fine particles
>>>> that sifted through. I then tossed the reamaining brn sugar rocks in
>>>> da' trash. I'll buy some new stuff next week.
>>>
>>>
>>> Just last week I read in a cooking magazine (e.g., Cooking Light, Food &
>>> Wine, Cook's Country, Cook's Illustrated, or Cuisine at Home) that
>>> keeping a marshmallow or two in with the brown sugar will keep it from
>>> bricking or getting clumpy. My guess is it works and might be a
>>> preferable alternative to a slice of bread ;-)
>>>
>>>
>>
>> What's wrong with a piece of bread in the sugar? It works almost like
>> magic. The bread in my sugar canister sits at the bottom and you don't
>> see it. You have no trouble digging your way down to it because it does
>> such a good job of keeping the sugar soft.
>
> Rather than mess around putting foreign objects in
> my brown sugar, I tightly close the plastic bag
> that it came in, then put it inside a Rubbermaid
> container that is reasonably air-tight. I open
> it every morning to get brown sugar for my oatmeal,
> and it never gets hard. By the end of the bag it's
> not as soft as when it was new, but it's eminently
> scoopable.


That sounds like a lot of work compared to what I do. Years ago I put a
lice of bread in the Rubbermaid tub. When I buy brown sugar I open the
bag and dump it into that old bin with that old piece of bread on the
bottom, and I never have a problem with sugar clumping.

There have been cases where we bought more sugar and left it in the bag
and it eventually clumped up into blocks. I dumped the rock like sugar
into the bin with that old slice of bread and by the next day I had
nice , moist, soft brown sugar.

On Mon, 21 Mar 2016 09:13:37 -0400, Dave Smith
> wrote:

> On 2016-03-21 4:54 AM, Sky wrote:
> > On 3/20/2016 12:31 PM, notbob wrote:
> >> Making some oaty-meal cookies. Calls fer 1/3 C brn sugar. Arghhh!
> >>
> >> What brn sugar I have is pretty caked up. So, I jes dumped a buncha
> >> lumpy brn sugar into my large wire strainer and used the fine particles
> >> that sifted through. I then tossed the reamaining brn sugar rocks in
> >> da' trash. I'll buy some new stuff next week.
> >
> >
> > Just last week I read in a cooking magazine (e.g., Cooking Light, Food &
> > Wine, Cook's Country, Cook's Illustrated, or Cuisine at Home) that
> > keeping a marshmallow or two in with the brown sugar will keep it from
> > bricking or getting clumpy. My guess is it works and might be a
> > preferable alternative to a slice of bread ;-)
> >
> >
>
> What's wrong with a piece of bread in the sugar? It works almost like
> magic. The bread in my sugar canister sits at the bottom and you don't
> see it. You have no trouble digging your way down to it because it does
> such a good job of keeping the sugar soft.
>
>
There are probably many alternatives that work equally well for
keeping brown sugar soft. I'd never heard the bread thing before
this.

--

sf

On 3/21/2016 8:13 AM, Dave Smith wrote:
> On 2016-03-21 4:54 AM, Sky wrote:
>> On 3/20/2016 12:31 PM, notbob wrote:
>>> Making some oaty-meal cookies. Calls fer 1/3 C brn sugar. Arghhh!
>>>
>>> What brn sugar I have is pretty caked up. So, I jes dumped a buncha
>>> lumpy brn sugar into my large wire strainer and used the fine particles
>>> that sifted through. I then tossed the reamaining brn sugar rocks in
>>> da' trash. I'll buy some new stuff next week.
>>
>>
>> Just last week I read in a cooking magazine (e.g., Cooking Light, Food &
>> Wine, Cook's Country, Cook's Illustrated, or Cuisine at Home) that
>> keeping a marshmallow or two in with the brown sugar will keep it from
>> bricking or getting clumpy. My guess is it works and might be a
>> preferable alternative to a slice of bread ;-)
>>
>
> What's wrong with a piece of bread in the sugar? It works almost like
> magic. The bread in my sugar canister sits at the bottom and you don't
> see it. You have no trouble digging your way down to it because it does
> such a good job of keeping the sugar soft.
>

;-) Nothing is wrong with using bread to keep brown sugar loose. Isn't
it nice to have more options.

Sky

================================
Kitchen Rule #1 - Use the timer!
Kitchen Rule #2 - Cook's choice!
================================

On Mon, 21 Mar 2016 03:54:04 -0500, Sky >
wrote:

>
> Just last week I read in a cooking magazine (e.g., Cooking Light, Food &
> Wine, Cook's Country, Cook's Illustrated, or Cuisine at Home) that
> keeping a marshmallow or two in with the brown sugar will keep it from
> bricking or getting clumpy. My guess is it works and might be a
> preferable alternative to a slice of bread ;-)
>
> Sky

I don't have trouble with brown sugar hardening where I live because
of the high humidity, but it happens an hour away. DD's brown sugar
was like a brick, so I dug a hole in it and inserted an apple slice.
Completely forgot about it until I went to use it again and was
surprised by how soft and pliable the brown sugar was. I assumed
she'd purchased more until I discovered the apple slice. It was as
dried out as an apple doll's head, but still working its magic.

--

sf

On 2016-03-21 9:48 AM, sf wrote:
> On Mon, 21 Mar 2016 03:54:04 -0500, Sky >
>
> I don't have trouble with brown sugar hardening where I live because
> of the high humidity, but it happens an hour away. DD's brown sugar
> was like a brick, so I dug a hole in it and inserted an apple slice.
> Completely forgot about it until I went to use it again and was
> surprised by how soft and pliable the brown sugar was. I assumed
> she'd purchased more until I discovered the apple slice. It was as
> dried out as an apple doll's head, but still working its magic.
>


Our summer weather is humid enough that we don't need to worry about
sugar hardening into rocks. Winter weather is much drier. I tried one
of those clay disks that you soak and then put into the sugar. It worked
okay in the sugar bowl, but had to be refreshed weekly. Bread did a
much better job and does not need to be replaced.