Does Billington's brown sugar really have more flavor than other brown
sugars? It costs 4 times as much as the store brand. The bag says that
other brown sugars are brown on the outside, but inside they're really
white refined sugar. Is this true or just hype? I really hate how a lot
of foods have been downgraded in recent decades, being made less
healthy, less flavorful, and/or lower quality. Someone said recently on
this newsgroup that brown sugar doesn't have as deep a flavor as it
used to.

On Mon 05 Sep 2005 12:36:01a, wrote in rec.food.cooking:

> Does Billington's brown sugar really have more flavor than other brown
> sugars? It costs 4 times as much as the store brand. The bag says that
> other brown sugars are brown on the outside, but inside they're really
> white refined sugar. Is this true or just hype? I really hate how a lot
> of foods have been downgraded in recent decades, being made less
> healthy, less flavorful, and/or lower quality. Someone said recently on
> this newsgroup that brown sugar doesn't have as deep a flavor as it
> used to.

Most brown sugar available today, whether dark or light, is actually
refined white sugar with molasses added back in (in varying quantities).

I'm not familiar with Billington's, but if it's "genuine" brown sugar, then
it's sugar that has not been processed beyond the point of being brown, and
is not ultra-refined.

Hope that's not confusing.

--
Wayne Boatwright *¿*
____________________________________________

My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four,
unless there are three other people.

On Mon 05 Sep 2005 09:18:26p, Craig Welch wrote in rec.food.cooking:

> On 5 Sep 2005 09:51:13 +0200, Wayne Boatwright
> > wrote:
>
>>Most brown sugar available today, whether dark or light, is actually
>>refined white sugar with molasses added back in (in varying quantities).
>
> All the brown sugar available to me is just what it says, brown
> (i.e. not fully refined) sugar.
>

You're lucky.

--
Wayne Boatwright *¿*
____________________________________________

My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four,
unless there are three other people.

>Most brown sugar available today, whether dark or light, is actually
>refined white sugar with molasses added back in (in varying quantities).

How about C&H brand? I looked on their web site and it says it's brown
all the way through.

Craig Welch > wrote in
:

> On 5 Sep 2005 09:51:13 +0200, Wayne Boatwright
> > wrote:
>
>>Most brown sugar available today, whether dark or light, is actually
>>refined white sugar with molasses added back in (in varying quantities).
>
> All the brown sugar available to me is just what it says, brown
> (i.e. not fully refined) sugar.
>

Hi Craig,

Long time no see. Just wondering what brand brown sugar you get up there? I
usually just get CSR (not even sure what else is on the shelf at Woolies).
Just checked CSR's site, and it gives cane sugar and cane syrups as the
ingredients for brown sugar, and for dark brown sugar - which I would take
to mean that it is refined sugar with sugar syrup added back in.

Rhonda Anderson
Cranebrook, NSW, Australia

On Tue 06 Sep 2005 04:26:03a, wrote in rec.food.cooking:

>>Most brown sugar available today, whether dark or light, is actually
>>refined white sugar with molasses added back in (in varying quantities).
>
> How about C&H brand? I looked on their web site and it says it's brown
> all the way through.

When I lived in OH I could get C&H. I never see it in the stores where I
live now.

--
Wayne Boatwright *¿*
____________________________________________

My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four,
unless there are three other people.

Wayne Boatwright wrote:
>
> On Tue 06 Sep 2005 04:26:03a, wrote in rec.food.cooking:
>
> >>Most brown sugar available today, whether dark or light, is actually
> >>refined white sugar with molasses added back in (in varying quantities).
> >
> > How about C&H brand? I looked on their web site and it says it's brown
> > all the way through.
>
> When I lived in OH I could get C&H. I never see it in the stores where I
> live now.
>
> --
> Wayne Boatwright *¿*

Surprised at that Wayne. I'm nearly a neighbour of yours in the desert
and we get C&H at Costco. But supermarkets have it too.

On Tue 06 Sep 2005 03:51:51p, Arri London wrote in rec.food.cooking:


> Surprised at that Wayne. I'm nearly a neighbour of yours in the desert
> and we get C&H at Costco. But supermarkets have it too.

Some stores carry their white sugar, but I've not seen the brown. Don't know
about Costco. I've never looked for sugar there.

--
Wayne Boatwright *¿*
____________________________________________

My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four,
unless there are three other people.

The C&H brown sugar in the box seems to be the "real deal".
I get it at Albertsons. Only stuff that works for Penuche
frosting. (Boiled brown sugar cake icing.)

The rest of the stuff I've tried reverts back to white sugar
quite rapidly if not tightly sealed.

Now when I was cooking for some friends in Costa Rica and
went to the markets there you could smell the brown sugar
a mile away. YUM!!!

Bart D. Hull

Tempe, Arizona

Check http://www.inficad.com/~bdhull/engine.html
for my Subaru Engine Conversion
Check http://www.inficad.com/~bdhull/fuselage.html
for Tango II I'm building.

Remove -nospam to reply via email.

Wayne Boatwright wrote:
> On Tue 06 Sep 2005 03:51:51p, Arri London wrote in rec.food.cooking:
>
>
>
>>Surprised at that Wayne. I'm nearly a neighbour of yours in the desert
>>and we get C&H at Costco. But supermarkets have it too.
>
>
> Some stores carry their white sugar, but I've not seen the brown. Don't know
> about Costco. I've never looked for sugar there.
>

On Tue 06 Sep 2005 09:45:17p, Bart D. Hull wrote in rec.food.cooking:

> The C&H brown sugar in the box seems to be the "real deal".
> I get it at Albertsons. Only stuff that works for Penuche
> frosting. (Boiled brown sugar cake icing.)
>
> The rest of the stuff I've tried reverts back to white sugar
> quite rapidly if not tightly sealed.
>
> Now when I was cooking for some friends in Costa Rica and
> went to the markets there you could smell the brown sugar
> a mile away. YUM!!!
>
> Bart D. Hull
>
> Tempe, Arizona

Thanks, Bart. That would explain it. I don't usually shop Albertson's.
I'll have to make a trip there soon.

--
Wayne Boatwright *¿*
____________________________________________

My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four,
unless there are three other people.

Wayne Boatwright wrote:
> On Tue 06 Sep 2005 09:45:17p, Bart D. Hull wrote in rec.food.cooking:
>
>
>>The C&H brown sugar in the box seems to be the "real deal".
>>I get it at Albertsons. Only stuff that works for Penuche
>>frosting. (Boiled brown sugar cake icing.)
>>
>>The rest of the stuff I've tried reverts back to white sugar
>>quite rapidly if not tightly sealed.
>>
>>Now when I was cooking for some friends in Costa Rica and
>>went to the markets there you could smell the brown sugar
>>a mile away. YUM!!!
>>
>>Bart D. Hull

>>Tempe, Arizona
>
>
> Thanks, Bart. That would explain it. I don't usually shop Albertson's.
> I'll have to make a trip there soon.
>

C & H is widely available.


jim

On Wed 07 Sep 2005 10:02:48a, JimLane wrote in rec.food.cooking:

> Wayne Boatwright wrote:
>> On Tue 06 Sep 2005 09:45:17p, Bart D. Hull wrote in rec.food.cooking:
>>
>>
>>>The C&H brown sugar in the box seems to be the "real deal".
>>>I get it at Albertsons. Only stuff that works for Penuche
>>>frosting. (Boiled brown sugar cake icing.)
>>>
>>>The rest of the stuff I've tried reverts back to white sugar
>>>quite rapidly if not tightly sealed.
>>>
>>>Now when I was cooking for some friends in Costa Rica and
>>>went to the markets there you could smell the brown sugar
>>>a mile away. YUM!!!
>>>
>>>Bart D. Hull

>>>Tempe, Arizona
>>
>>
>> Thanks, Bart. That would explain it. I don't usually shop Albertson's.
>> I'll have to make a trip there soon.
>>
>
> C & H is widely available.
>
>
> jim

Apparently not in the supermarkets where I usually shop.

--
Wayne Boatwright *¿*
____________________________________________

Give me a smart idiot over a stupid genius any day.
Sam Goldwyn, 1882-1974

Bart D. Hull wrote:
> The C&H brown sugar in the box seems to be the "real deal".
> I get it at Albertsons. Only stuff that works for Penuche
> frosting. (Boiled brown sugar cake icing.)
>
<snip>

Oh, penuche! My grandma used to make penuche frosting on devil's food
cake and I loved it so much that she began to make big batches of it
like fudge for me!

I have a ercipe for mock penuche that is a browned butter type icing
with brown sugar, but it's not the same. I've never really done cooked
frostings but I'd love to make penuche like grandma did. Best frosting
in the world for a chocolate cake, topeed with some pecans of course.
YUM!

Wayne Boatwright wrote:
>
> On Tue 06 Sep 2005 03:51:51p, Arri London wrote in rec.food.cooking:
>
> > Surprised at that Wayne. I'm nearly a neighbour of yours in the desert
> > and we get C&H at Costco. But supermarkets have it too.
>
> Some stores carry their white sugar, but I've not seen the brown. Don't know
> about Costco. I've never looked for sugar there.
>
> --
> Wayne Boatwright *¿*
>

Sometimes they also have the brown and sometimes not.

wrote:

> Does Billington's brown sugar really have more flavor than other brown
> sugars? It costs 4 times as much as the store brand. The bag says that
> other brown sugars are brown on the outside, but inside they're really
> white refined sugar. Is this true or just hype? I really hate how a lot
> of foods have been downgraded in recent decades, being made less
> healthy, less flavorful, and/or lower quality. Someone said recently on
> this newsgroup that brown sugar doesn't have as deep a flavor as it
> used to.
>
I shelled out for Billington's brown sugar, and I didn't like
it. Might have just been me though--and a matter of what I am
used to.

--
Jean B.

G'day Craig,

I hadn't been following this post, but happened to open your latest
contribution tonight. So, stepping back a bit:

In article >,
wrote:
>On Tue, 06 Sep 2005 12:08:11 GMT, Rhonda Anderson
> wrote:
>
>>>>Most brown sugar available today, whether dark or light, is actually
>>>>refined white sugar with molasses added back in (in varying quantities).
>>>
>>> All the brown sugar available to me is just what it says, brown
>>> (i.e. not fully refined) sugar.

Are you really sure about that. My connections in the industry always
said retail "brown sugar" was simply refined sugar with molasses added
back. This goes back several decades, so things may have changed in
recent years -- certainly things are changing pretty rapidly since
"deregulation" got into swing and individual mills are being allowed
to sell product directly to the market instead of it all going to the
central marketing organisation.

One reason for the "refine and replace" procedure had to do with food
regulations which pretty much precluded mills doing their own thing as
their manufacturing operations did not comply. (Not enough stainless
steel around the place. ;-)

The only "brown sugar" I know that is not a reconstituted product is
"raw sugar" -- the lighter coloured crystals that the mills produce as
a commodity product. Some mills also occasionally produced "mill
white" which was (is?) basically raw sugar simply given a bit more of
a wash going through the fugals. The old sugar regulations allowed
mills (the co-op ones anyway; not sure about CSR etc.) to sell a
limited amount of "mill white" to their cane suppliers each season.

All that said, I guess it's quite possible for a mill to produce a
form of "brown sugar" for retail sale now, given factory equipment
that meets the food regulations. It could be easily done -- the old B
Grade fugals produced a pretty similar product years ago, but at that
time I think it was mostly (all?) recycled through the crystallisation
process so the sucrose was recovered as normal raw sugar.

>>Long time no see. Just wondering what brand brown sugar you get up there?
>
>Bundaberg.
>
>> I usually just get CSR (not even sure what else is on the shelf at Woolies).
>>Just checked CSR's site, and it gives cane sugar and cane syrups as the
>>ingredients for brown sugar, and for dark brown sugar - which I would take
>>to mean that it is refined sugar with sugar syrup added back in.
>
>It seems so. I worked as CSR many decades ago, and at that time
>there was no added sugar ...
>
>Just used some brown sugar in tonight's prawn curry.


Cheers, Phred.

--
LID