Recently we talked about the beetroot sugar, learning that its color can debunk false myths: being white does not necessarily mean being 'chemically bleached', just as being dark does not mean being integral.
In our right research in not exceeding superfluous sugars, we often tend to eliminate it entirely from the 'sugar' product, replacing it with low-calorie sweeteners like stevia, excellent products and sweets like honey or alternatives like maple syrup. Very well. And it is true that glucose of which ours brain it needs to be found naturally and in sufficient quantities in many products of the earth, starting from beet, in fact, real natural candy, but also in onions, in turnips with hidden virtues, in kiwi rather than dates.
Yet cooking sugar (which is glucose combined with sucrose), when it is full-bodied, has excellent nutrients to offer. Of course, most often also cane it is refined – often with coal made from bovine bones – is even when it remains amber or brown it is only a few steps away in the refining process. In the latter case, this is sugar of 'raw' cane: it is simply less refined than white; often it is added with molasses or caramel and its grains are regular in shape and size. At a nutritional level, it does not differ significantly from the sugar of beet.
Another topic is brown sugar really integral: must show up wet and soft, dusty with small dark nuggets and not crystalline; aroma typical and intensesweetish. The most well-known among those widespread on the market in our country, usually with a valid fair trade mark, is the Mascobado (or Muscovado), mainly from the Philippines and Mauritius. But other qualities also exist, like the South American ones Dulcita, which is grown in altitude in the Andes, and Panela, which usually comes in the form of bricks.
Compared to traditional sugar (beet white), this contains one lower percentage of sucrose (10-15% less) e less calories (about 356 kcl against 392 kcl). Not only: it is rich in nutrients of which the other is deprived, and in particular many mineral salts tincluding iron, calcium, phosphorus, potassium and magnesium e vitamins of various groups, A, E; C and some in particular of group B. All these nutrients remain substantially unchanged during processing.
Sweeten a little less, but above all the aroma is different: the molasses naturally present gives it a vaguely licorice aftertaste. Aroma that at the beginning can be perceived as too strong and particular, but that soon comes usually valued and becomes an indispensable ingredient in the kitchen. For sweet and even savory recipes (excellent pairing with meat) and of course in the cup of coffee.
Carola Traverso Saibante
March 2019
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