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Cologne / Germany

If I look for molasses over here, I have to go with something translated as syrup. Many US recipes call for molasses AND syrup (eg dark corn syrup) and I can´t find the difference. Can someone explain it and what I have to look for?
Thanks a lot, Ingo

4/6/2005 10:35:22 PM

Menomonie, WI (mail@gr8pumpkin.net)

Zuckersirup
Molasses or treacle is a thick, syrupy derivative of the juice of the sugar cane plant or the processing of sugar beet. The quality of molasses depends on the maturity of the sugar cane or beet, the amount of sugar extracted, and the method of extraction. There are three major types of molasses: unsulphured, sulphured and blackstrap. There are also three major grades of molasses: first molasses, second molasses, and blackstrap molasses.

Unsulphured molasses is the finest quality. It is made from the juice of sun-ripened cane and the juice is clarified and concentrated. Sulphured molasses is made from green (unripe) sugar cane and is treated with sulphur fumes during the sugar extraction process.

4/7/2005 9:08:09 AM

Utah

http://www.grandmasmolasses.com/what_is.html

The highest grade, pure molasses - like Grandma's - is made from 100% pure, natural sugarcane juices, clarified, reduced, and blended to get just the right color and consistency. But there's difference in grades of molasses.

The purest molasses is pure cane juice. If a manufacturer wants sugar, the cane juice will be processed. The result is a raw sugar and low purity molasses. But Grandma's Original Molasses (Gold Label) is the original, high purity, unprocessed cane juice without any sugar extraction. In manufacturing raw sugar, after the cane has been harvested and mashed, the raw juices are boiled to extract sugar. To produce table sugar, the manufacturer will further process raw sugar into refined sugar. The remaining syrup - after the sugar has been crystallized - is called first molasses. Grandma's Robust Molasses (Green Label) is a blend of first molasses. First molasses, a thick brown syrup, is then thinned with water and re-boiled so that more raw sugar can be extracted.

The leftover syrup from the second boiling is second molasses, and so on. The more boiling you have, the less sweet molasses becomes until you get down to three or more boilings. By this time, molasses has almost no sweetness and is called blackstrap, which has a really bitter, unpleasant taste, and is used primarily for cattle feed and industrial purposes.

Grandma's Original Molasses is pure, concentrated cane juice, and retains its natural sugar content. What's more, it's made from special sunripened sugar cane grown in the West Indies - the only molasses made from premium quality, imported sugar cane. It's sweet, light and never bitter. Grandma's Molasses is a rich, amber-color that blends beautifully with other foods and enhances the natural flavors of the ingredients with which it is mixed.

4/7/2005 9:11:24 AM

Utah

Brown sugar is regular white sugar with molasses added.

4/7/2005 9:13:09 AM