Muscovado Sugar

Muscovado Sugar, let's talk about it properly.

This is unrefined cane sugar, and it never loses what makes it special. Pick it up and it feels damp, almost sticky, nothing like the dry grains of white sugar. Leave the bag open for a few days and you'll find it's gone hard and lumpy on you, so close it tight every time. Stir Muscovado Sugar into a sauce or a marinade and it should melt in fast, leaving behind a dark, glossy sheen and that deep molasses smell rising with the steam.

How do you choose good Muscovado Sugar? Squeeze a pinch between your fingers. It should pack together like wet sand, not crumble dry. Smell it — you want a deep, almost smoky molasses note, not a flat sweetness. The color ranges from light brown to very dark; go by smell and feel, not by how dark it looks.

Some people say Muscovado Sugar is just brown sugar with caramel coloring added. No! Ordinary brown sugar is often refined white sugar with molasses sprayed back on top. Muscovado Sugar carries its molasses from the very start, and you can taste the difference.

That misconception leads cooks to substitute ordinary brown sugar one-for-one in a marinade or a cake and wonder why the flavor comes out thin, missing that bitter-sweet backbone Muscovado Sugar gives for free.