Spice
Cane Sugar
Cane sugar is refined or partly refined sucrose from sugarcane, the everyday sweetener of baking, preserving, drinks, and savoury glazes. Crystal size and residual molasses define styles from fine caster and icing sugar to demerara, muscovado, and soft brown sugars. Unlike fruit sugars or honey, cane sugar is a dry pantry staple that creams with butter, caramelises cleanly, and measures predictably in recipes. Beet sugar is chemically similar but this entry covers cane-origin culinary sugars.
Also known as: Cane / Gur styles
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History
Sugarcane cultivation and early sugar refining developed in South Asia.
Sugar-making techniques spread through the Islamic world into the Mediterranean.
Colonial sugarcane plantations in the Caribbean and Americas industrialised global cane sugar supply.
Refined white cane sugar and specialised baking sugars became mass-market pantry staples.