Of all the liquid sweeteners, thick, dark, viscousmolassesis probably the most complex. Depending on its strength, molasses can taste from lightly sweet to smoky-sweet to harshly bittersweet, and its history is almost as complicated as its flavor.
Making molasses – the process of pressingsugarcane and boiling its juice until it crystalized – was developed inIndiaas early as 500 B.C.E. In the Middle Ages, the concept made its way to Europe when it's believed Arab invaders brought it to Spain. From there, molasses-making took another voyage across the Atlantic whenChristopher Columbusbrought sugar cane to the West Indies. Molasses also was part of thetriangular slave tradeof the 1600s. Slave traders would bring slaves from Africa to the West Indies in exchange for English rum. These slaves were sold to sugarcane plantations to harvest the sugar for molasses, which was then carried back to the colonies and to England. In England, molasses is often called blacktreacle. Because it was relatively inexpensive, up until the 1880s, molasses was the most popular sweetener in the United States.
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We talked with Atlanta-based healthy chef and cookbook authorNancy Waldeckto get the 411 on molasses – the different types, ways to use it in cooking and even some of the sticky stuff's health benefits.
"There are actually two kinds of molasses," she says. "Sugar beet molasses and sugar cane molasses. The kind we use (in cooking) is sugar cane molasses."
Sugar cane molasses has a different consistency than molasses made from sugar beets. It's lighter (in viscosity) and sweeter. Sugar beet molasses is primarily used for animal feed and other commercial uses, such as distilling and even pharmaceuticals.
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