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Molasses, Where Can I Find?


MaiDong

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I'm looking for molasses, does anybody know where I can find?

I don't really know where to start :)

I've seen an organic blackstrap molasses at Rim Ping Supermarket in Chiang Mai. I assume that other upscale supermarkets in various parts of Thailand could carry it too. But that's blackstrap molasses which to my taste is way too bitter and sulphury. Blackstrap molasses is what remains after a lot of the sugar has been removed from the cane juice.

I once did find some Granma's molasses at Rim Ping but it's long gone now. This is a molasses that is essentially just boiled down sugar cane juice with no sugar removed. It tastes great. But maybe in bangkok or elsehwere you can find it or something similar.

It has occurred to me that you can can get fresh sugar cane juice in some markets. So you could boil that down to molasses. If you are desperate enough.

Health food stores might also carry molasses.

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Thanks for your reply, I'm not totally sure what I'm looking for as I heard that molasses is part of the bacon curing process, dark treacle is also used and without looking anywhere(yet) I would imagine both are either hard to get or expensive - this despite sugar being grown and fermented/processed here...

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I'm looking for molasses, does anybody know where I can find?

I don't really know where to start :)

Rim Ping does stock them, but the shelves are not always replenished, thus sometimes one has to wait for months before new supply comes in, the product is imported from Australia and this might delay the supply.

Molasses are produces in three grades, "mild, dark, and black", those are three boiling point processes that will eliminate the sugar content from the Molasses (either cane or beet) in order to produce sugar of that particular type.

However, even after the last boiling process (grate 3) there is still a considerable sugar content in black molasses, so if it is intended for health consumption (due to its mineral contents) bear this in mind and consume just one dessert spoon daily otherwise you will increase you sugar intake with all the negative health aspects involved.

.

Moreover, go for the non sulphurous type, since sulphur dioxide is a bleach like preservative that has no benefit other to increase the products shelve live, molasses from mature plants (cane or beet) do not really need sulphur dioxide, but molasses produced from younger plants appear to need it hence the induction of it, therefore read the label on the jars in order to find out, unfortunately however, depending on the manufacturer, it is not always stated on the label, so look around in order to find out.

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Thanks for the info personchester, would you know what stage molasses I would use for curing bacon for example? I've googled it but can't find anything...

MaiDong ... For curing bacon you need the least sugary type (grade 3) the last boiling stage, that is to say "Black Strap Molasses" the product from Australia comes in a 550 g.

jar and the price is in the region of 220 Baht.

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Thanks for the info personchester, would you know what stage molasses I would use for curing bacon for example? I've googled it but can't find anything...

MaiDong ... For curing bacon you need the least sugary type (grade 3) the last boiling stage, that is to say "Black Strap Molasses" the product from Australia comes in a 550 g.

jar and the price is in the region of 220 Baht.

All the recipes I've seen for bacon call for brown sugar or maple syrup. Which is not to say that you couldn't use molasses. But the molasses most similar to these 2 sweeteners is the light or grade 1 molasses not black strap molasses. Unless you use a very tiny bit, you're going to have a very bitter taste. But if you do use a tiny bit, you're not going to get much if any sweet flavor.

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Thanks for your reply, I'm not totally sure what I'm looking for as I heard that molasses is part of the bacon curing process, dark treacle is also used and without looking anywhere(yet) I would imagine both are either hard to get or expensive - this despite sugar being grown and fermented/processed here...

I tried using molasses for bacon once upon a time .... Might just be me.. but I did not care for the taste at all... for a breakfast type application.. or sandwiches....

Now I just use brown sugar...... funny thought, if you want to make brown sugar ...you just ad a little molasses to white sugar...

S.J.C

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Now there's an example of the best way to confuse someone! :)

OK, just bought a bacon curing kit (is that an advert?) so I'm going to try it first, if the results are negative then I'll try it with brown sugar I suppose...

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Now there's an example of the best way to confuse someone! :)

OK, just bought a bacon curing kit (is that an advert?) so I'm going to try it first, if the results are negative then I'll try it with brown sugar I suppose...

Sorry for the confusion.... let me try again ....... In order to balance out the sweet/salty you would need far more straight molasses on its own... than the tiny amount that is in Brown sugar..... I was trying to give you the reason you would use Brown sugar over white...... a few black peppercorns and a bay leaf's also ad a nice touch ... but go easy on the bay...

Good luck with making bacon...... but I think you just payed 550thb for a plastic container (25thb) and a bag of salt/sugar (60thb) ....... hope it has some pretty pictures on the box....

S.J.C

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Good luck with making bacon...... but I think you just payed 550thb for a plastic container (25thb) and a bag of salt/sugar (60thb) ....... hope it has some pretty pictures on the box....

S.J.C

It was convenient, that's what was appealing, I understand your point though. It was also a birthday gift so I'm quite happy with it :)

The brine mix came in tubs and was a clumpy, salty mix of things, with a really nice smell of 'smoke' which I haven't got a clue how to create without either building a smoker - which I don't have the space for - or buying liquid smoke from either abroad or from a supermarket here at an inflated price - if it's even sold here. So all-in-all I'm happy enough :D

maybe you can shed some light on the 'smoke' ingredient SlackJawChef? Is it available here?

Edited by MaiDong
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Here's one of the tubs of brine mix I received, if anybody can tell me what is in it, apart from the salt as I can clearly define that, then once this lot is finished I'll try it by myself.

post-78826-1255156297_thumb.jpg

post-78826-1255156303_thumb.jpg

Hi MaiDong

You can get smoke powder from Try goggling .... ROYAL EXQUISITE FOOD PATTAYA .... give them a call... they have liquid and powderd.. and sodium nitrite brining salts.

Good luck

S.J.C

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Thanks for the info personchester, would you know what stage molasses I would use for curing bacon for example? I've googled it but can't find anything...

MaiDong ... For curing bacon you need the least sugary type (grade 3) the last boiling stage, that is to say "Black Strap Molasses" the product from Australia comes in a 550 g.

jar and the price is in the region of 220 Baht.

All the recipes I've seen for bacon call for brown sugar or maple syrup. Which is not to say that you couldn't use molasses. But the molasses most similar to these 2 sweeteners is the light or grade 1 molasses not black strap molasses. Unless you use a very tiny bit, you're going to have a very bitter taste. But if you do use a tiny bit, you're not going to get much if any sweet flavor.

Of course, it depends on what kind of bacon you are aiming for...

However, I have looked at a lot of bacon recipes, from Canadian and American, to German.

Cant say I've seen a recipe with molasses.

Seems to me it would be too heavy a flavor.

In fact, I have a sausage/meat recipe database with about 300 recipes from Alkermes to Zampone ... all proven to be quite authentic in formulation, not just anything off the Internet. I just now searched all the meat recipes for "molasses" - got 6 hits - all were for poultry or fish brine (and they didnt use a lot - 1/4 cup or so).

If your aim is an "American" style bacon, I'd say stay away from molasses. My preference is a light-brown sugar - not dark - for a breakfast bacon. I prefer the smokiness to take front stage on the palate; the sweetness and saltiness to be secondary.

However for a Canadian style bacon (which is made from a loin cut), sweetness should be a bit more pronounced, but of course, coming from maple syrup and brown sugar.

A number of recipes employ brown sugar, though.

Edited by ChefHeat
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