Golden Syrup origins

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marshbrewer

Out on the marshes, wailing at the moon.
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This post is probably of interest to nobody but me, but I thought I'd share it. The use of Golden Syrup in place of either brewers invert syrup or Candi syrup is well established, and the making at home of the various grades of either by heating or mixing with molasses has been covered before. Brewers invert is manufactured from sugar from cane, where as Candi syrup is usually manufactured from sugar from beet. This may seem trivial, but beet sugar *has* to be refined before it can be used, where as cane sugar doesn't and can contain lots of interesting compounds which means that the two resulting syrups are different in composition and the flavour they impart to a beer.

This obviously begged the question; what are the various Golden Syrups available in super markets made from? Or perhaps it was just me. Anyhow, I thought I would pester the various customer service departments of the major supermarkets and see if I could find out.

The results are below, with two exceptions. I didn't bother asking Lidl as they don't appear to have an 'own brand' Golden Syrup, preferring to stock Tate & Lyle. The other exception was Sainsburys, who point blank refused to discuss the issue. I have therefore concluded that their own brand Golden Syrup is made from radioactive horse manure.

Just to clarify, the grandaddy of them all, Tate and Lyle Golden Syrup (as with all their consumer products) is sourced from Sugar Cane.

SupermarketProduct NameType
MorrisonsMorrisons Golden SyrupCane
AldiThe Pantry Golden SyrupBeet
ASDAASDA Great to Bake Golden SyrupCane
TescoTesco Golden SyrupBeet
Sainsbury’sSainsbury's Golden SyrupRefused to specify / Radioactive Horse Manure

This was interesting for me, as Morrisons own brand, for instance, works out cheaper than Tyle & Lyle (even when purchased in bulk) and comes in handy squeezable containers. In face, they all seem to come in identical containers, and I fully expected them to all hail from the same source, but as you can see, they don't.

Hope someone finds that useful. There is a flaw in all of this - there is some suggestion that *all* golden syrup is manufactured from refined white sugar these days (irrespective of source). I don't know if that means the whole exercise was futile.
 
This post is probably of interest to nobody but me, but I thought I'd share it. ...
You should have been a little more "precise" with your questioning. For brewer's invert sugar you need more than just cane or beet, 'cos they might of used highly refined cane which is no better than beet. Of more interest is "proteins" which is 0.5% in the Lyle's stuff (the analysis is on the container) and will be zilch in the highly refined "imitations". This might create "Maillard reaction" products when later cooked. You have seen my thread on the subject 'cos you posted in it. My most up-to-date addition to that is here: Brewer's Invert Sugar.

I've still to try cooking golden syrup to try making brewers' invert, but I have 7.257Kg of the Lyle's stuff (catering drum) and an Instant Pot Air Fryer to bake it in (they bake at very precise temperatures). I'll get to it shortly.

Ragus have a particular interest in golden syrup as they claim their founder invented it, this blog has a nice video about how they make it :

https://www.ragus.co.uk/golden-syrup/
But not enough interest in their product to make it easily accessible to consumers! So "stuff them"; and stuff their "fake" brewers' invert sugars (20% added glucose!).
 
You should have been a little more "precise" with your questioning.

ASDA actually confirmed theirs was made from white sugar from sugar cane. The rest just the sugar type.

and an Instant Pot Air Fryer to bake it in (they bake at very precise temperatures)

Great minds think alike...
I actually want to mod an old Tefal actifry for this purpose, as it stirs the stuff it's air frying with a paddle thing. Unfortunately, none of the models I can find second hand have any sort of temp control, just a timer so I would need to add that somehow.
 
As much as I would want to make my own syrups, like Lyle's and the Belgian kinds, I miss the mark with the thermometer or some other error.
Once, I was able to make a golden syrup that came out syrupy but who knows how good it actually was?
 
I actually want to mod an old Tefal actifry for this purpose, as it stirs the stuff it's air frying with a paddle thing. Unfortunately, none of the models I can find second hand have any sort of temp control, just a timer so I would need to add that somehow.
That's why I got an Instant Pot Air Fryer: Very precise temperature control (select baking in 1°C increments and down to ... below 90°C-ish, which earlier Instant Pots couldn't do). The timer looks like it needs some gymnastics as it only allows for 1-hour bakes. The extra 3L inner pot fits nicely inside the 5.7L one giving a double pan arrangement (plus a "trivet" and improvised lid to prevent the syrup drying out).

Oh aye: And most importantly, those air-fryers make flippin' good chips!

The "real" Belgium syrups are inverted cane sugar apparently. So, not much different to British Brewers' Invert.
 
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