Sugar from beets is an alternative sugar that tastes different than the sugar from sugarcane. You can make your own sugar from beets but you have to know how to get sugar from red beets.
Red Beets
Beets are root veggies that have the highest sugar content compared to all vegetables. They also contain lots of antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals that give you a healthy and nutritious meal when added to your diet. With beets, you don’t have to worry about consuming too much sugar. Red beets are mostly used in salads, making beet juice, or for beauty. However, there is another type of beet which is white called sugar beets that are used to produce sugar. Beets have the following benefits.
- Help in fighting inflammation with the help of betaine, a nutrient found in beets. It helps to protect your internal organs and cells, prevent chronic diseases, and enhance your performance.
- Beets contain betalain pigments that are helpful in detoxifying your body. Beets remove all the toxins in your body and make it easier to excrete the harmful waste purifying your blood and liver.
- They are very high in minerals like manganese that helps support your bones and kidneys, potassium that is good for your muscles and nerves. Vitamin C which boosts your immunity and folate that is good for preventing birth defects in newborns.
- Beets pack a lot of dietary nitrates that are converted into nitric oxide that helps lower your blood pressure. It dilates your blood vessels increasing blood flow and oxygen to your body.
Sugar beets
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Red beets are red because of betalain pigment which is eliminated in refining white sugar. And sugar is mostly got from sugar beets, not red beets.Sugar got from sugar beets is quite different. It has a more earthy smell and a slightly veggie taste. Hemoglobin is a protein found in your red blood cells that is responsible for carrying oxygen to your entire body.
However, it’s much easier to extract sugar from beets than extracting hemoglobin. Although it’s a human protein it’s also found in plants and especially sugar beets. Sugar beets are elongated and look more like white potatoes. Sugar beets aren’t really meant for human consumption. Once you make the sugar what is left can be fed to your livestock.
How to get sugar from red beets
It’s easy to make sugar from sugar beets that don’t require you to have the machinery to do it. Here is how you do it.
- Wash your beets thoroughly to get all the dirt and debris from them. To get 1 cup of sugar you will need 10 pounds of sugar beets.
- Dice, shred, or slice thinly the beets and put them in a big pot.
- Add enough water that will cover the beets.
- Bring it to a boil then let it simmer till the beets become soft and tender.
- Remove from the heat then using a cheesecloth strain the beet pulp from the juice. Then return the syrup back in the pot.
- Hold the cheesecloth with the pulp over the pot and squeeze out as much water as you can.
- Let the liquid simmer till the liquid becomes a honey-like thick syrup. Keep stirring frequently till you get the right consistency.
- Remove it from the heat then place it in a container and let it cool.
- Once it cools the sugar crystallizes. Remove the crystals and smash them using your fingers to a powder that resembles sugar particles.
- Now it’s ready to be stored and used like regular sugar.
Sugar beets contain 15% sugar content while regular beets contain 5% sugar. The sugar you’ve just made is raw or brown sugar which means it still has its molasses so it won’t taste anything like regular sugar. Click here to learn how to get sugar from sugar beets.
Now you know you can take beet sugar as an alternative
Red beets contain 5% sugar while sugar beets contain 15% sugar which means you can only get sugar from sugar beets, not red beets. Apart from the industrial way of extracting sugar from beets, there is a simple way of learning how to get sugar from red beets or rather sugar beets. It’s simple and you can do it at home.
FAQ
What is better beet sugar or cane sugar?
The molasses in beet sugar isn’t suitable for human consumption but the cane sugar the molasses is left in the sugar. Cane sugar also caramelizes better than beet sugar.
How many sugar beets make a pound of sugar?
You use 12 sugar beets to get one pound of sugar. It has nutritional value and has a sweet taste just like cane sugar.
Are sugar beets the same as beets?
Sugar beets are white and large and are mostly processed to make sugar not to eat as a veggie. However, they’re the same as your garden beets and from the same species.
What does sugar beet taste like?
Sugar beets taste like a white potato with sugar when raw. They contain more sugar content than the red beets.
Can you make sugar from red beets?
Sugar is mostly got from sugar beets, not red beets. Sugar beets are white, not red and they don’t contain a red liquid.
