Chinese yellow rock sugar is lumps of crystallized sugar made from unprocessed sugar cane. It has a yellow tinge to it and is often used in Asian cooking.
How Do You Use It?
Rock sugar is less sweet than granulated sugar, but it has no distinct flavor to it besides being sweet but it is great at lightly sweetening anything without an overpowering sweetness. When used in marinades and sauces, it can also impart a nice shiny sheen to the food.
How to Substitute Rock Sugar
If you cannot find this type of sugar, you can substitute it with cane sugar or white sugar. It doesn't substitute 1:1 since rock sugar is a little less sweet, so put a little less sugar if you are substituting it.
Where Can I Buy Rock Sugar?
You can find these in any Asian grocery store. I find that it is most common at Chinese grocery stores. It is also known as rock candy, lump sugar, or sugar crystal as well.
Alternatively, you can also find rock sugar online on Amazon as well.
How Do I Store Rock Sugar
Rock sugar lumps can be up to 3cm x 3cm in size and need to be broken up into smaller pieces to be used. It is most commonly used in Chinese desserts, soups, marinades, and tea. Once opened, this can be stored in a well-sealed container or ziplock bag in a dry cool place.
Alyssa @ A Bite of Inspiration says
I love love Chinese rock sugar. When I was a kid, my family and I would go to this Dim Sum place that always brought us rock sugar with our tea. Apparently, I thought this was dessert because I would just sit there and eat the rock sugar like candy. I wish I could get away with eating rock sugar at restaurants still... The things we can get away with as kids. 😉 Thanks for featuring this awesome ingredient, Joyce!
Joyce says
No way haha! These lumps are a huge! I do recall having bits crushed for me to enjoy though! Wait we can still get away with annnnnnnnnnything! 😀