I would substitute white sugar 1:1 for dehydrated cane juice sugar. You will be missing a tiny bit of color and minute amounts of nutrients which are missing in white sugar. I don't see any "science" that would make it necessary to use dehydrated cane juice sugar in the recipe - it's just a choice - neither right or wrong.

If the author of the recipe was on the white granulated sugar is "poison" bandwagon, that would put dehydrated cane juice sugar in the just ever so slightly better than "poison" category. Or as Jerry Garcia (Grateful Dead) puts it, "The lesser of two evils is still evil". ;-)

Most of the dehydrated cane juice sugars (Sucanat, Rapadura, Panela, Muscovado) are more coarse than white granulated sugar, and can be more difficult to dissolve, and some even leave residue solids, so they are at a slight disadvantage in cooking compared to white granulated sugar.

-Grainlady

Thanks, plllog and Grainlady.

plllog, that's pretty much what I was planning to do.

Grainlady, I suspect it's not the "sugar is evil" thing so much as that the recipe is an adaptation of one that's 4000 years old:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-36415079

I'm not sure how much "a fresh turmeric" is either--my plant has plenty of roots, but I'll figure that one out, too.

I don't know about in India, but where I live, an average single turmuric item (root? pot? tubule?) is about 1.5-2" long and about half an inch thick.

Grainlady and I both had the same reaction to the dehydrated cane juice--that it was one of the anti-factory, pro-sugar people. There's something on the market that is supposed to be naturally processed cane sugar--pressed in a screw press or something, then the juice is evaporated in a warm drying house. Considering the small amount of concentrated sugar you should ingest if you want a more "natural" diet, fussing about the other nutrients in cane is silly because you're not getting enough in that one spoon in the sauce for it to matter. Ancient recipes are a whole other ball of wax. :)

If you wanted to go authentic, I'm guessing that muscovado sugar would be pretty close. It is unrefined and still a bit wet with the molasses. You could use brown sugar, or add a drop of molasses to your white sugar, if you wanted to add that flavor component.

where I live, an average single turmuric item (root? pot? tubule?) is about 1.5-2" long and about half an inch thick.

Yes, same here, but that seems like that would be more turmeric-y than 1/4 tsp dried, which was what confused me a bit. Thanks for the muscovado suggestion.

Use brown sugar.

I think dehydrated cane juice sugar has more molasses and "inverted sugar" just like brown sugar.

dcarch.

Thanks, dcarch.

Oh! I thought it meant one rhizome and you wanted to know how big a one. I looked it up. Rhizome is the word for turmeric thingy. :)

I found this on The Kitchn:

Equivalents

As a general rule of thumb:

1 inch fresh turmeric = 1 tablespoon freshly grated turmeric = 1 teaspoon ground turmeric

BTW, awhile back, when I was too busy and distracted to pay attention, you offered to talk about the culinary history in South Florida. If you're not too busy with your ancient cookery and all, and would like to tell about it, I'm sure I'm not the only one who would benefit. I didn't want to start a thread and put you on the spot if you'd rather not.

No, go ahead. I'm not sure I'll have the answers, but ask away.