Put a slice of orange peel or apple peel inside. Seal it up. Check it in a few days.

Or a piece of bread

Thinking a 5# bag might need a bit more moisture than a small bit of fruit peel. And I always understood that slices of fresh apple were used, not peel.

Here's one page with some tips - you can search for more of course:

https://ohshecooks.com/how-to-soften-hard-white-sugar/

The one that seems simplest to me is to cover with a wet paper towel and place in a tightly closed container until it's softened.

Another site recommended using a food steamer, placing the hardened sugar in a bowl, making sure the water can't get into the bowl, then steaming until soft.

FWIW, I always place entire bags of sugar, flour, pasta, etc. in freezer zip plastic bags for extra protection.

I vote for using a hammer, but it will have to be in a hammer-proof bag. First put it in a heavy plastic bag, and then put that bag inside a burlap bag, such as the kind that Basmati rice comes in. Then put the burlap bag on a concrete slab and hit it a few times.

If you can get it into manageable chunks, you should be able to put those into a heavy duty food processor and the process it into granules.

I've not done this with sugar, but I have with other food items.

Our sugar comes in 2 kg bags, 4.4 lbs. I've been known to pound it with a rolling pin.

"I've not done this with sugar, but I have with other food items."

I hope not potato chips or popcorn!

:)

Before you grab your baseball bat or rolling pin, try the chunk of apple. It really does work. It's the ethylene gas the apples emit that softens the sugar. And you don't need a lot :-)

I use this method to keep my Demerara sugar soft, otherwise it would turn into concrete! I wrap the chunk of apple loosely with some tin foil - enough to keep it out of direct contact with the sugar but loose enough for the gas to do its trick.

Thanks to all for these good tips! I shall experiment tomorrow.

The fact that this bag is a full five pounds (remember that?!) proves how old it is. Lol. Now sugar comes in 4+/- pounds, grrrrr.

I was wondering where the heck you found a five pound bag!

It's only a few dollars' worth of sugar, no need to knock yourself out over it.

I buy piloncillo at Cárdenas Market, which I like to use because of the flavor, and it comes in a cone that is hard as a rock. Fortunately the cone is rather small, but I have to hit it to get pieces off, and then I pulverize it in a marble mortar & pestle. If I had a metate, I would use that.

My main use for white sugar is for hummingbird feeders.

Dad used to say that when various household or kitchen goods, including cookies and sugar, got hard, we should put an apple core into the container, where there was space, or to arrange some, with a piece of wax paper, or even newspaper, I think, to keep them from direct contact.

I grew up in the days when householders in many towns and cities were transitioning from iceboxes to refrigeratorrefrigerators - 'way pre-plastic!!!

I guess t still seems to work - and we have banana peels available.

I have some aged white sugar in 2 kg. bags that's gone hard, and I can usually bring them back to being available by pounding with fists.

Today I broke some resultant chunks down using a glass jam bottle in a casserole.

Why did I forget trying an apple core, or a few, for a day, or a few?

Thanks for some suggestions that may prove helpful, folks.

ole joyfuelled ... with help from (sugared) coffee ... (ccecercerecereacereal gets brown sugar).

(Thanks to Houzz for the usual help when amending composition)

claudia, what you say makes sense.

I have never had white sugar go hard on me as I use very little of it and I seldom buy it. I assumed it would be the same as brown sugar.

Hammer it is!

Maybe invest in some 18th century sugar cutting tongs! From the days when all sugar came solid.

upthread, gardengal said it's the ethylene gas given off by the apple, not the moisture -- so I'd try that first.

Joyful, please be careful when using a glass object as a pounding tool! It'd be safer to use a wooden rolling pin or a frying pan or such.

As in one lump or two.

And the internet is our friend. The Domino Sugar people (experts) say take it out of the bag and put in an oven proof container in an oven preheated to 150 to 200 degrees for fifteen minutes. Tap to see if it is starting to fall apart. When it does leave in the turned off oven for one to two hours to completely dry out.

Drying it in the oven seems like a very good idea.

Something else I'd try is to put it in plastic, then in a pillowcase and drop it hard on the floor several to see if that breaks it up. We have terrazzo, so that has worked for me with other things that needed breaking up.

I always "poke" a bag of sugar at the grocery before I buy it. Our local grocery had plenty of white sugar and all of it was brick hard. I want to bake, not build a brick wall!

I spoke to the manager, who told me the sugar came off the truck on pallets, and the pressure of the weight of the pallets with all those bags compacted the sugar. And that's why I poke!

I’m pretty sure that it’s the moisture content in the apple that softens sugar and not the ethylene.

Yes - I believe ethylene gas can help ripen some green fruits, not soften hardened sugar.

Okay, someone needs to do an experiment. Hard sugar + a moist towel, hard sugar + ethylene gas. Where does one get ethylene gas, if not from an apple? LOL. I have no idea.

The Domino people (enormous sugar producing company) say the issue is the sugar got damp so it needs to dry out, hence putting it in the oven.

ethylene gas has no effect on sugar .

Patriciae is right that the sugar got damp and now needs to dry out, and, likely may need to be pulverized into crystals again with force of a hammer or a sharp bladed blender.

As to that pallet of bags of sugar that seem to be hard...that is not that they were compressed. It is that they got subjected to damp conditions. Most often is not hardened very much and doesnt require much to break it up. It is often the outer most layer of crystals that have gotten damp and melted to one another and often just a good whack on the bag will do the trick.

FWIW, I haven't bought sugar in paper bags for many years. I buy organic sugar and it comes in plastic bags or jars, so not as much potential for moisture infiltrating.