Sugar hammer tips?

[Scott Winners]

Wasn't sure which forum, Off Topic seemed like a good guess.

The wife and I are getting away from refined sugar and like the more complex flavor from the stuff that is poured as a molten lava into some kind of mold anyway. Seems like the Asian palm sugar usually comes in a disc shape, the Caribbean/ Latin America stuff seems to be mostly truncated cones.

I have been noticing "sugar hammer" on antique tool websites, and have a candidate for a user sugar hammer; some wire brush time, new haft, ready for the kitchen.

What I don't have a clue on is a container to have the sugar lump in while I am whacking on it. The palm sugars from Thailand seem especially prone to releasing high velocity shrapnel when struck. Besides holes in the drywall I don't want cockroach food sliding under the fridge when I use the hammer either.

Will gentle taps on a plain cutting board break off pieces OK? Once I have my 2-3 tablespoons of shards I can pulverize in a mortar and pestle, it's getting one recipes worth off the half pound block that has me head scratching.

Thanks in advance.

[John Goodin]

Would a microplane like the kind made for kitchen use work? It could eliminate the mortar and pestle too.

[Edwin Santos]

Grate it on a box grater, or better yet melt it in a microwave. Melting palm sugar will turn it back into a sap form, and you can spoon it as you would any sugar. Nobody in Thailand whacks palm sugar pucks with a hammer.

Do a search on YouTube. If I remember correctly, the cute girl with an extensive channel of Thai recipes did a video on how to use palm sugar and I think she covered Indian jaggery too.
You might also like coconut sugar which is another unrefined sugar and available in a granular form from bulk food places or Trader Joe's. Once at Trader Joe's I also saw a package of maple sugar. For people who are health conscious and especially the diabetics, both coconut and maple sugar are lower in glycemic load than refined white sugar.

All these sugars have different taste profiles, all very good, more complex than white refined sugar as you point out. But "better" is not the right descriptive word because white refined sugar has functions where it excels without peer, for example in baking cakes where butter and sugar are creamed together, or in meringue.

Palm sugar is slightly reminiscent of butterscotch to me. Bon appetit!

[Michael Weber]

I'm constantly amazed at the things I learn about reading this forum.

[Bruce Volden]

SO! much work involved.
I'm a honey guy.

Bruce

[Jim Koepke]

Some ideas come to mind.

Try a scraper for granulating the sugar.

You might try making a small box for holding the lump in while breaking it into granules.

Something like a cold chisel might also be helpful in breaking up a lump.

jtk

[TODD RAYMER]

Google vintage sugar nipper.