Cane syrup

One US cup of cane syrup weighs 320 grams (11.3 ounces). Going the other way, 100 grams is about 0.31 cups.

TL;DR: 320 g/cup (1.35 g/mL). Steen's Pure Cane Syrup and USDA branded cane syrup data converge exactly at 320 g/cup, placing this ingredient in the 320 g/cup density cluster alongside date syrup, pomegranate molasses, and maple cream. King Arthur is silent on cane syrup — it's a Louisiana traditional sweetener outside the chart's coverage.

Cane syrup is boiled sugarcane juice: sugarcane stalks are crushed and the juice extracted, then simmered in open kettles for 6-7 hours until it concentrates to a dark amber syrup at roughly 72-75% sugar. The finished product is a whole natural sweetener with no crystallization or refining step — "nothing added, nothing extracted" is Steen's own tagline. The flavor is caramel-forward with a slight sulfurous depth from the long open-kettle cook, sweeter and less bitter than sugarcane molasses because no refined sugar has been removed from the concentrate. C.S. Steen's Syrup Mill in Abbeville, Louisiana has produced the defining brand since 1910; smaller artisan producers like Charles Poirier's operation in Youngsville keep the traditional small-mill craft alive alongside Steen's industrial-scale production.

Density data converges exactly at 320 g/cup. Steen's product label lists 2 tablespoons = 40 g, extrapolating to 20 g/tbsp and 320 g/cup at 1.353 g/mL. The USDA branded entry (UPC 864023000115, via aqua-calc) gives 338 g per metric cup, which is 320 g per US cup at 1.352 g/mL — a perfect match with the Steen's figure to within rounding. Physical density prediction from composition (72.5% sugar × 1.53 g/mL + 25% water × 1.0 g/mL) gives 1.36 g/mL, or 322 g/cup, again within 1% of the observed value. This is a high-confidence single-figure ingredient.

The nomenclature disambiguation is where cane syrup earns most of its search intent. Cane syrup is not the same as cane molasses, despite similar dark color and pourable consistency. Molasses is a byproduct of crystalline sugar refining — cane juice is boiled, sugar crystals are extracted and removed, and the dark bitter fraction left behind becomes molasses. Cane syrup is the whole boiled juice with no crystallization or extraction step, so it retains all the plant's natural sugars and reads sweeter, milder, and thinner than molasses on the tongue. Fresh sugarcane juice (roughly 13% sugar, no boiling) is different again — a beverage, not a sweetener. And sorghum syrup, despite being colloquially called "sorghum molasses" in the Southern US, comes from a different plant genus entirely (Sorghum bicolor rather than Saccharum officinarum) and lands in the 336 g/cup cluster rather than the 320.

Within the syrup density framework, cane syrup at 320 g/cup joins the plant-juice cluster with date syrup (320), pomegranate molasses (320), and maple cream (320). It sits below the 336 g/cup cluster of honey, agave syrup, barley malt syrup, golden syrup, and sorghum syrup because Steen's open-kettle process stops at a specific target clarity and consistency rather than pushing to maximum sugar concentration. The 5-6% density difference between the two clusters reflects a 3-4% difference in final solids content — roughly the difference between boiling to 72-75% solids (cane syrup, date syrup) versus 76-80% solids (sorghum syrup, honey, sugarcane molasses).

For baking, cane syrup substitutes 1:1 by weight for corn syrup in pecan pie, sweet potato pie, and glazes with a more assertive caramel flavor. It replaces molasses in gingerbread and marinades at 1:1 by weight with a sweeter, less bitter finish. In Cajun and Creole cooking, cane syrup is an essential ingredient in tarte à la ferlouche, sauce piquante glazes, ham marinades, and vinaigrettes; the syrup's slight sulfurous depth pairs particularly well with mustard, black pepper, and smoked meats. Direct substitution for honey is 1:1 by weight, though the assertive caramel flavor changes the character of a recipe more than a honey-to-maple swap would.