Sweeteners That Keep: Honey, Sugar, Syrups, and How Much to Store

White granulated sugar and honey, which keep indefinitely in a sealed container kept dry; corn syrup and unopened pure maple syrup, the same. Brown and powdered sugar are safe indefinitely but best within two years. Molasses is safe for years but turns dark and bitter after one or two. A sugar and honey powder blend in a sealed can is rated at 20 years. Every one of them is quick energy and none of them needs a freezer.

White sugar never spoils. Bacteria cannot grow in it because there is no water in it. The only thing that happens is that it takes on moisture and hardens, so store it in a sealed food-grade bucket or jar in a dry place, and do not put an oxygen absorber in with it: sugar does not need one, and the absorber pulls the moisture that sets it into a brick you will chisel. A brick is still sugar; break it up or dissolve it.

No. Honey is about 17 percent water and acidic, and nothing that spoils food can live in it; sealed jars from ancient tombs were still edible. It crystallizes, which is not spoilage: set the jar in warm water until it clears. Keep it sealed and dry, because honey pulls moisture from the air and diluted honey can ferment. Never give honey to a child under one year old; it can carry the spores that cause infant botulism.

Unopened, it is safe for years. For quality, the makers and the USDA FoodKeeper rate it at one to two years; after that it darkens and turns bitter. It is the one sweetener on this page to buy in normal quantities and rotate through the kitchen. Thickening or crystals are not spoilage; warm it.

Unopened pure maple syrup keeps indefinitely in a cool dark place. Once opened it is mostly sugar and water with no preservative, so mold can grow on the surface; refrigerate it and use it within a year for the best flavor. If mold appears, most producers say to skim it and bring the syrup to a boil, but the simpler rule is to buy it in sizes you will finish. Pancake syrup is corn syrup with flavor and keeps like corn syrup.

Keep the moisture in, which is the opposite of every other food in storage. Brown sugar is white sugar coated in molasses and it hardens as it dries, so seal it airtight and never put a desiccant or oxygen absorber with it. To soften a brick, put a slice of bread, a piece of damp terra cotta or a damp paper towel in a bag inside the container for a day. Powdered sugar is the reverse: it needs to stay dry or it clumps.

The old church food storage guideline is 60 pounds of sugar or equivalent per adult per year, and that assumes you are canning fruit, baking bread and making jam from what you grow. A household that does none of that goes through far less; look at what you actually buy in a year and store that much plus a third. Split it: mostly white sugar in sealed buckets, plus honey, some brown sugar and one syrup you use.

Because it is the cheapest calories you can store, it never spoils, and it does jobs nothing else does: it preserves fruit as jam and syrup, it cures meat with salt, it feeds the yeast that leavens bread and brews, it makes bland stored food eaten, and honey dresses a wound and quiets a cough. Sugar is also one of the most reliable barter goods there is.