Sorghum, the New Pancake Pour

Published on Friday, December 11, 2009, by Joyce Slaton / Edit Post

Your grandpappy from the Deep South didn't pour maple syrup on his hotcakes: maples need freezing cold nights to start the flow of sap that becomes syrup. No, sorghum was what sweetened all manner of foodstuffs way back when in the South, and now the old-fashioned sugar substitute is getting hot again. Hungry Beast's Stacey Slate explains how sorghum is made:

"Sorghum syrup is actually a juice extract collected from a tall grass called sweet sorghum. Harvesters strip the leaves off the stalk and cut the seeds from the head of the plant. The stalks are then laid out to dry for a few days while the enzymes within the cane convert starches to sugar. When the stalk is dried out, it is crushed to extract its green juice (the liquid is green because of chlorophyll in the plant). It is then boiled down to eliminate moisture and skimmed to get rid of the green juice. The result is the amber syrup known as sweet sorghum."

Yum! How do you use it? On pancakes and biscuits, in sweet sauces like barbecue, even in baked goods, where it makes a dandy substitute for molasses. Find out more about sorghum's resurgence, including its impressive nutritional profile, and why it may someday be used for fuel, at the Hungry Beast.

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  • It was probably 1948 when I was a fairly small boy that our family took a drive west of our town of Jefferson City, Missouri (pretty much in the center of the state), and we saw in a field beside the highway a mule turning a press and my parents knew they were making sorghum there. So we stopped and walked in and watched them catch the cane juice and then cook it in large shallow pans under a...+READ

    It was probably 1948 when I was a fairly small boy that our family took a drive west of our town of Jefferson City, Missouri (pretty much in the center of the state), and we saw in a field beside the highway a mule turning a press and my parents knew they were making sorghum there. So we stopped and walked in and watched them catch the cane juice and then cook it in large shallow pans under a tent. We bought a gallon pail of it which I ate too much of and got sick, so it took me some years before I could enjoy sorghum again. I found this photo on the web that looks like the operation I remember, but this is from "today" noting the vehicles and it's in southeastern Missouri.

    http://ruthvenphotos.com/files/sorghum1c_950w.jpg-COLLAPSE

  • Nothing new about this for me. As a kid, about 50 years ago, sorghum syrup was on the table for pancake breakfasts, thanks to my grandparents from Oklahoma and Missouri.

  • Yep

  • So, not a sugar substitute, but a sugar source, right?