Cooking with Sorghum

Cooking How-To, How-To
on January 1, 2008
Sorghum
Mark Boughton Photogrpahy
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If you love molasses and maple syrup, give sorghum a try. It’s super high in antioxidants and minerals and has a great caramel taste.

A staple in the South, sorghum syrup is produced predominantly in Kentucky and Tennessee where it’s often referred to as “sorghum molasses,” or just “molasses.” It was an important sweetener during wartime when sugar was rationed. When sugar made a comeback with lower production costs, sorghum syrup production waned, though it never went away.

Sorghum syrup has a nutritional advantage over sugar in that it’s remarkably high in antioxidants. Like sugar cane, stalks of the sorghum cane plant are crushed to extract clear juices. Impurities are removed and the liquid is simmered and reduced to a viscous amber syrup, which is similar to molasses but milder in flavor. Unlike molasses, sorghum syrup is not a by-product, as sugar crystals are not extracted from its juices.

When substituting sorghum for a cup of sugar, use 1 1/3 cups sorghum and decrease the liquids by 1/3 cup.

—Cheryl Forberg