A Southern Sweetie

     "The revival of small scale sorghum production in the southern Appalachians is a symbol of cultural continuity..." so writes Kevin West in the most recent issue of Saveur magazine.  Sweet sorghum, sometimes referred to as sorghum molasses, has for many in the South been a traditional topping for biscuits, pancakes, cornmeal mush and grits.  It is also used as a molasses substitute in ginger snap cookies and baked bean recipes.  The National Sweet Sorghum Producers and Processors Association says, "There is hardly a food served today that sorghum will not improve."



     The sorghum plant is native to Africa, a heat tolerant and drought resistant member of the grass family that was imported to the New World in the 17th Century.  Resembling corn stalks but without the ears of corn it thrives under dry and warm conditions where insufficient rainfall makes it unprofitable to raise corn.  Fields of sorghum can be seen throughout the southeastern United States and into the southern Great Plains.  While the majority of sorghum is raised primarily for forage and silage, there are some who prefer to extract the natural juice from the cane and concentrate it by evaporation.  Boiled down it becomes a thick syrup redolent of caramel and wood smoke.  Producers claim it to be cleaner and sweeter than the popular sugar-based molasses.  Sweet sorghum can be substituted for maple syrup,  molasses, honey, or corn syrup.  It contains iron, calcium and potassium and was at one time recommended as a home remedy daily supplement.

     I wonder how it would taste poured on my morning scrapple?