I don't think I've ever had it. What is it, what's it used for?

Live in mid-TN & sorghum is very easy to find. We have Mennonites that live around here & they make it every year, the Amish also make sorghum. You can use sorghum in baking or any other way you use molasses. Sorghum is much sweeter then molasses so if used in baking you have to watch how much sugar you use in the recipe. Big difference in taste.

Sorghum is a grain so, strictly speaking, you can’t ’make’ it. But you can make a syrup/molasses product out of sorghum.

Dad would bring home a can of it when it was harvested and canned. We'd eat it by pouring some into saucer, mash butter into it and put a split hot biscuit over it and enjoy. Had it all my life. Called it SAND Mountain Sorghum cause it was so close to where I lived.

Sorghum syrrup isn't used much here, but you can buy it. Probably not at every store, but some, for sure. I can't imagine how you could turn it into molasses. I guess you'd have to cook it, but to get molasses? Sorghum syrup is very nice as itself. So I looked up sorghum and treacle and found the answer in an article about treacle (which is also from the sugar making process, like molasses is, but it's not boiled long enough to actually be molasses): In some places sorghum syrup is called "sorghum molasses", the way reduced pomegranate syrup is called "pomegranate molasses". It's the sweetness and thickness that is comparable to molasses, but they're still sorghum and pomegranate, not trying to be actual molasses.

dad's preference was sorghum over honey

A town very near me is home to a "Sorghum Festival.". The have a stone mill set up that a team of donkeys drive, crushing the stalks. The juice runs through a series of narrow troughs into a fire heated vat that's constantly stirred by locals (mostly old timers whose families have " cooked" for generations. I can remember my grandfather enjoying sorghum molasses on a homemade biscuit for breakfast.

I'm sure I can find some. There is a little shop here that sells homemade products like this and an Amish store on the way to a town nearby.

Having had a neighbor who planted the type of sorghum that is used for making the syrup it is not the grain type. It is a tall 10-14 foot slender stalk with a smallish seed head at the top. If you have seen sugar cane growing it looks similar but much slenderer stems.

It takes a lot of it to make enough liquid to boil down after the stems are crushed and the sap released. Once crushed the stems are fermented as silage using the fermentation process to release the nutrients to what it is fed to. The sap is treated similar to maple syrup although my neighbor used a large copper still like boiler. The nozzle would condense the moisture which he saved and added back in toward the end of the overnight cooking to reach the consistency he wanted. He wanted an amber color and not the dark stuff that you see in the stores.

I love the taste of sorghum molasses, never knew it as syrup, and it used to be available on grocery store shelves here many years ago, but no longer. I've purchased it online, but it's relatively price-y. It's lighter and a bit tangier than cane molasses - a lot like Karo dark corn syrup.

It truly is wonderful on biscuits and cornbread, IMPO.

I believe the syrup is made from crushing juice from the stalks like sugarcane. I think you can only do that with a specific type of sorghum.

In fact I just finished up the last of mine yesterday in gingerbread dough - I was out of regular molasses and couldn't go to the store.

Sorghum from my area comes from Sand Mountain, which my dad frequented during the season. And yes him telling us about the donkey/mules tied to a wheel. He a;ways came home with a big can of it for everyone to enjoy at breakfast.

Local historical village here has that type of cane mill, and brick oven boiler for the syrup, and they used to do demonstrations on their 'pioneer days' events.

My father used to grow sorghum, and I believe he used it as livestock feed, what he did not sell of it. I've seen the grain in health food stores, but I've not seen the molasses.

I used to chew on sorghum stalks when I was forced to be in the fields, and they were slightly sweet, but nothing like sugar cane stalks.

I believe there is some still sold near me. I lived not far from Sand Mountain where there was the mill someone spoke of. It has been gone for several years now but i recall seeing it on the way to my great grandmother’s house many years ago.

It was always a little strong flavored for me, but that was when i was a kid, so maybe I would like it better now in a small amount. I don’t eat many sweets so i don’t know.

edited to add, there apparently have been sorgum demonstrations in Cades Cove this year. Also there is a place halfway between Nashville and Knoxville that advertises as a sorghum mill. Muddy Pond, and its sold on A-zon.

The comments suggest the product is known in the South and at least part of the Midwest and used for cooking foods of these regions. I suspected that could be the reason I hadn't heard of it.

I've never looked for it so I didn't know if it was available. I just did a quick look at 2 of our large grocery chains, and one had nothing, the other had sorghum flour but not syrup or molasses.

I sometimes see fields of sorghum growing when I'm out on a bike ride - it resembles corn, but the seed head gives it away.

Mother never cooked with it. Only served for breakfast with hot homemade biscuits. I have never bought it. Just had it growing up, always.

It is grown in Nebraska and I know it whe I see it growing. I think around here it is used for fodder because I never see the syrup in any of the stores. I think Ohio was the only State we ever lived in that actually sold it in the stores and people used it in cooking.

I don’t think more than 100 people in Australia have heard of it (I have). 😁

I was involved peripherally in sorghum molasses making years and years ago when I was pregnant. My husband and I had gone to a neighbor's to help with cutting the cane, but when the farmer saw I was pregnant he said "No." I insisted I could help and he said, No, not in his fields and sent me to the house to help "the woman" (his term) with dinner.

Unlike maple syrup, which is boiled down in a huge pot, sorghum involves a large, shallow pan with baffles at a slight angle over a fire. The thin syrup runs down slowly through the baffles, getting thicker and thicker and finally drips into a container. The old timers here always referred to it in the plural as "those molasses."

It’s fairly easy to find in Alberta. Most of the stores carry Bob’s Red Mill. Bulk Bin and Chalo FreshCo carriy it as well. Both the whole grain and flour.

One needs to read labels carefully when searching for sorghum, molasses, and any derivation of the two. I’ve seen products with corn syrup mixed in. Same with honey.

I really like dark sorghum as a substitute for honey, and have used it on corn bread, muffins, biscuits, and in tea. I also love dark molasses; sometimes I crave it and nothing else will do.

When I moved to Wisconsin years ago, I had trouble enough even finding molasses let alone sorghum. Since then, both Aldi & WalMart have come to town so I can find molasses at one or the other. Seems to be a seasonal item at Aldi. Found one jar of sorghum once at a discount/ salvage grocery store...bought all they had!

I use it only for making brown sugar. Actually, I don't 'make' brown sugar...just total the amount of white sugar + brown sugar specified in a recipe, use that amount of all white sugar and add a glug of molasses to the bowl. Most always use less sugar (about 1/4 less) than specified because most recipes are too sweet for my taste.

A Fall Swap Meet is held near where I live and there's usually someone there making and selling sorghum. It probably isn't very hard to find here. We have a quite a few of Amish and Mennonites that make and sell many wonderful things, including sorghum.

I think the last time we had molasses (I'm not sure if it was from sorghum) it was in a half gallon container. We had bought it at an imported foods store. As far as I know we only used it for cookies and baked beans. After some years of sitting unused, I diluted it and added to the compost pile.

I have been thinking about this thread and thought to mention as long as we are talking syrups that there is another in this group of grass family syrups and that is Ribbon Cane syrup. It is made with Sugar cane juice that is cooked down to a syrup but not farther to the point of sugaring. We could buy it in the stores in cans. Another complex flavor different from cane molasses in being less intense and with its own flavor notes since it wasnt cooked as much.