making molasses

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How do you cook the sorgum juice to make molasses.

-- denton bates (db2bates@westex.net), July 30, 2000

Answers

I have only seen this done. Basically you need a large metal container. The juice is kept on a low boil, frequently stirring to prevent burning, with skimming of impurities until you have the consistency you want. If you are only doing a small amount, some people freeze it first, as the water will freeze before the juice, making the cooking time left.

If you want a cheap press, find an old wringer washer where the wringer still works and feed the stalks through one at a time. It takes a lot of liquid to make one gallon of molasses.

-- Ken S. (scharabo@aol.com), July 30, 2000.


Denton, what Ken describes sounds basically like boiling down maple sap. Check your library for some books that touch on that. Let us know how it turns out. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), August 03, 2000.

The Countryside Book Store carries a book on making maple syrup. Same basic cooking principles apply. Occasionally my neighbors tell me bits and pieces about prior use of my farm. One told me near a spring Mr. White had a sorghum press set up. Mule would go round and round operating the press. Neighbors would bring their sorgham cane by to be pressed with Mr. White getting the crushed stalks and some of the juice. I've also heard one guy in the area made pretty good shine out of mollases.

-- Ken S. (scharabo@aol.com), August 06, 2000.

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