Both my wife and my sister are now eating gluten-free. (Neither
diagnosed by a medical profession, but both demonstrably better in my
opinion for the change. Note that I have no interest in following this
path for myself - I like gluten.)

I happened to pick up some snicker-doodle (where'd _that_ name come
from?) cookies at Trader Joe's the other day and noticed when I got them
home that they are gluten-free and free of a bunch of other stuff as
well - they're made from sorghum flour instead of wheat flour. My wife
was happy eating them last night.

Anyone cooking with this sorghum flour or sorghum in any other form and
have any observations about it to share? What I read online suggests
it's a more popular in warmer climates and amongst poor people, neither
of which is terribly helpful for me to know in the kitchen.

-S-

On May 4, 9:07*am, "Steve Freides" > wrote:
> Both my wife and my sister are now eating gluten-free. *(Neither
> diagnosed by a medical profession, but both demonstrably better in my
> opinion for the change. *Note that I have no interest in following this
> path for myself - I like gluten.)
>
> I happened to pick up some snicker-doodle (where'd _that_ name come
> from?) cookies at Trader Joe's the other day and noticed when I got them
> home that they are gluten-free and free of a bunch of other stuff as
> well - they're made from sorghum flour instead of wheat flour. *My wife
> was happy eating them last night.
>
> Anyone cooking with this sorghum flour or sorghum in any other form and
> have any observations about it to share? *What I read online suggests
> it's a more popular in warmer climates and amongst poor people, neither
> of which is terribly helpful for me to know in the kitchen.
>
> -S-

Never cooked with it, but it's a favorite topping (instead of syrup)
on pancakes, waffles and French toast, for me.

N.

On 2012-05-04, Steve Freides > wrote:

> Anyone cooking with this sorghum flour or sorghum in any other form and
> have any observations about it to share? What I read online suggests
> it's a more popular in warmer climates and amongst poor people, neither
> of which is terribly helpful for me to know in the kitchen.

I didn't even know sorghum could be milled as a flour!

I've been enjoying sweet sorghum for years and had no idea of it's
other grain uses. Like you, I finally did some google research (wiki)
and learned it's also revered world wide as a grain staple. Who
knew!? I've never seen sorghum flour, even in health food stores.
Maybe I jes never noticed. I'll certainly ask, next time.

I do know I love sweet sorghum molasses and hafta look far and wide
for the real deal. I used to be able to find it in some roadside
fruit stands in CA, but here in the remote CO Rockies, I may as well
be on Mars. I've found authentic Southern made sorghum online, but
gotta wait till I can afford and order, shipping and all. In the
meantime, I'll mug my local health food store.

nb

--
vi --the heart of evil!
"Avenge me!" --Bill Burr

Steve Freides wrote:
>
> Anyone cooking with this sorghum flour or sorghum in any other form and
> have any observations about it to share?

I've only used sorghum syrup not sorghum grain.

Good in any application you'd use any other syrup for. It works
parallel to maple syrup, golden syrup and any other syrup. Not a
complete substitute when a recipe depends on exact behavior but a
replacement when a recipe requires a sweet syrup without specific
details.

Terrible when brewed into an ale with hops. To me this says that ale
depends on the exact behavior of barley malt.

Very good when brewed into a mead with no hops. I've done it with no
other flavoring and with a small amount of ginger. To me this says that
mead does not depend on the exact behavior of honey.

notbob wrote:
>Steve Freides > wrote:
>
>> Anyone cooking with this sorghum flour or sorghum in any other form ...
>
> I didn't even know sorghum could be milled as a flour!

To my knowledge it was only used as livestock feed until gluten free
became popular in recent years. Like millet but even more so.

I've seen millet in the bulk bins at health food stores. I have not yet
seen sorghum grain anywhere but sacks of seed at country seed stores.
As seed stock tends to be impregnated with insecticide it would not be
usable as food.

In my other post I remarked that ale made from sorghum is nasty but mead
is fine. Likely that's ale brewed from malted sorghum grain versus mead
brewed from the syrup.

> I do know I love sweet sorghum molasses and hafta look far and wide
> for the real deal.

I saw it recently at Goodmans. That's an employee owned chain of
supermarkets that appears to be based in Wisconsin with a small number
of their stores in bordering states. When I got home I read the label
more carefully. "Cane, corn and sorghum (25%) syrups". Not the real
deal.

I see small bottles at country stores when we're touring around here in
the midwest. More common as we drive a few hours south from Chicago
metro.

Doug Freyburger wrote:
> notbob wrote:
>> Steve Freides > wrote:
>>
>>> Anyone cooking with this sorghum flour or sorghum in any other form ...
>> I didn't even know sorghum could be milled as a flour!
>
> To my knowledge it was only used as livestock feed until gluten free
> became popular in recent years. Like millet but even more so.
>
> I've seen millet in the bulk bins at health food stores. I have not yet
> seen sorghum grain anywhere but sacks of seed at country seed stores.
> As seed stock tends to be impregnated with insecticide it would not be
> usable as food.
>
> In my other post I remarked that ale made from sorghum is nasty but mead
> is fine. Likely that's ale brewed from malted sorghum grain versus mead
> brewed from the syrup.


Malted (sprouted) sorghum is poisonous. So don't try making wheatgrass
juice using sprouted sorghum, or putting the sprouts on your salad.

I assume sorghum ale is brewed with high-enzyme barley malt with sorghum
as an adjunct.

-Bob

On May 4, 7:07*am, "Steve Freides" > wrote:
> Both my wife and my sister are now eating gluten-free. *(Neither
> diagnosed by a medical profession, but both demonstrably better in my
> opinion for the change. *Note that I have no interest in following this
> path for myself - I like gluten.)
>
> I happened to pick up some snicker-doodle (where'd _that_ name come
> from?) cookies at Trader Joe's the other day and noticed when I got them
> home that they are gluten-free and free of a bunch of other stuff as
> well - they're made from sorghum flour instead of wheat flour. *My wife
> was happy eating them last night.
>
> Anyone cooking with this sorghum flour or sorghum in any other form and
> have any observations about it to share? *What I read online suggests
> it's a more popular in warmer climates and amongst poor people, neither
> of which is terribly helpful for me to know in the kitchen.

I've seen sorghum growing in the corn belt in Indiana and Illinois. It
looks like a sort of retarded earless corn.

>Doug Freyburger wrote:

>> I've seen millet in the bulk bins at health food stores. I have not yet
>> seen sorghum grain anywhere but sacks of seed at country seed stores.
>> As seed stock tends to be impregnated with insecticide it would not be
>> usable as food.

It's a rotation crop. It could be harvested and sold, and it is
for sure made into sorghum syrup. I do not know what the
mercury total dose is. Can't be worse than tuna.


Steve

On Fri, 04 May 2012 18:27:04 -0500, zxcvbob >
wrote:

>Doug Freyburger wrote:
>> notbob wrote:
>>> Steve Freides > wrote:
>>>
>>>> Anyone cooking with this sorghum flour or sorghum in any other form ...
>>> I didn't even know sorghum could be milled as a flour!
>>
>> To my knowledge it was only used as livestock feed until gluten free
>> became popular in recent years. Like millet but even more so.
>>
>> I've seen millet in the bulk bins at health food stores. I have not yet
>> seen sorghum grain anywhere but sacks of seed at country seed stores.
>> As seed stock tends to be impregnated with insecticide it would not be
>> usable as food.
>>
>> In my other post I remarked that ale made from sorghum is nasty but mead
>> is fine. Likely that's ale brewed from malted sorghum grain versus mead
>> brewed from the syrup.
>
>
>Malted (sprouted) sorghum is poisonous. So don't try making wheatgrass
>juice using sprouted sorghum, or putting the sprouts on your salad.

Well-- *that* was worth the price of admission this morning. I
know if I had seen sorghum seeds I would have had to try the sprouts.
I had never heard of them being poisonous.

so I googled-- the abstract says enough--
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/1...212.x/abstract
Journal of Food Science
Volume 49, Issue 3, pages 791–793, May 1984
Cyanide Content of Sorghum Sprouts
OKSANA PANASIUK, DONALD D. BILLSArticle first published online: 25 AUG
2006

"ABSTRACT
The seeds of four cultivars of grain sorghum and four of sweet sorghum
(Sorghum blcolor (L.) Moench) contained only traces (1 or 2 ppm) to 29
ppm of potential hydrocyanic acid (HCN) that could be generated as
free HCN by digestion and steam distillation. Sprouts of the same
cultivars grown for 3 days in the dark at 30°C, however, contained
from 258–1030 ppm potential HCN relative to the weight of the
ungerminated, dry seed. Drying at 50°C and grinding of sprouts to
produce a meal did not reduce the potential HCN content. The
consumption of sorghum sprouts or products made from them may be
hazardous. The average amount (61.3 mg) of HCN obtained in our
laboratory from sprouts grown from 100g of seed exceeds the average
fatal dose for an adult."

>
>I assume sorghum ale is brewed with high-enzyme barley malt with sorghum
>as an adjunct.

So it looks like as long as it is ground dry you reduce the HCN by as
much as 99%.

Now that I read that I am reminded of cattle dying when their grain
gets wet-- not sure that's HCN or some other bad guy being produced.

I will use a bit more caution in the future when sprouting the
unfamiliar.

Thanks for the heads up!

Jim

On 05/04/2012 12:27 PM, Doug Freyburger wrote:
> notbob wrote:
>> Steve > wrote:
>>
>>> Anyone cooking with this sorghum flour or sorghum in any other form ...
>>
>> I didn't even know sorghum could be milled as a flour!
>
> To my knowledge it was only used as livestock feed until gluten free
> became popular in recent years. Like millet but even more so.
>
> I've seen millet in the bulk bins at health food stores. I have not yet
> seen sorghum grain anywhere but sacks of seed at country seed stores.
> As seed stock tends to be impregnated with insecticide it would not be
> usable as food.
>
> In my other post I remarked that ale made from sorghum is nasty but mead
> is fine. Likely that's ale brewed from malted sorghum grain versus mead
> brewed from the syrup.
>
>> I do know I love sweet sorghum molasses and hafta look far and wide
>> for the real deal.
>
> I saw it recently at Goodmans. That's an employee owned chain of
> supermarkets that appears to be based in Wisconsin with a small number
> of their stores in bordering states. When I got home I read the label
> more carefully. "Cane, corn and sorghum (25%) syrups". Not the real
> deal.
>
> I see small bottles at country stores when we're touring around here in
> the midwest. More common as we drive a few hours south from Chicago
> metro.

There's two kinds of sorghum - grain sorghum and cane (or sugar)
sorghum. They're both the same genus and species, but different
cultivars bred over generations to optimize the desirable trait. Grain
sorghum (also known as milo) is high in protein, gluten-free and rates
moderately well in vitamins and minerals. Most is used for animal feed;
chickens *love* it. Cane sorghum can be used just like sugar cane. The
stalks are stripped of leaves and crushed/pressed to release the sweet
sap. The sap is boiled down to make a thick syrup, often called sorghum
molasses. However, most cane sorghum is chopped and turned into silage
for animal feed.

Whirled Peas wrote:

> There's two kinds of sorghum - grain sorghum and cane (or sugar)
> sorghum. They're both the same genus and species, but different
> cultivars bred over generations to optimize the desirable trait.
> Grain sorghum (also known as milo) is high in protein, gluten-free and
> rates moderately well in vitamins and minerals. Most is used for
> animal feed; chickens *love* it.
> Cane sorghum can be used just like sugar cane. The stalks are stripped
> of leaves and crushed/pressed to release the sweet sap. The sap is
> boiled down to make a thick syrup, often called sorghum molasses.
> However, most cane sorghum is chopped
> and turned into silage for animal feed.

Since Trader Joe's is using it, grain sorghum is at least a _little_
more mainstream than it might have been.

And, as I mentioned in my original post, grain sorghum is apparently a
staple in many tropical and poor areas of the world.

-S-

On 2012-05-05, Whirled Peas > wrote:

> There's two kinds of sorghum - grain sorghum and cane (or sugar)
> sorghum. They're both the same genus and species, but different
> cultivars bred over generations to optimize the desirable trait. Grain
> sorghum (also known as milo) is high in protein, gluten-free and rates
> moderately well in vitamins and minerals. Most is used for animal feed;
> chickens *love* it. Cane sorghum can be used just like sugar cane. The
> stalks are stripped of leaves and crushed/pressed to release the sweet
> sap. The sap is boiled down to make a thick syrup, often called sorghum
> molasses. However, most cane sorghum is chopped and turned into silage
> for animal feed.

Ah-ha!

I always figured sorghum for a cane plant, like sugar cane. Gotta be
to render down like a syrup. We used to find it in roadside fruit
stands in qt jars or half gal cans. We used it on our homemade cold
smoked sausage we'd put up every Winter. The good stuff is usually
from Mississippi or elsewheres in the Deep South, and is the
consistency of good honey. That Steve's brand syrup in the
ketchup-like bottle found in most sprmkts is crap.

I hope to buy some when I get up enough $$ to buy some country ham,
sorghum, etc, from these folks. Sounds like the real deal.

http://www.newsomscountryham.com/

nb

--
vi --the heart of evil!
Yell out the window "bitch!" --Bill Burr

On 5 May 2012 19:58:40 GMT, notbob > wrote:

>On 2012-05-05, Whirled Peas > wrote:
>
>> There's two kinds of sorghum - grain sorghum and cane (or sugar)
>> sorghum. They're both the same genus and species, but different
>> cultivars bred over generations to optimize the desirable trait. Grain
>> sorghum (also known as milo) is high in protein, gluten-free and rates
>> moderately well in vitamins and minerals. Most is used for animal feed;
>> chickens *love* it. Cane sorghum can be used just like sugar cane. The
>> stalks are stripped of leaves and crushed/pressed to release the sweet
>> sap. The sap is boiled down to make a thick syrup, often called sorghum
>> molasses. However, most cane sorghum is chopped and turned into silage
>> for animal feed.
>
>Ah-ha!
>
>I always figured sorghum for a cane plant, like sugar cane. Gotta be
>to render down like a syrup. We used to find it in roadside fruit
>stands in qt jars or half gal cans. We used it on our homemade cold
>smoked sausage we'd put up every Winter. The good stuff is usually
>from Mississippi or elsewheres in the Deep South, and is the
>consistency of good honey. That Steve's brand syrup in the
>ketchup-like bottle found in most sprmkts is crap.
>
>I hope to buy some when I get up enough $$ to buy some country ham,
>sorghum, etc, from these folks. Sounds like the real deal.
>
>http://www.newsomscountryham.com/
>
>nb

One of the posters here sent me a bottle of sorghum syrup, good stuff.

Shelley has a new boyfriend.

> One of the posters here sent me a bottle of sorghum syrup, good stuff.

Kind of expensive, though -- a BJ and two rimmers for a $5 bottle. You
should check out the market rates for sluttery before your next
"purchase".

Doug Freyburger > wrote:

[sorghum]

>Terrible when brewed into an ale with hops. To me this says that ale
>depends on the exact behavior of barley malt.

>Very good when brewed into a mead with no hops. I've done it with no
>other flavoring and with a small amount of ginger. To me this says that
>mead does not depend on the exact behavior of honey.

St. Peter's Brewery (UK) makes a sorghum ale that is quite good.
Come to think of it, it may not be very hoppy at all. Unfortunately
all their beers sell for $5/bottle in the U.S.

(Their "Organic English Ale" is a good beer to pour for anyone who
is still skeptical that there are any good British beers...)

If in London, check out their tied house, the Jerusalem Tavern
in Farringdon.

Steve

George Molester Middius <glansbroke> wrote:
>
>Shelley has a new boyfriend.
>
>> One of the posters here sent me a bottle of sorghum syrup, good stuff.
>
>Kind of expensive, though -- a BJ and two rimmers for a $5 bottle. You
>should check out the market rates for sluttery before your next
>"purchase".

Perhaps it was a female who sent me the sorghum (then I only wish I
received those services), proving again that you're an ignoranus...
however it was a male and no way anyone would believe he was queer...
I ain't saying who because I'm probably the most trustworthy
poster[period] But the person who sent me the sorghum is probably the
least possibility of being a queer in all of usenet. You however,
George, no one would believe is other than a flaming fruitcake faggot
child Molester... Molester is Georgie's middle initial. . . .
Bwahahahhahaahahahahhhawahhaaa. . . .

On May 4, 4:27*pm, zxcvbob > wrote:
> Doug Freyburger wrote:
> > notbob wrote:
> >> Steve Freides > wrote:
>
> >>> Anyone cooking with this sorghum flour or sorghum in any other form ....
> >> I didn't even know sorghum could be milled as a flour!
>
> > To my knowledge it was only used as livestock feed until gluten free
> > became popular in recent years. *Like millet but even more so.
>
> > I've seen millet in the bulk bins at health food stores. *I have not yet
> > seen sorghum grain anywhere but sacks of seed at country seed stores.
> > As seed stock tends to be impregnated with insecticide it would not be
> > usable as food.
>
> > In my other post I remarked that ale made from sorghum is nasty but mead
> > is fine. *Likely that's ale brewed from malted sorghum grain versus mead
> > brewed from the syrup.
>
> Malted (sprouted) sorghum is poisonous. *So don't try making wheatgrass
> juice using sprouted sorghum, or putting the sprouts on your salad.
>
> I assume sorghum ale is brewed with high-enzyme barley malt with sorghum
> as an adjunct.
>

Ten million Africans can't be wrong:

http://www.academicjournals.org/AJB/...%20et%20al.pdf

They mill the sorghum into flour right after malting (see the flow
charts).