"Sylvia's Soul Food" By Slyvia Woods and Christopher Styler, A Wonderful Soul Food Cookbook

In one of my frequent trips to what I call "junk stores", I found a wonderful little soul food cookbook called "Sylvia's Soul Food: Recipes From Harlem's World Famous Restaurant" by Sylvia Woods and Christoper Styler. Sylvia Woods either is or was the owner of a soul food restaurant in Harlem which has now morphed into a soul food empire according to their website. I have found what appear to be puffed descriptions of Mr. Styler which describe him as being a chef, writer, etc. but I suspect he wasn't much more than a ghost writer in this effort. The edition of the book which I found was a hardback printed by the William Morrow Company in 1992. The copies I find on the interet are very different from the plain red cover I found in a Goodwill store for $1.59. They all appear to be paperback with a gaudy photo montage on the cover. When I found the book, I scanned it and realized it has some very interesting recipes which are rarely found in cookbooks published anywhere. I have eaten and loved other people's versions of some of the recipes, never had a few others, and would love to try nearly all of them. This book is a little joy to behold and can be found fairly cheaply on most used book websites. However, if you order it from the used websites, be sure to know in advance if you are getting the hardback or the paperback versions. There is also a second cookbook from the restaurant which I have never seen. I'm surprised I never ran into it anywhere before, at least on the internet. The pork section of the book is a joy to behold especially if you grew up in the south or Appalachia. It contains a recipe for Backbone In Gravy and I have to admit I have never seen a backbone recipe in any cookbook anywhere, not even in one from some little southern church. I grew up on backbones and love them still today. But I have to admit that I almost totally eliminated pork from my diet about seven years ago when I realized that I had a totally blocked carotid artery and was facing a potentially life threatening surgery. As part of an effort to live as long as possible, I changed my diet drastically and took up daily exercise. But I can still exercise fond memories of grease and colagen up to my elbows and back to my ears on occasions. The cookbook also contains a recipe for Pigs' Tails. I have eaten a lot of pig tails in my time and love nothing in the world better than a large restaurant sized pot full of pig ears, tails, and feet cooked along with potatoes,carrots, and an onion or two. I also love that same large pot filled with organ meats at hog killing time. But I stopped that when it came to a choice of such foods or a coffin. But I did dearly love pork livers, kidneys, hearts, lungs or "lights", and spleens or "melts" as we called them when I was a boy. It is fun to find a cookbook and a big city restaurant which is proud of its pig tails, chitlins, and backbones. In this cookbook, there is even a recipe for Fried Chitlins. I have never seen a printed recipe for chitlins in my life. I also have to admit that I have never tried chitlins even though I spent years believing that "no hog should ever have to die in vain" and that we should "eat everything except the squeal". That recipe calls for the chitlins to be "thoroughly cooked to make them tender before they are quickly fried". I will say that in the right cook's hands I would try chitlins. But I have never been in a home where they were being cooked. A variant of the Fried Chitlin recipe is Chitlins and Maw which calls for 2 pounds of pork maw and 5 pounds of precooked chitlins.This is a boiled recipe and I can assure you that with 7 pounds of the two meats in the pot along with several vegetables it won't matter if an extra mouth or two shows up at the supper table. For those of you who don't know the term "maw" it is pork stomach or tripe. I have had tripe on a few occasions in a Vietnamese restaurant I love to visit and I like tripe a lot. In restaurants and butcher shops, tripe may have come from either cattle or hogs. The great recipes just go on and on in this book. The Beef section has Oxtails In Gravy and Grilled Beef Liver. All through my life I have eaten liver from beef, pork, and chicken; and, about two weeks ago I had chicken gizzards which can still be found on the menu of a local Lee's Famous Recipe. I have considered several times to buy an ox tail and cook it at home but never carried through with the idea In the Poultry section, there are recipes for Chicken And Dumplings, Turkey Wings And Gravy, and Roast Turkey. The book has a separate section devoted to Barbecue which has a great looking recipe for Barbecued Pigs Feet. I have eaten pig feet my whole life but never had the barbecued. This one is worth trying! The truncated Fish And Game section of the book is a disappointment after the great preceding sections on Beef and Pork. It only has six recipes but one of them is for Rabbit Flavored And Fried ang another for Hash Venison. But I must ask where are the recipes for alligator, muskrat, ground hog, elk, squirrels, bear, raccoon, and other wild game which many southern cooks are still cooking and eating regularly. The section labled Beans, Potatoes, Rice, And Salads has a recipe for Red Beans And Rice which uses a smoked ham hock instead of the andouille sausage which nearly all other such recipes for this dish use. It might be interesting done with the ham hock. It also contains another chitlin recipe called Rice And Chitlins Perlew which is worth investigating. This section also has recipes for pinto beans, butter beans, and lima beans. Nearly all of them use smoked ham hocks for flavoring. There is a separate section labled Vegetables And Greens which has the obligatory recipes for okra and collard greens. But it also has an interesting recipe for Collard Greens And Corn Meal Dumplings. I have never seen corn meal dumplings in my life and I'd love to try this recipe, or to try corn meal dumplings in the customary way that regular flour dumplings are usually made...like the BIG FLUFFY DUMPLINGS which my mother used to make. Yes, I know that it would be very hard to get fluffy corn meal dumplings since the nature of corn meal doesn't lend itself to fluff. The idea of corn meal dumplings is very intersting to me since one of my favorite occasional breakfasts is corn meal hoe cakes. A favorite supper for me is also fried cornbread and gravy which is made by slicing left over cornbread, frying it in bacon grease, removing the cornbread temporarily from the skillet before making the gravy, and then bathing the cornbread in the gravy. All in all, this book was one of best deals I have ever made for $1.59. If you like soul food, southern food, pork and beef innards and other southern, African American, or Appalachian foods, this is a great book to own.

"Hungarian Recipes" Reflections On An Intriguing Cookbook From The Magyar Evangelical and Reformed Church in Elyria, Ohio, 1957

I love food.  I like to cook but I don't claim to be a good cook.  I also love cookbooks, especially interesting, odd, unusual cookbooks, and I have bought cookbooks which fit that description for many years at yard sales and discount stores such as Goodwill, Salvation Army, etc.  I don't even remember when or where I bought this little cookbook but I strayed into it again and, due to the fact that it is a piece of work from a truly unique cultural group in America and contains a few odd, interesting, and unique recipes, I decided to write about it on this blog.  My copy is the 12th printing of the book with a copyright date of 1957.  It is, amazingly, available online in whatever the current printing may be.  In the copy I own, it labeled as being "Compiled by The Dorcas Guild of the MAGYAR EV. and REF. CHURCH 119 West River Street, Elyria, Ohio".  The copy available for sale on the internet today is labeled "Compiled by The Dorcas Guild of Community of Faith United Church of Christ (formerly Magyar UCC)".  My copy sold in 1957 for one dollar with shipping available for 25 cents extra.  The copy available today online is priced at $15.00 with standard US shipping.  Inflation has obviously had some effect on the cost of cookbooks.  Interestingly, the cover of the book is exactly the same plain green it was in 1957.  The only change is the address and name of the church.  It is said to be available until December 31, 2025.  One other interesting footnote to this story is that despite my not remembering where or how I came to own this cookbook, I used to have an aunt, uncle, and three cousins who lived in Elyria, Ohio.  The book is only 40 pages in a pamphlet form but it is loaded with recipes.  

For me, the most interesting recipes in the book would be the following: Liver Dumplings, Veal Heart And Lung Soup, and Kidneys With Rice.  There is also one recipe for Chicken And Rice which calls for "1 chicken--using bony pieces: neck, feet, wings, gizzard, liver".  The wording in that ingredient is taken verbatim from the book.  Many of the meat based recipes also call for generous portions of lard.  I am forced to wonder if the 2024 version of the book still calls for lard but I doubt it.  The book also has a large section of recipes for dessert items, cakes, pies, cookies, etc.  For those of you who might not know the term Magyar, it is defined as:

"a member of a people who originated in the Urals and migrated westward to settle in what is now Hungary in the 9th century AD"

 

Basically, Magyars are Hungarians.  For those of you who have spent your entire lives in Central and Southern Appalachia and wonder what connection there is between Appalachia and Magyars or Hungarians there was once a large community of Hungarians in Martin County Kentucky who were brought into the area to staff a large, cooperatively operated coal  mine near Beauty and Lovely on the Tug River.  This is a fascinating little cookbook and you can find your copy at the link above at a considerably larger, but currently standard level, price.  I would love to try the recipes I mentioned above but doubt that I ever will due to changes in my eating habits over the last 6 or 7 years. I was raised on organ meats and love to eat them but I just don't do that anymore.  If any of you readers try the book and recipes, please leave the rest of us a comment about what you learned from the experience.  

 

 

Muskrat For Supper, Ring The Dinner Bell!

 

When I was growing up in Appalachian Kentucky, my family ate nearly everything available with only two exceptions, muskrat and opossum.  We were always told that both were "nasty" and we shouldn't eat them.  Since then I have eaten both although it has been a long time since I ate either.  The firs time I ate muskrat was about 28 years old and working as the broodmare and yearling foreman on a Thoroughbred farm in Lexington, Kentucky, known as The Stallion Station. Our maintenance foreman was an African American man named Harvey "Bull" Jackson.  I will always remember Bull for a variety of reasons but one of the fondest memories I have of him involves the first time I ever ate muskrat.  Bull and I had to come in every Sunday morning with one man each to help us and do the bare minimum work on the farm.  My helper and I had to check on all the horses, do the feeding and turn out or put up whichever horses needed to be moved, and do any treatments for sick horses.  Bull and his helper had to check fences, water lines, etc. and do any necessary repairs.  We got in the habit of meeting for breakfast in the tack room at the foaling barn which had a good table, a hot plate, a sink, and hot and cold running water.  

 

One Sunday morning Bull came in with a big platter of meat all cooked up and set it down on the table and said "I brought breakfast.  Sit down and eat."  When I looked at the meat, I knew it was some kind of wild meat and thought it was probably groundhog which I love.  I've written about eating and cooking groundhog in more than one place on this blog.  I grabbed a leg, took a bite, liked it a lot but could tell that it wasn't groundhog.  "What is this, Bull," I asked.  He responeded, "Ruth cooked that.  Eat that.  It's good."  I finished the first leg, grabbed another and asked again, "What is this, Bull?"  I got the same answer, "Ruth cooked that.  That's good.  Eat that."  I knew Bull's wife Ruth and knew she was an excellent cook so I kept eating.  Finally, when he saw that I was enjoying the meat, he told me, "That's muskrat.  I went out last night to the ponds and shot some muskrats.  Ruth cooked them up for supper and we had that left over.  You like that don't you?"  I told him that I did like it and we finished the pan of meat.  I've been a muskrat lover ever since but I have not had the opportunity to eat a lot of it. 

In my recent blog post about eating groundhog, linked above, I made reference to a cookbook I have called "The L. L. Bean Game and Fish Cookbook" which had a couple of groundhog recipes which I mentioned in that blog piece.  It also has recipes for muskrat along with several other species of animals which most people don't eat but which I have found to be very good grub as we say in the mountains of Appalachia.  In their introduction to the section on muskrat the authors of the cookbook say: "In New Orleans and other eastern cities whose restaurants serve muskrat in season, this delicious meat is often listed as "marsh rabbit" to avoid the stigma attached to the word "rat".  It is a pity that the name puts off some people, for the tender, fine grained meat is excellent fare."  The authors of that cookbook are absolutely correct.  I have only been to New Orleans on two occasions and have never seen it on a menu where I have eaten.  I would love to try it in a commercial kitchen there someday.  I also know that in the Detroit, Michigan, area muskrat is commonly eaten and is generally thought to have been rooted in Catholic culture.  History says that in that area "tradition has it, it was during these early years of the 19th century that the humble pastor of Ste. Anne Parish in Detroit, Fr. Gabriel Richard, lobbied for a special dispensation to the region’s residents to consume muskrat throughout the Lenten season." I have also heard it told that in the Detroit area muskrat is commonly served smothered in sauerkraut or with sauerkraut as a side dish.  I've never been in Detroit in my adult years although I have spent several weeks in Michigan over the years in other parts of the state and have never seen muskrat on a menu in the state. I would love to attend the Lenten dinner described in the article linked above.  

My L. L. Bean cookbook has four recipes for muskrat.  The first describes oven roasting muskrat in much the same way Ruth Jackson cooked hers and similar to the way my family has often cooked both groundhog and raccoon.  Their second recipe is for "Marsh Rabbit" New Orleans Style.  They claim this recipe can be used equally well for rabbit, squirrel, groundhog, and beaver.  That recipe mentions "deglanding" the muskrats prior to preparation and I would agree with that idea.  Muskrats are so named because they have musk glands near their rectums and exude musk for purposes of defense, marking territory, and attracting mates and the musk can be quite strong in adult males.  Skinning of muskrats, beavers, or any other mustelids should be done with careful attention to removing those musk glands without damaging them and infusing the meat with the musk.  This second recipe contains several vegetables including carrots, onions, and green peppers. It also include a quarter pound of diced ham.  This recipe is also heavily spiced with a combination of red pepper seeds, cayenne, bay leaves, thyme, marjoram, parsley, salt, and pepper.  It is intended to be simmered for 1 1/2 hours in a Dutch Oven or heavy casserole dish.  Between the many vegetables and the diverse collection of spices, it appears to me that muskrat should become so well disguised that it's distinctive natural taste could well be lost.  The third L. L. Bean recipe is much simpler and called Braised Muskrat.  The only additives are onions, thyme, 1/2 pound of salt pork, and a touch of salt and pepper.  It seems that this recipe would be much more natural in flavor and true to the real muskrat.  The last L. L. Bean recipe is called Basic Sweet-Sour Recipe For Braised Muskrat Or Other Furred Game.  It is reputed to good for several other animals including beaver, squirrel, groundhog, and raccoon.  I have a bit of an issue with any recipe for any product which makes any claim leaning toward its being universally applicable to anything that creeps, crawls, or flies too low over the supper table.  It also includes onions, green pepper, and lard for flavoring.  The spices are salt, pepper, theyme, 1/4 cup sugar, dry mustard, and vinegar.  Once again, this recipe seems to be attempting to mask the natural flavor of the muskrat.  

There are also numerous recipes available on the internet for muskrat ranging from braised and baked to stewed and fried.  If you love wild meat, muskrat should never be avoided.  It is good, pretty, red meat with a nice color and taste.  You can find a recipe which appeals to your individual taste and try it.  It is well worth eating.  Just ask any devout Catholic in Detroit.  

Ground Hog Day, Yum, Yum!

 

Tomorrow, February 2, 2024, will be Groundhog Day just as the second day of February 2 has been every year since February 2, 1887, which coincidentally was just 6 days before my father Ballard Hicks was born. It began in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania and has slowly spread all over the nation.  Tomorrow, the mayor and various other public officials in Punxsutawney will be joined by a bevy of media reporters and photographers, and a small crowd of assorted gawkers to learn if their beloved groundhog Punxsutawney Phil, now likely in his 125th or so generation, will or will not see his shadow and will or will not predict six more weeks of winter.  It is a nice little piece of public relations for a relatively small town of roughly 6,000 which brings in a few hundred outsiders once a year to buy breakfast and maybe a tank of gasoline after having spent the preceding night in a local motel.  

But, in my childhood on Beaver Creek in Knott County Kentucky, groundhog day could come on any day of the year when the weather was warm enough for groundhogs to not be hibernating.  We had groundhog day anytime a member of the family was lucky enough to encounter, kill, dress, and cook a nice fat groundhog.  The primary event at our house on groundhog day did not involve standing around and waiting for the local officials to fish a pet groundhog out of its concrete burrow, hold it up in front of an adoring crowd, smile for the cameras, and expound on their interpretation of what that groundhog could not verbalize for itself about the weather.  Our version of groundhog day involved hearing the excited yells of whichever family member had actually bagged a groundhog and was yelling from the yard for the skinning knife and a dishpan in which the dressed meat could be brought into the house.  The primary event on groundhog day at our house was supper and, if we were lucky, groundhog day could happen several times a year.  It was also unlikely to be on February 2nd especially if it was a hard winter and the local groundhogs were still hibernating.  

Sometimes, we got lucky and spotted a groundhog minding its own business within range of a .22 rifle near the house.  Sometimes, our dog might just stray into a groundhog, alert the family, and drive it into its den which we would dig it out of with as few tools as possible.  If necessary, we might have to build a small fire or use a bee smoker to smoke it out of its hole if it was in a particularly rocky spot.  But, whatever the circumstances, when we spotted a groundhog it was lucky if it did not become the guest of honor at supper time.  You literally have not had a fine supper until you have eaten a groundhog baked slowly in the oven with black pepper and sage and surrounded it on the supper table with a pan of cat head biscuits, homemade butter,  shucked beans, new potatoes, and whatever else might be available from the garden, cellar, or among the pantry full of canned goods.  Baking with black pepper and sage was our favorite recipe for ground hog but I have seen many other variants on the best way to cook a groundhog.  

For many years, I have owned a copy of "The L. L. Bean Game and Fish Cookbook" by Angus Cameron and Judith Jones.  That book has two recipes for what they call woodchuck, the other prevalent name for the fat fellow we sometimes called Mr. Whistle Pig due to the sharply pitched whistle which they use as a warning cry if they spot or sense danger.  The L. L. Bean cookbook has one great sentence to begin their little section of recipes about groundhogs: "When one considers the number of woodchucks shot each year as varmints it is a pity that so few of them are eaten."  That is a beautiful sentence and sentiment. I have to admit that I have never actually tried either of the recipes in the book but they are both interesting.  The first is "Baked Young Woodchuck In Sour Cream And Mustard".  The second is "Oven-Barbecued Woodchuck Or Muskrat".  That is a wonderful sounding idea and I should have tried it long ago.  And, Yes!, I have eaten muskrat also and it is wonderful when it is prepared properly.  But that is fodder for a whole other blog post.  

A quick search of the internet produces a recipe called "A Groundhog Stew". Another is for "Braised Groundhog Tacos".  Another, under the label "How To Cook Groundhog" calls for a basic stew with vegetables much like a pot roast.  Yet another internet recipe calls for "Buttermilk Fried Groundhog" which could be very interesting with buttermilk made from Old Bossy's fresh milk prepared in grandma's churn.  There are several more easily found and readily prepared groundhog recipes to be found on the internet.  But I must also offer this one word of caution about killing and eating groundhogs.  Sadly, the widespread dissemination of coyotes all over the country has had a directly related reduction in the numbers of groundhogs in most areas.  But, at least once every one of you should try a groundhog for supper on groundhog day at your house.  But you should also consider doing whatever you can to help protect, preserve, and disseminate groundhogs in your area. 

"Rosie Hicks and Her Recipe Book" by Donnie Henderson Shedlarz & Edited by Thomas Burton--Book Review

This is the official description of this book on the official website of the editor, Thomas Burton, who is the author or editor of roughly a half dozen other Appalachian books. 

"Rosie Hicks is the deceased widow of Ray Hicks, the internationally known traditional storyteller from North Carolina. She lived in the shadows of all the publications and publicity of Ray; nevertheless, she is an interesting person in her own right. Her life is an engaging story, both as an individual and as a representative of a culture that has for the most part passed away. And that story is told in this little book directly from a series of recorded interviews by Donnie Shedlarz. The book focuses on Rosie’s wonderful anecdotes of growing up in Beech Mountain, North Carolina, including her marriage to Ray; but it also includes the recipes that she kept in an old recipe book, as well as a number of family photographs."  Thomas Burton Website 

The person who conducted the oral history interviews on which this book is based was Donnie Henderson Shedlarz who died of some unnamed lung ailment and asked Thomas Burton, before her death, to finish the work on this little book.  Thomas Burton transcribed the interviews of Ms. Shedlarz and edited the book which was published by Landa Books in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  I am unable to locate an internet website for Landa Books and have to assume that it is no longer functioning or was a purely personal project of Thomas Burton or someone else associated with Ms. Shedlarz.  This book was produced in what must have been a self-publishing, or vanity press, effort and is quite difficult to locate.  I have previously read three others of Thomas Burton's books including one called "Beech Mountain Man" which is an oral history biography of Ronda Lee Hicks, a nephew of Ray and Rosie Hicks who was quite a reprobate in his own right.  Burton had a long standing friendship with several members of the Hicks family and it is not surprising that he would have volunteered to complete the work which Shedlarz, a mutual friend of Rosie Hicks and Burton, had begun.  Shedlarz and Rosie Hicks had become friends during contacts they initially made at story telling festivals around the country where both appeared at times along with Ray Hicks.  

This book is small, brief, and that is its greatest shortcoming.  Rosie Hicks was a fascinating Appalachian woman from a different era, having been born in 1931 in an isolated portion of Western North Carolina where she spent her entire life.  She was a teenager when she married her husband Ray Hicks, who eventually became the most famous Appalachian story teller.  Rosie eventually, because of traveling to story telling festivals with her husband, developed a minor reputation as a story teller also.  But this book does not focus on her story telling although it does contain two brief stories from her repertoire which I will discuss briefly below.  The book is purely an oral history memoir with a sizeable collection of Hicks family photographs and photos of the index card pages of Rosie's personal recipe book.  The text portion of the book is only about twenty-five pages and the entire book is only sixty-one pages.  But it is well worth reading if you can locate a copy.  Burton did a creditable job of sticking to her unique dialect in his transcriptions and the book can shed some light on a few aspects of Appalachian dialect in Western North Carolina.  

There are several old Appalachian folk sayings and riddles in the book along with two short Appalachian Folk Tales from Rosie Hicks' collection.  One is called "Gallymanders" and the other is called "Mule Eggs".  Both are variants of common themes among the folk tales of Appalachia.  I do not pretend to be an expert on Appalachian Folk Tales but I have read and written about one of Leonard Roberts' books of folk tales.  Roberts is considered the best known expert in that area although he has now been dead nearly forty years.  I have to admit that I should read and write further about this important aspect of Appalachian Culture.  For those of you who have had no experience with Appalachian Folk Tales, these two in Rosie's book are a good place to start.  The book also has a sizeable collection of traditional Appalachian riddles.  Although my wife and I have not tried any of Rosie's recipes yet, some of them are worth examining including her Black Magic Cake, Prune Sour Cream Coffee Cake, and Stack Cake.  If you can find a copy of this book, I think there are aspects of it all of you can enjoy.  

Sorghum, Eating It, Comparing And Evaluating It

For a little more than a year now, I have been eating sorghum nearly every day in oatmeal at breakfast.  While that is the most consistently I have ever eaten sorghum, it has never been unusual for me to buy, eat, and keep sorghum in my house.  I grew up with sorghum in Knott County Kentucky and one of my fondest memories is of my father taking me with him once when I was about ten years old to buy sorghum where someone was grinding cane with a mule and cooking sorghum at the edge of the field.  For the past twenty-seven years, I have lived in Morgan County Kentucky, the home of the annual Morgan County Sorghum Festival which takes place the last full weekend in September each year. Morgan County is the heart of Kentucky sorghum country although some people in Liberty, Kentucky, the county seat of Casey County in West Central Kentucky, try to make a claim to the title. I must admit that I have never grown cane or actually made sorghum, but I will insist that I am an expert on the subject.  I have eaten three quarts in the last year.  Over the LAST sixty plus years, I have eaten sorghum made in several states, and in several different counties in my native Kentucky.  Deliberately, over the last year, I have chosen to buy different sorghum each time I have bought it and I am now ready to critique and compare these three varieties at least.  

Holbrook Brothers Pure Sorghum--Photo by Holbrook Brothers

For several years, I have been convinced that some of the best sorghum I have ever eaten has been grown and cooked by Holbrook Brothers Pure Sorghum in West Liberty where I live.  Originally, this variety of sorghum was grown and cooked by Dr. William Holbrook, DVM, and his brother Linville Holbrook.  They grew several acres of cane every year and were major influences on the creation and perpetuation of the Morgan County Sorghum Festival.  Sadly, both of the brothers are now dead.  But a second generation son is carrying on the tradition of growing and cooking the best sorghum in the area.  When I buy sorghum, I look for a rich, brown color; a sweet but not overpowering taste; and a level of thickness which shows me that the people running the cooker were both skillful and unafraid to boil the syrup down far enough to achieve that rich color and taste without scorching the product.  I have always said that there are three qualities that should always be avoided when buying and eating sorghum.  Those qualities to avoid are 1) sorghum that is too thin to the point that it runs rapidly off a spoon or a fork at room temperature; 2) sorghum that is mixed with any other form of sugar, syrup, or other additives.  Never, ever buy sorghum which says on the label that it contains any amount of corn syrup, dextrose, sucrose or any other additive or stretcher.  3) scorched sorghum should be never be used for human consumption.  If it has been scorched, it is good only as an additive to animal feed such as sweet feeds for cattle and horses.  There are two early signs that sorghum has been scorched.  The first is the odor when you open the jar.  If it has been scorched, the smell will tell you in an instant if you are an experienced sorghum eater.  The second sign of scorched sorghum is that it will usually be too thick from having been overcooked. But it is also possible to put a fast scorch on it simply by cooking too rapidly with too high heat. While I love thick sorghum, I also hate scorched sorghum.  The operator of the cooker must walk a fine line between achieving that wonderful color, flavor, and thickness and overheating and scorching the product.  If a sorghum producer, at the point of production on the farm, will not provide you a small spoonful to taste test, walk away and look for sorghum elsewhere.  It is also a great idea to look for sorghum which is being made by an active member of the National Sweet Sorghum Producers & Processors Association.  Their members are generally dedicated sorghum producers and fully committed to the art of making high quality sorghum.  Sometimes, such sorghum might be a little more expensive but it will almost always be worth the difference.  They describe their commitment in the following terms: 

• Recapturing and fostering the study of the art and science of sorghum production.
• Developing and disseminating information concerning these subjects to interested parties.
• Encouraging and promoting the combining of the best methods of the old fashioned sorghum maker with the best of today’s technology to make the best possible products from sorghum cane juice. (National Sweet Sorghum Producers & Processors Association)

The second variety of sorghum I have eaten in the past year was made by Oberholtzer's  Kentucky Sorghum.  It can be bought in a variety of stores and even from Amazon.  I have never been to Oberholtzer's production facilities but I can tell you that, based on the large variety of places I have seen it for sale, it is mass produced.  While it has an acceptable taste and color, it is too thin which is common with mass produced product. I have heard the claim made that Oberholtzer's Kentucky Sorghum is made by an Amish family and I have no cause to doubt that because of the German last name.  It is labeled as "Real" and "Not A Blend" and I have no reason to doubt the validity of those statements.  But it is just not the kind of sorghum you can find if you are willing to make a few phone calls, search the Internet diligently, and ask questions of dedicated sorghum eaters in your area.  Take a drive in the country and find a farm family who are raising less than 20 or 30 acres of cane, cooking the syrup themselves according to methods one of them learned from her parents or grandparents, and, if you are really lucky, you will find them sweating over a pan of syrup, stirring it with brand new hoes, and taking a break with a piece of squeezed cane for a snack.  But, if you don't have the time to find your sorghum that way, come to West Liberty, Kentucky, during the last full weekend of September and find a producer who lives locally, speaks with an Eastern Kentucky Appalachian accent, and offers you a free taste whether they think you are a buyer or not.

Oberholtzer's Sorghum Label--Photo by Roger D. Hicks

The third variety of sorghum I have eaten lately is actually made in Monterey, Tennessee by the Mazelin Family.  It is labeled "Pure" and "No Additives".  But I found it at my local Save-A-Lot grocery store which is a sure sign it is mass produced since Save-A-Lot is a fairly large chain with more than a thousand stores. This sorghum has a fairly good taste and color but is too thin which is also a signal that it is mass produced. The Save-A-Lot chain is headquartered in the Saint Louis area more than four hundred miles from Monterey, Tennessee, which is another indicator that the sorghum is most likely mass produced.  I do not have any particular aversion to this variety of sorghum other than the taste and thinness but I doubt that I will ever buy it again unless I run out and can't find one of my favorite varieties.  I do not consider this variety worth recommending although you, as an individual might come to like it.

Mazelin Family Sorghum Label--Photo by Roger D. Hicks

I understand that some veteran sorghum eaters and producers who read this post might disagree with me and I respect that.  If you have a favorite brand of sorghum, please let me know and if I can locate a jar I will definitely try it.  If you are a sorghum producer and have the desire to have me try and write about your product, get in touch with me either through this blog or at my e-mail ( rchicks@mrtc.com )  and we can arrange to have you send me a jar.  I am also always interested in seeing new recipes using sorghum in any form of food but especially in entrees since there are fewer and fewer people cooking with sorghum other than in baked goods.  Now go out in the area near you and find some local sorghum and try it, especially if you have never eaten sorghum.  When you do that, please send me a message or a comment on this blog so all of us can see what you found and your reaction to it.