# Molasses



## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

It always starts out the same way ... someone calls hubby and said, "I need your help!" (pump, motor or etc) The next thing I know ... I'm helping some farmer make molasses. (very cool) The steps are from ehow ... but pretty much how it was done. 
1
Cut the sugar or sorghum cane about 5 or 6 inches from the ground in early October.

2
Remove the seeds by cutting them off at a slant with a sharp knife. Some people let their cane stand for one week before taking it to the mill for squeezing.

3
Squeeze the cane at mill into a large tub until full. (The part hubby had to help with... )

4
Strain the juice through clean white cloths wringing as you go to get all the juice.

5
Pour the juice into a boiler pan approximately 7 feet long, 3 feet wide and 12 inches deep. Each pan will hold about 90 to 100 gallons of juice.

6
Place pan over a wood fire by resting it on concrete blocks built around the fire. Molasses must cook slowly and evenly to prevent burning. Boil juice for around 6 hours.

7
Skim the green substance from the top of the juice as it boils with a special molasses strainer.

8
Pour into sterilized canning jars while hot to keep the molasses from cooling and turning hard. Jars will self seal as the syrup cools.

I love this stuff  ... I can hear my hubby now ... "Well, do you mind if I bring the wife and son with me?" lol


----------



## OldCootHillbilly (Jul 9, 2010)

Love the stuff. Use lots of it in my smoked meats.

Used ta have a plant near by what made it, but alas, they are gone, now I gotta buy it at the store, ain't as good, but ya do what ya gotta!


----------



## sailaway (Mar 12, 2009)

I use molasses in place of refined sugar when I make oat meal cookies, yum yum!


----------



## Jason (Jul 25, 2009)

Daddy Mole, Mommy Mole, and Baby Mole went on vacation to a nearby meadow. After they tunneled their way into the middle of the meadow, they popped up in the middle of a beautiful field of wildflowers, blooming in all their magnificance. Daddy Mole poked his head up out of the hole, inhaled deeply, and said "I smell honey!" Mommy Mole popped her head up out of the hole, inhaled deeply, and said "I smell honey!" Baby Mole, who was still in the hole behind his parents, tried not to inhale too deeply and said "I smell molasses."


----------



## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

LOL!

Jason, Thanks for the smile


----------



## Expeditioner (Jan 6, 2009)

Love me some sorghum molasses. Used to make it with my family when I was a kid......one of the benefits of being a hillbilly. I use for smoking meats, as sugar substitute, on biscuits or cornbread, in my grits, and in beer making!


----------



## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

Expeditioner said:


> Love me some sorghum molasses. Used to make it with my family when I was a kid......one of the benefits of being a hillbilly.


But one of the skills from the past that is going, going and soon to be gone.


----------



## CVORNurse (Oct 19, 2008)

*Andi said:


> But one of the skills from the past that is going, going and soon to be gone.


Lord, I hope not. Love me some homemade buttered biscuits with molasses. Or ribbon cane syrup. Or honey. My father in law used to have dessert at breakfast. He would literally get a big glob of margarine and pour molasses or cane syrup over, smoosh together, and dip his biscuits in it. Looks gross, but very tasty. 
And no, his heart didn't do him in, it was the Hep C that they never did figure out where he had picked up.


----------



## ShipAhoy (Nov 3, 2008)

My grandmother used to make molasses cookies from scratch. I have the recipe somewhere.


----------



## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

CVORNurse said:


> Lord, I hope not. Love me some homemade buttered biscuits with molasses. Or ribbon cane syrup.


Sorry ... just the way I see it... the skill of every day, from the past are (on a sad note) going to the way side.


----------



## mdprepper (Jan 22, 2010)

ShipAhoy said:


> My grandmother used to make molasses cookies from scratch. I have the recipe somewhere.


Would you share that recipe?


----------



## kyfarmer (Feb 22, 2009)

Untill my uncle passed away, our family made molasses and maple sugar for over 50 years. Right in the hills of old Kentuck.


----------

