sorghum
Sweet cane syrup (and the crop it comes from) poured on biscuits.
Also called sorghum molasses, sorghum syrup, sorghums.
Updated September 24, 2026
sorghum pronunciation
/SOR-gum/
Meaning
In mountain and rural Southern talk, sorghum usually means the thick amber syrup boiled down from sweet sorghum cane, not just the tall grass out in the field. Folks pour it on biscuits and cornbread, bake it into cookies, and still call it molasses even when it ain't sugarcane molasses. Come fall, some places still fire up a mill and hold a stir-off when the juice cooks down.
How folks use it
- “Pass the sorghum, this biscuit needs a little help.”
- “We put up two gallons of sorghum after the cane mill ran last weekend.”
Origin and etymology
Sweet sorghum came from Africa and took hold on American farms in the 1800s. It thrives where corn grows, so Appalachia and cooler Southern hills used it when sugarcane wouldn't. The word itself tracks back through Latin and Greek to a name for the plant. Mountain kitchens made the syrup a daily sweetener before store sugar got cheap.
Frequently asked questions
Is sorghum the same as molasses?
Not exactly. Store molasses usually comes from sugarcane. Mountain "molasses" is often sorghum syrup from sorghum cane. Similar use, different plant.