Wednesday, April 15, 2015

M ~ Molasses

Molasses was an important staple in our pantry while I was growing up, and many other Amish pantries as well.

We used to get it from a bulk food store in five gallon pails.

After bringing it home, a gallon jar would be filled to make using it a little easier than having to lug a heavy five gallon pail around every time we needed some. The pails of molasses would be stored on the floor, tucked under one of the shelves in the pantry.

We used three different kinds of molasses.

Our most used was blackstrap molasses. We used it to bake bread, cookies, Shoo-Fly pie, and stirred it into milk to drink. Instead of having chocolate milk, we had blackstrap milk.

The second kind of molasses, some referred to as white molasses. In reality it was corn syrup. It was used for Pecan Pies, and church peanut butter.

The third was sorghum molasses which happened to be delicious spread on bread instead of honey or jams and jellies.

9 comments:

  1. I have hardly ever eaten molasses occasionally some black treacle - we had golden syrup - delicious - in a tin with a dead lion and a swarm of bees on the the outside - the maker was religious and chose this from a passage in the Bible - Sampson's journey for a wife - out of the strong comes sweetness - not sure why no-one knows but it is apparently the longest running brand name and picture in the world

    I don't eat it much now as the fun of sweet things has gone with all the health warnings but i always have a tin in the larder:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Interesting choice of picture for a tin of golden syrup. Not the most appetizing! I always wondered why anyone would eat honey out of the carcass of a lion, as far as I know Sampson is the only one who did. :)

      Delete
    2. I guess it all depends upon how hungry you are! Think of the first person to eat an oyster...We have King Syrup here in the States, but the trademark is just the head and shoulders of a lion. No dead bodies.
      My mom used to make us molasses milk, and when the jelly jar was empty, she'd put in some milk and shake it up to make us a "milkshake".

      Delete
  2. I've never been wild about the flavor of molasses, but the uses you list sound intriguing!

    Thanks for coming by my blog! I'll be checking out some of your other posts, and your books look interesting, too!
    Rebecca at The Ninja Librarian

    ReplyDelete
  3. We used to have black strap molasses on pancakes when I was a kid! YUM

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good that you put it in gallon jars. I can't imagine having to lug out the five gallon pail every time you needed some.

    Liz A. from Laws of Gravity

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've never been fond of molasses or "white" molasses. Instead, I love maple syrup - the darker, the better. I am fortunate enough to live in maple syrup, and can buy syrup made by a producer who uses a wood burning evaporator. It gives the syrup a special taste. Alana ramblinwitham.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  6. I never heard of molasses ... my daughter would love the black strap molasses if given a choice..nice to read and thanks for enlightening.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I like sorghum molasses - similar to sugar cane syrup, which is my favorite for pancakes.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for taking time to comment. I love hearing your thoughts.