Creed of the old South - Basil Gildersleeve

[hefyd]

This is an interesting book.I have a Latin Grammar by Gildersleeve- [1831- 1924] - I never realised he was such a colourful [or should that be colorful] character

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/24281

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basil_Lanneau_Gildersleeve

An extract gives the flavour [literally in this case] :

"The war was not an era of sweetness and light. Perhaps sugar was the
article most missed. Maple sugar was of too limited production to meet
the popular need. Sorghum was a horror then, is a horror to remember
now. It set our teeth on edge and clawed off the coats of our stomachs.
In the army sugar was doled out by pinches, and from the tables of most
citizens it was banished altogether. There were those who solaced
themselves with rye coffee and sorghum molasses regardless of ergot and
acid, but nobler souls would not be untrue to their gastronomic ideal.
Necessity is one thing, mock luxury another. If there had been honey
enough, we should have been on the antique basis; for honey was the
sugar of antiquity, and all our cry for sugar was but an echo of the cry
for honey in the Peloponnesian war. Honey was then, as it is now, one of
the chief products of Attica. It is not likely that the Peloponnesians
took the trouble to burn over the beds of thyme that gave Attic honey
its peculiar flavor, but the Peloponnesians would not have been soldiers
if they had not robbed every beehive on the march; and, sad to relate,
the Athenians must have been forced to import honey. When Dicæopolis
makes the separate peace mentioned above, he gets up a feast of good
things, and there is a certain unction in the tone with which he orders
the basting of sausage-meat with honey, as one should say mutton and
currant jelly. In The Peace, when War appears and proceeds to make a
salad, he says,--


I'll pour some Attic honey in.


Whereupon Trygæus cries out,--


Ho, there, I warn you use some other honey.
Be sparing of the Attic. That costs sixpence.


Attic honey has the ring of New Orleans molasses; "those molasses," as
the article was often called, with an admiring plural of majesty."

What is 'sorghum' by the way ? hefyd

[chocoholic]

What is 'sorghum' by the way ?

It is sort of like molasses but better. Some molasses is bitter and strong (to my taste), and some products that are called "sorghum molasses" are also bitter. But I have had real sorghum before, I can't remember where it came from but I don't think it's made very many places. And real sorghum is delicious. It's a different flavor than honey but it could be used wherever you'd use honey. I would not like to eat molasses on a biscuit (I mean an American biscuit, like one of your scones) but sorghum -- oh yes, definitely. Yum! I don't know what Gildersleeve was talking about. Probably it was produced differently back then, or else he had got hold of some of that dark bitter molasses that I don't like and was calling that sorghum.

Oh -- looking further I see that "sorghum" is the name of the plant. I am talking about sorghum syrup, of course.
http://www.ca.uky.edu/NSSPPA/sorghumfaqs.html

[hefyd]

Thanks chocoholic

"For today's chef, sorghum is a nutritious flavoring, a seasoning ingredient and a sugar substitute. It is that secret ingredient that gives any food that delicious taste and aroma that spells H-O-M-E-M-A-D-E."

I must see if I can get some ! hefyd