Food Encyclopedia

sorghum

This cereal grass has broad, cornlike leaves and huge clusters of cereal grain at the end of tall, pithy stalks. Sorghum is a powerhouse of nutrition but, though it's the third leading cereal crop in the United States, almost all of it is used for animal fodder. Around the world, however, it's the third largest food grain. A few U.S. mills do sell it by mail order. One sorghum by-product the United States does use for human consumption is the sweet juice extracted from the stalks, which, like that from the sugarcane, is boiled down to produce a thick syrup called (also or simply ). It's often used as a table syrup and to sweeten and flavor baked goods.