OK I think I’ve gone from cigarette addition to BTD Forum addiction.  I found a Whole Foods through a link I found on this website.  Besides spending 3 hours and $300, I bought Unsulphured Blackstrap Molasses among other things I’ve heard about on this forum.   I’ve never tasted it in my life, I’m not a sweet eater and I don’t bake goodies.  Now what do I do with it?  It’s a beneficial for me.  Can I just take a tablespoon of it like medicine?  I also bought some Laver Nori seaweed to munch on and I feel super energized after munching on it.  I went though a bag of rice cakes in two days.  Someone at work today told me to buy a puppy teething chewy. I figure as long as I’m chewing on healthy BTD foods it’s better than smoking.  DAY 17 !!!

I pour a little in my oatmeal every morning.

good for you Arlene!!
try munching more on beneficial veggies strips instead of high glycemic rice cakes!
that will be better on your weight.

Hi Arlene!  Another B nonnie is always welcome!  

I just made myself a couple of lightly toasted rice cakes, spread with almond butter and lightly drizzled with blackstrap molasses.  Then I sat down at the computer and opened this thread, and read your post.  Well, is that a coincidence, or what!!  ??

This is a pretty tasty treat, and my current favorite way to eat Blackstrap molasses.  Also, if you drink milk, (which I don't digest so well, but some B's can do it) try hot milk with a tsp. or more of blackstrap stirred in.

We really like Nori around my house.  My daughter lays out a sheet of the Sushi Nori (lightly toasted) and spreads a line of cooked rice down one end of it, tops that with cooked salmon and a few slices of Eden brine-cured ginger slices, and rolls it up.  Instant Sushi!  

Hey hang in there with the anti-cig. campaign.  That's not your friend, and you're over the worst part.  Drink a lot, lot of pure water.  Drink green tea.  Genmaicha is my favorite, made with "not quite boiling" water, and steeped a couple of minutes.  Or make with hotter water, and steep only 45 seconds.  It's helpful with nearly everything that ails us.

I look forward to seeing you around the Forum.

Quoted from Arlene

OK I think I?ve gone from cigarette addition to BTD Forum addiction.

There's no known cure....

I love Blackstrap Molasses.  It mixes with, well..anything.

Just don't eat it by itself.  It will get lonely.

VG -- I love your disclaimer/signature!

About not eating blackstrap (hmmm, better not abbreviate that...) by itself.  I don't do that, but I do often have it mixed with just a little something else, like a hot drink or a serving of yogurt.  Sometimes it seems like eating the stuff on a daily basis is irritating my digestive tract.  Since blackstrap is naturally high in iron, I'm wondering whether this might be similar to the effect that some people get from taking iron pills (though the molasses has nowhere near that level of iron in it).

Has anyone else noticed anything of the sort?  I really like having the molasses now and then.  Is there an antidote?

Quoted Text

Is there an antidote?

I wouldn't know.  I don't eat it all THAT often.

But I am prone to eating too many sardines.  Sometimes in conjuction with blackstrap molasses.

I got to wondering last night about that word "blackstrap."  The "black" part is pretty obvious -- the stuff is awfully dark.  But "strap"?  Maybe because it's so thick that when you pour it, the stream looks like a strap?  Pretty farfetched!

My dictionary gives no indication of the word's origin except to say that it's an Americanism.

Then I remembered seeing an ad for Dutch cookies called "stroopwafels."  The ad translated the word as "syrup waffle."  Anyhow, the "stroop" part is Dutch for "syrup."

So I'm thinking that "blackstrap" may be an English-Dutch hybrid from New York (formerly New Amsterdam). The Dutch speakers called the stuff "stroop," and their English-speaking neighbors turned it into the closest English word they could think of, namely "strap," and added the adjective "black."  So "blackstrap" would basically mean "black syrup" -- and "blackstrap molasses" would be redundant.

Oh Carol, I found someone just as bad as me about searching until I get an answer about something only someone like me would ponder.  

Arlene

And you're not even an A?

   

Have you all noticed actual health benefits from the BSM or just use it for a sweetner

It's subtle and totally subjective.  I don't eat any other sweetener.  Honey, maple syrup, glycerine, agave, none of them feel good to my body.  But BSM feels like food.  I only eat about 1/2 tsp a day, drizzled on my couple of rice cakes/almond-walnut butter.  I know that it is rich in iron and calcium, but beyond that, I think it is high in other minerals, since it is the bottom of the barrel, after all possible sugar has been removed.

Carol, I think you have a point there!

Thank you, Madam Language Expert!

more then anything else i am seeing if i can respond, as i just join... molassess, well yeah its great on iron and potasium too...

i thinks its cool for type O too...

susie

susie,
welcome!)
If you go to the top of the page and click on member centre (on the top right hand side of this page) and get yourself a nice avatar (located on the left) then we can all see what blood type you are and you won't have to type it each time you post.
-if you want to add information below your avatar setting, such as Rh +/-, by going to the Profile Information section in the Member Center and typing in the Personal Message box.  You can also create a Signature of any other information you want to share that will go at the bottom of every message you post.
.

Carol!
......

A slight variation on the possible history of the term:

If I ask Babel Fish (http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/tr to translate "black syrup" into Dutch, it comes back with "zwarte stroop."  A Google search turned up 44 references to "zwarte stroop" (all in Dutch, of course), but when I ask Babel Fish to translate one of these pages into English, it renders "zwarte stroop" as "black stroop"!

Admittedly, any automated translator is likely to do a somewhat awkward job.  (One of the sentences in the first recipe came back as "Mix the ebullient mass by 2½ kilo rye flower to a tough paste," for example.)  But it's interesting that "zwarte" was translated but "stroop" was not.

I'm now thinking that the word "blackstrap" might have originated (back in old New York / New Amsterdam) when a bilingual person from a Dutch family made the same half-translation in a conversation with a strictly English-speaking neighbor.  (Perhaps they were unfamiliar with the word "syrup," or perhaps they were simply so used to calling the stuff "stroop" that it never occurred to them that it was a Dutch word.)  The neighbor, hearing in English, assumed that the phrase was "black strap," and knowing no other word for the dark molasses, began calling it that.

And, of course, the redundant "molasses" was added by the English-speaking person, since they didn't realize that "blackstrap" by itself means "black syrup."

Hey gals, nice sweet thread  

Carol asked me if I could help unraveling the stroop
Indeed black means zwart and strap is stroop in Dutch.
Molasses is completely abundant in this name..

Stroopwafels are thin wheat waffles with light brown strap between them.
sooo sweet that my enamel is jumping off my teeth when eating it

Remember we Dutchies 'invaded' your continent to settle down. New Amsterdam, Brooklyn/Breukelen and many more dutch names in your cities, and brought of course those typical dutch treats with them...

Since on the diet I have lost my sweet tooth for the bigger part. Only in the morning I eat some veggly (half a tablespoon) in my special type A buckwheat-amaranth-oats porridge with dried apricots and some wheatfree muesli...
No sugar for me, nor really fatty foods. Both give me acidreflux during hours after eating it..

Was that okay Carol??????

Sorry not to have seen this thread sooner, was a bit preoccupied with my Travelagency

Cocky

Thanks for the expert commentary, Cocky!

Just one thing I'm still not sure about -- is "zwarte stroop" the same thing as blackstrap molasses?