Pomegranate molasses
Nar ekşisi, dibs rumman — one ingredient nothing else replaces. It is simply pomegranate juice reduced to a fifth of its volume, with no sugar and just a little lemon for balance. The fruit's own sugar concentrates enough for the syrup to set. One thing matters: stopping at the exact moment the syrup coats a spoon. Too early and it stays thin and ferments quickly. Too late and it hardens to caramel once cold.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Extracting the juice 25 min
- Reduction 90 min
- Cooling 15 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneKnock the seeds out with a spoon
Halve the pomegranates crossways and knock the seeds out by hitting the skin with a wooden spoon over a bowl. Faster than picking them out and, more importantly, it does not crush the seeds prematurely.
Ingredients: 8 pcs pomegranates · 1 pcs lemon
Spoon blows on the skin — faster and it crushes nothing.Remove every scrap of white membrane
Pick every piece of white membrane out of the bowl. The membranes are intensely bitter, and at fivefold concentration that bitterness becomes the dominant flavour of the finished syrup.
Ingredients: 8 pcs pomegranates · 1 pcs lemon
Crush the seeds and strain the juice
Crush the seeds with a pestle or blend briefly and strain through a fine sieve, pressing. Do not blend long — broken pips release tannins and the syrup turns as astringent as strong tea.
Ingredients: 8 pcs pomegranates · 1 pcs lemon
Boil in a wide pan, uncovered
Pour the juice into a wide, shallow pan and boil uncovered. A wide base means a large evaporating surface — in a narrow pan the same reduction takes much longer and the syrup darkens too far.
Ingredients: 8 pcs pomegranates · 1 pcs lemon
Reduce to a fifth of the volume
Boil 75–90 minutes over medium heat, until a litre and a half of juice becomes about 300 ml. Mark the starting level with a skewer — by eye it is hard to judge a fivefold reduction.
Ingredients: 8 pcs pomegranates · 1 pcs lemon
A litre and a half down to three hundred millilitres.Add the lemon near the end
Stir in the lemon juice in the last 10 minutes. The acid lifts the fruit and balances the sweetness, and added late it keeps a fresh lemon aroma that long boiling would drive off. Taste: if the pomegranates were very sour, add the sugar now; a pinch of salt rounds out the flavour.
Ingredients: 8 pcs pomegranates · 1 pcs lemon
Test the thickness on a cold saucer
Drop a little syrup onto a cold saucer and draw a finger through — when ready it leaves a clean line that does not close. Remember it thickens noticeably as it cools, so err on the side of stopping a touch early.
Ingredients: 8 pcs pomegranates · 1 pcs lemon
A clean line on a cold saucer — and it thickens further.Bottle it hot in a sterilised jar
Pour the hot syrup into a sterilised jar and seal at once. Hot filling creates a vacuum and the molasses keeps for months. Cool it upside down to check the seal has taken.
Ingredients: 8 pcs pomegranates · 1 pcs lemon
Before you start
Carton juice works too
Eight pomegranates give a litre and a half of juice and take half an hour of work. Pure 100 per cent juice from a carton, with no added sugar or apple juice, gives a very similar result — but check the label, as blends with apple or grape juice give a sweet syrup without the characteristic sourness.
Bitter means overcooked
If the molasses tastes bitter, there are two causes: membranes left in the juice, or too fierce a boil at the end, once the sugars start to caramelise. Run the last ten minutes over low heat and watch the pan.
Six months in the pantry
Sealed hot in a sterilised jar it keeps six months somewhere dark, three months in the fridge once opened. If it thickens too far, loosen it with a spoon of boiling water — the consistency comes back completely.