Pomegranate molasses

• nar ekşisi

  Turkish

  Literally "pomegranate sour". Turkish shops also sell a cheaper product labelled as a sauce made with it, which is not the same thing; see the note on authenticity.

• narsharab

  Azerbaijani — Azerbaijan

  Spelt as a handbook chapter on the pomegranate prints it, for a pomegranate sauce made from the juice and served with fish and grilled meat in Azerbaijan. The chapter does not name the language or say how far the juice is reduced.

Sweet, and sour from the acid of the fruit, with a caramelised note from the boiling; thick enough to pour slowly. This is the wording of the Hatay registration, written by the body that holds the name. No tasting panel was found.

Very dark. The Hatay registration gives lightness readings of 3 to 7.8 on a scale where 100 is white, and puts the darkness down to caramelising in the boil. Bottles bought in Malatya held 3.77 to 24.37 mg/L of the red pigments of the fruit, where fresh juice pressed for the same study held 95.98.

A thick liquid of low fluidity. Seven Bursa brands measured from 200 to 1,800 mPa·s, a ninefold spread.

• Citric acid — The leading organic acid in all five bottles bought in Malatya and in fresh juice pressed beside them, ahead of malic acid. The sourness of the concentrate is counted as citric acid in every source read.(what citric acid is)
• Malic acid — The second acid measured in the same five bottles, at about half the citric or less.(what malic acid is)
• Glucose and fructose — The sweetness. The Hatay registration gives 23.5 to 30.7 per cent glucose and 21.7 to 28.5 per cent fructose, in nearly equal shares, and total sugar of 45.6 to 59.1 per cent.

Used as it comes from the bottle. In the registered bulgur salad of Hatay it is kneaded in by hand once the bulgur has softened, before the olive oil; in the province’s zahter salad it is poured over the chopped leaves with the oil and rubbed in with the salt.

A souring agent used in small amounts. In the registered dishes of Hatay and Gaziantep it dresses salads of herbs and of bulgur, sharpens the pepper and walnut spread muhammara, and goes into cooked dishes and pastries; a handbook records it in Iran’s walnut and poultry stew fesenjan and, in Azerbaijan, beside fish and grilled meat. It brings sugar and a caramelised note along with its acid, which lemon juice does not.

Lythraceae

• Türkiye (Hatay province) — notable producer. Registered as Hatay nar ekşisi. Made from the Hicaz and Katırbaşı pomegranates and from local kinds the registration names as Kirli Hanım, Kış Narı, Yerli Nar, Lüfeli, Siyah Nar and Karamehmet.
• Türkiye (Oğuzeli district, Gaziantep province) — notable producer. Registered as Oğuzeli nar ekşisi and made from the Oğuzeli pomegranate, which has a registration of its own.

In Oğuzeli the fruit is picked in October, after rain, and goes to the press at once: the registration says this juicy pomegranate attracts fruit flies and spoils quickly, so what cannot be pressed straight away is kept in cold stores.

1. Sorting and washing — The fruit is picked over, cleared of leaves and washed. Sweet kinds are not used alone: the Hatay registration says its two sweet pomegranates must be mixed with sour ones.Why: The acid of the finished concentrate comes from the fruit.
2. Freeing the seeds — By hand the fruit is cut in half and beaten on the back with a stick or a wooden spoon so that the seeds fall out. Factories break the rind with blades and part rind from seed in a sieved drum or a vibrating machine.
3. Pressing and straining — The seeds are squeezed by hand or in a screw press and the juice is strained through cloth. Factories then heat, clarify and filter it.
4. Boiling down — In the household method of Hatay the juice is boiled hard over a wood fire in tinned copper basins, the foam is skimmed off as it rises, and the juice is stirred and ladled from a height to drive off water until it has thickened five to seven times over. The maker judges by experience when it is done. Factories concentrate it under reduced pressure at a lower temperature, or boil it in a pressurised, stirred kettle.Why: The Hatay registration says the skimming carries off bitter tannins that came from the rind during pressing.
5. Resting and bottling — The concentrate is cooled, and in Oğuzeli rested for some hours and strained again to remove the sediment that forms as it thickens, then bottled in glass.

Not graded. Türkiye has a national standard for it, TS 12720, which a 2010 study reports as asking for at least 68 per cent soluble solids and at least 7.5 per cent acidity counted as citric acid, and as allowing no sucrose. Two studies of shop-bought bottles found many outside it: four of seven brands in Bursa were below the acidity floor, and all five brands bought in Malatya in a later study held more of the heating marker hydroxymethylfurfural than the 50 mg/kg the authors give as the standard’s limit.

Glucose syrup. A study of seven brands sold as pomegranate molasses in the shops of Bursa found it in four, and suspected it had been added to raise the dry matter. The registrations for the Hatay and Oğuzeli products both state that no sweetener or additive is used.

Sold only as a bottled liquid, so the question does not arise.

• A label listing pomegranate juice and nothing else: the two registered Turkish products allow no sweetener and no additive.
• Sourness: the national standard reported by one study asks for at least 7.5 per cent acidity, and four of seven shop brands fell short of it.

Sold in bottles by national brands in Türkiye, where two studies bought seven and five brands from ordinary shops. Syrians interviewed in north-western Italy between 2023 and 2024 said the pomegranate molasses of home was not readily to be had there.