Verjuice

• koruk ekşisi

  Turkish — Gaziantep

  Literally "unripe-grape sour"; koruk is the unripe grape. The registered Gaziantep product of this name is a concentrate or a powder, not the fresh juice, which Turkish calls koruk suyu.

• asir el hosrom

  Arabic — Lebanon

  Spelt as a Lebanese study prints it, in Latin letters only. The study says this is what verjuice is called in Lebanon and does not name the language.

• abbe-ghureh

  Persian

  Spelt as the same Lebanese study prints it, in Latin letters only, as the Persian name. Other English spellings of the same word are in use and are not given, because no source read prints them.

• agraz

  Spanish

  As the Lebanese study lists it; no Spanish source was read.

• agresto

  Italian

  As the Lebanese study lists it; no Italian source was read.

Sour. A triangle test with 36 trained assessors in Lebanon found no difference in taste between the juices of four grape varieties. No source read describes the flavour beyond its sourness, and the concentrate and the powder of Gaziantep were not tasted by any panel that was found.

Pale, and darker once heated. In the Lebanese study every one of four juices browned and deepened in colour when boiled, and a panel of 42 preferred the colour of the juice of the Tfayfihi grape.

The Lebanese juice is as thin as water, at about 4 to 5 per cent soluble solids. The liquid registered in Gaziantep is a concentrate of 65 to 68 per cent.

• Tartaric acid — The leading acid. One bottled Iranian verjuice held 1,282 mg per 100 g, six times as much as any other acid measured in it, and the acidity of verjuice is reckoned as tartaric acid in the Lebanese study, at 3.45 to 4.51 per cent.(what tartaric acid is)
• Malic acid — Named with tartaric acid as one of the two major acids. The same Iranian bottle held 202 mg per 100 g.(what malic acid is)

Used as it comes. No source read gives a measure for a dish, and the concentrate, the thin juice and the powder cannot be measured alike.

A souring agent used where another kitchen would reach for lemon juice or vinegar. Gaziantep’s registration has it in stuffed vegetables, salads and cooked dishes; women asked in the Bekaa used it above all in sour kibbeh and in salad; a study in Iran names salad dressings and appetisers. Two food-science studies, in Mashhad and İzmir, soaked beef in it before cooking.

Vitaceae

• Türkiye (Gaziantep province) — notable producer. Registered as Gaziantep koruk ekşisi, in a liquid and a powdered kind, made from unripe grapes taken off the vines of the province at thinning.
• Lebanon (Bekaa valley) — notable producer. Twelve makers from different villages of the valley described their methods to a study, which pressed its own from the Tfayfihi, Baytamoni, Black and Obeideh grapes of one vineyard in the West Bekaa.
• Iran — use or gathering documented here. A study in Mashhad bought its verjuice from a local company and says the juice is used in different regions of Iran. It does not describe where or how it is made.

The grapes are taken while still unripe. In Gaziantep they are the bunches removed when growers thin the vines. In Lebanon the juice is usually made in July, and a study there picked its fruit in early July, before the berries began to colour and sweeten.

1. Pressing — In the household method of Gaziantep the berries are crushed with light blows of a wooden mallet in a deep vessel, or first simmered with a little water and then crushed, and the juice is strained from skins and seeds. Skins and stalks are steeped in water once or twice to take the last of the sourness. In the Bekaa the washed, destemmed fruit is ground and pressed by machine. The Gaziantep registration’s factory method uses a grape press.Why: The registration says the seeds must not be crushed, so that their astringency does not reach the juice.
2. Settling — The juice is left to stand until it clears, and the clear part is drawn off the sediment; what remains is strained through muslin. In one Gaziantep method a handful of flour is scattered over the juice to carry the sediment down.
3. Boiling or sunning — In Gaziantep the juice is thickened, by boiling or by standing in wide vessels in the sun, until it reaches 65 to 68 per cent soluble solids; the factory method boils it under vacuum. In the Bekaa the juice is only heated: most of the twelve makers asked boiled it, for anything from a quarter of an hour to more than two hours, and the study’s own juice, boiled for half an hour, lost about 15 per cent of its volume and was still under 6 per cent soluble solids.Why: Two different products result: a syrup in Gaziantep, a thin sour juice in the Bekaa.
4. Drying and grinding, for the powder — For the powdered kind registered in Gaziantep the unripe grapes are dried on the bunch, picked off, cleaned of stalks and put through a mincer or pounded in a mortar.
5. Bottling — The liquid goes into glass bottles and the powder into glass jars. Five of the twelve Bekaa makers add table salt before bottling.

Sold as a liquid or, in Gaziantep, as a powder; the question of whole against ground does not arise.

• A label listing unripe grapes and nothing else: the registered Gaziantep product allows no sugar, additive or flavouring.
• Which product it is. A concentrate and a thin juice carry the same name, and one is many times the strength of the other.

Sold bottled in Iran, where a Mashhad study bought its verjuice from a local company. In the Bekaa it is made by village processors from the grapes of the valley.