Pomegranate molasses is, in essence, reduced pomegranate juice. Like when you reduce balsamic vinegar, cooking down pomegranate juice creates a thickened syrup with a much more potent flavor. This syrup can be used as a condiment, or added to various dishes to enhance their flavor. Simply reducing pomegranate juice creates a very sour syrup with a powerful, almost overpowering flavor. Reducing pomegranate juice together with a little sugar helps it thicken to a syrup faster, and makes the resulting sauce more palatable. Adding a little lemon juice helps to increase the sauce’s shelf life. This post will walk you through both methods of making pomegranate molasses, and explain my preference between the two.
What is pomegranate molasses?
Pomegranate molasses (also known as pomegranate syrup) is made throughout the Middle East in countries like Iran, Syria, and Lebanon. Traditionally the molasses is made by simply reducing pomegranate juice into a thickened syrup, relying on natural fruit sugars to thicken the sauce. In some areas, sugar is added as a preservative and to counteract the natural tartness of the pomegranate fruit; sugar also helps the syrup to reduce and thicken more quickly. Lemon juice is often added as an acidic preservative to increase shelf life. The amount of sugar varies by region; for example, Iranian (Persian) pomegranate syrup tends to be sweeter than the Lebanese variety.
I add both sugar and lemon to my pomegranate molasses. This is because it is a concentrated, powerful syrup that I only use sparingly, so when I do make it I count on having a bottle in the refrigerator for at least 3 to 4 weeks. Adding the sugar and lemon juice keeps the molasses fresh longer and gives it a nice sweet/tart balance. I like my molasses on the sweeter side.
How do you make pomegranate molasses?
I hesitate to even call this a recipe, because it’s so simple. Once you’ve whipped up a batch of pomegranate molasses, the possibilities are endless!
To start with, you’ll need pomegranate juice. If making from scratch, you’ll need to seed and juice some pomegranates. Store-bought pomegranate juice will work just fine, too, provided it is pure pomegranate juice with no additives.
For a tarter pomegranate molasses with a shorter shelf life, you can simply reduce pomegranate juice on its own with no added ingredients. It will take longer to reduce, and you’ll need to watch it carefully to make sure it doesn’t start to burn. There’s a thin line between thickened and burned… and if you thicken it too much, you’ll end up with a solid piece of syrup when it cools.
How do you use pomegranate molasses?
Pomegranate molasses can be used in a variety of ways to add a pop of flavor to your food. Think of the ways you might use a reduced balsamic vinegar; often, pomegranate molasses can be used as a substitute. I like it as a topping for desserts like ice cream, as a meat marinade, in sauces, and in salad dressings. The sweetened version works nicely as a glaze on roasted vegetables or fish. You can get creative with it; the flavor is really potent and unique.
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Pomegranate Molasses
Ingredients
- 4 cups pure pomegranate juice (bottled or fresh)
- 2/3 cup sugar (optional - recommended)
- 1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (optional - recommended)
NOTES
Instructions
- You can make pomegranate molasses with added sugar and lemon juice, or without. I prefer making it with, as it will reduce to a syrup much faster, and the end result will be more tasty. However, you can simply reduce plain pomegranate juice if you prefer, which will take longer and produce a much tarter syrup. Pour pomegranate juice, sugar, and lemon juice (or just the pomegranate juice) into a small saucepan.
- Heat up over medium until the sauce begins to simmer lightly. Stir to dissolve sugar. Allow the liquid to simmer very lightly for 60-80 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes, until the liquid reduces by 75% to about 1 cup of molasses. If reducing just the juice without sugar, it will take longer to reduce (up to 2 hours), and you will end up with less liquid in the end to reach the syrupy consistency - roughly 3/4 cup syrup.
- The liquid is ready when it has a light syrupy consistency and coats the back of a spoon. Don't let it thicken too much, or it will harden when it cools.Remove from heat. The syrup will continue to thicken as it cools. If you are unsure about the consistency, measure the reduced liquid-- it should be roughly 1 cup of syrup (or 3/4 cup for juice alone). If it's a lot more liquid than that, continue reducing.
- After the syrup cools completely, store it in an airtight jar or container in the refrigerator for up to 4 weeks.
Nutrition
According to the metric version of your recipe, I need 270 US Gallons of pomegranate juice, and 0.02 US Gallons of lemon juice.
Are you able to provide actual measurements for the ingredients? Unfortunately, a “cup” is a measure that can vary widely, depending on where in the world you are.
Hi Hayley, this was a software glitch. It has been corrected. Let me know if you’re still having issues.
Hi Tory!
Looking forward to making this for the holidays! Quick question; can I sub the sugar for coconut sugar? Thanks!
That should be fine. 🙂
Great recipe!!! I use PomPom pure pomegranate juice & follow your recipe. Heads up, for 2 of the 3 times I made this it took up to 3 hours to reduce to 1 1/4 cup. Would suggest making ahead. Once made on same day as meal and it did not thicken after 90 minutes and had to serve unthickened. Still delicious. Your salmon with mollas
If I halve this recipe think it will still work the same?
My concern would be the small amount of molasses you end up with could overcook easily. You can try it, but you’ll need to watch it closely to make sure it doesn’t burn or dry out. It also won’t take nearly as long to cook down as the recipe states.
We do love pomegranate molass in Turkey and we make it with fresh fruits, juicing the grains only by hand over a strainer, taking care not to include white parts of the fruit and not to crush the white part of the grains (whites give bitterness).
Then we filter and cook the juice over wood fire for roughly 4 hours or until it becomes sirupy.
Thank you Tori for the recipe. I appreciate it being simple to scale according to how much juice I can extract from however many pomegranates I happen to have. Pomegranate molasses is now a staple in our house – used whenever I need that extra something to make a recipe pop.
Incidentally Theresa: 3 fruits yield approx 250ml of juice. I use the spoon whacker method to release the seeds into a large bowl, crush them a bit with my fist then, a couple of spoonfuls at a time, press them in a plastic sieve with a round backed plastic spoon (mines a salad serving spoon), into the same bowl until they stop popping, then put everything through the sieve once more, press again, allow to drain and measure.
If I don’t use it all (that’s a big ‘if’) it keeps very well beyond 3-4 weeks in the refrigerator.
Hy, if i want to make half of your recipes , would it effect the cooking time?
I made some pomegranate molasses from my Persian friends grandmother who was Lebanese. We used star anise (one), cinnamon stick, black peppercorns, lemon, honey, and a few other very interesting things. Nice to spice it up once in a while. I could eat it with a spoon.
That sounds amazing…do you have the exact recipe?
Dear Tori:
I am making Israeli couscous as a side for dinner tomorrow. It calls for pomegranate seeds, green olives, feta and a half of a lemon juiced. I do not have pom. seeds. Can I substitute Pomegranate syrup for the seeds? I would think it’s a different consistency and flavor. Any recommendations?
Hi Elliot– I wouldn’t sub pomegranate syrup, the stuff they sell bottled is quite tart, not sweet like pom seeds. A better sub would be dried cranberries, which have a similar sweet/tart balance to pomegranate seeds– different texture, but same flavor profile. You can soak the cranberries in cold water or apple juice for a few minutes to plump them before adding to the salad, which will make them juicier like pom seeds. Hope that helps!
I have pomegranate molasses…how to make pomegranate juice with that?
Hi Ammu, Tori’s assistant Ashley here. Pomegranate molasses is made by reducing pomegranate juice to a thick, molasses consistency, so you won’t be able to make juice from it. Here’s a tutorial for making pomegranate juice: https://toriavey.com/how-to/how-to-seed-a-pomegranate/