In Australia, molasses isn’t always particularly palatable – sweet, but also thick, black and often bitter. The byproduct of sugar cane production, it’s good for cooking, but difficult to eat straight, and one of its more common uses is as cattle feed. It isn’t a product I use often, preferring instead the sweeter treacle or golden syrup.
So I was both surprised and delighted during a recent trip to Harkola to find three different molasses (molasseses?) made from a variety of base ingredients.
On the left is a jar of mulberry molasses from Turkey – probably the closest to what we know as traditional molasses, but much nicer. It’s dark, sweet and raisiny with a slightly tannic note, but very edible with a spoon. It’s much less viscous than sugarcane molasses, with a texture similar to a thick syrup.
In the middle is a bottle of pomegranate molasses from Lebanon, the current in-vogue ingredient in many fine dining restaurants (and food blogs!). It’s surprisingly tart, more liquid than the mulberry version, and would be brilliant in a salad dressing. Pete thought we could use this in much the same way as sweet balsamic vinegar. For some reason, its flavour reminds me a little of sherbet lollies.
My personal favourite is the date molasses, also from Lebanon, which Ray at Harkola told me is traditionally combined with tahini and spread on bread. It has become my newest baking ingredient, and I’ve been using it in cakes and cookies wherever molasses or treacle is called for. The date flavour is quite pronounced, and again, the texture is quite liquid and syrupy.
Despite all being called molasses, the three different versions taste completely different to each other, and I’m sure I’ll find a use for all of them. Do you use any of these in your cooking? If so, I’d love to know what you do with them!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
I’ve never seen nor heard of any of those. I’ll have to keep my eyes peeled. They sound delish!
i use the pomegranate molasses to make a wonderful teatime yummie with marscapone cheese and whole pitted dates. You whip a couple of teaspoons of the molasses or syrup to the cheese and pipe it into the date, sprinkle with pomegranate seeds and it is absolutely heavenly.
ABSOLUTELY.
HEAVENLY.
I’ve only used pomegranate molasses, and that’s not easy to get hold of in the small town where I live. I like to use it in situations where its sweet and sour features are both used – for instance in tagines instead of honey and preserved lemons, or added to red cabbage cooked slowly with onions and apples.
The date molasses sounds interesting, particularly the baking uses you’ve found for it.
Celia, I only know the middle one, being a trendy! Drizzled over salads, sneaked into marinades that sort of thing. And you are quite right it does taste like a slightly artificial sweet, sherbert lollie or even sort of a bit like a pear drop, sweet acid, processed sort of taste.
Very interested in the date molasses, never come across that… will have to go a-hunting, very interesting stuff ! I know that dates are supposed to have some sort of special effect on extending bread life if you add them to the dough, I wonder if this date molasses would do the same trick? Have you noticed that, but I bet your cakes don’t hang around long enough. How are the chooks?
I have never even bought it but now you may be turning my neurotic head a little. Every year we cut silage, spread molasses over it, covered it in black plastic and there it ‘matured’ until winter. The smell reminds me of miserable winter days feeding cattle where the smell would linger long afterwards.
I look forward to your recipe on molasses cookies ;-)
Marilyn, hope you track some down. The date molasses is particularly moreish!
Heidi, that sounds absolutely divine! Thank you – will have to try it. Makes me think we might be able to use the pom molasses to flavour a cream cheese for a dip…
Suelle, thank you! Both those are savoury applications I hadn’t considered. It is a traditional middle eastern ingredient, so I guess I’m not surprised that it works well in things like tagines.
Jo, the girls are going well, thank you! They’ve learnt to eat their greens, which makes us very happy – when we got them they’d been fed on layer mash and grain mix, so they’ve had to learn how to scratch for their own grubs and eat leftovers and greens! I never thought about putting the date molasses in bread, but it might work like malt syrup in bagels?
Gill, you make it sound so appealing! ;-) Though I can understand the smell putting you off – even before “maturing”, the traditional molasses is quite odoriferous! Do try and hunt out the different ones though – they’re much more palatable!
I use the Pom molasses in my muhammara (red pepper dip) and in hummus sometimes. It is also nice in stews. The others I’ve seen in my Turkish shop but never bought….will have to try them
I can feel myself going ever so sightly green with envy every time you mention Harkola!
I use and love pomegranate molasses and am finding it easier to get hold of now, but I have never seen the other two. I would love to get my hands on some of the date one.
We are going to Melbourne in August and The Husband wants to fly – I am lobbying for a nice drive. I have big shopping plans and I can get more stuff back to Adelaide in the car!!
Amanda
I might have to give up on using pomegranite molasses if it is now officially “trendy”…hmmm…? :)
I love it in salad dressing for fattoush salad in particular; I sometimes add it to dips; I add it like a runny ‘chutney’ eg with lamb kebabs, hommous, yogurt garlic dip, fresh mint and a drizzle of the pom molasses all wrapped up in some lebanese bread. I also add it to this Indian chick pea dish that usually calls for sweet/sour tamarind and dried crushed pomegranite seeds – I figure it combines both in one and I can just pour it out of a bottle – no soaking, grinding, etc required.
I’ve got some pomegranate molasses but the date one sounds spectacular! I must seek some out. Thanks for the serving suggestion too Celia! :D
I myself have never used molasses, so it was interesting to hear about its uses. I also never know there were so many varieties out there! :)
I love pomegranate molasses and have a bottle in my cupboard right now. I particularly like it on Salmon. I was working for a food distribution company, and we imported foods from all over the world so I’m familiar with the other two products but haven’t used them myself. The only other molasses I’ve had is black strap molasses. My grandmother use to make molasses cookies with it. I’ll have to see if I can find that recipe now that I’ve reminded myself about those cookies.
Oz, great suggestions, thanks!
Amanda, my friend Moo tells me there’s a little street off Gouger Street with a whole string of international food stores – you might find some there?
SG, that’s a brilliant idea, using it in place of tamarind! I think that would work really well, particularly in curries…
Lorraine, I think the date molasses isn’t too hard to get, but the mulberry one I’ve only ever seen at the wholesalers!
Ladybird, just checked out your blog! I had no idea Barmuda was still there – I thought it had shut down! Thanks.. :)
Cat, that is an interesting suggestion, thank you. I have some smoked salmon in the fridge, will try it with the pom molasses!
Celia: Thank you so much for this fascinating post. I went into our local Turkish/Cypriot shops (London, UK) today in search of these ingredients. Sure enough, there was the same brand of Mulberry Molasses alongside both Carob and Grape Molasses.
I could not find Pomegranite Molasses, but it is becoming rather fashionable so I expect I may be more likely to find it in an ‘up market’ supermarket chain. I did find Pomegranite syrup though – a sort of pouring sauce that looked a bit like Rose syrup. Think I will buy some to pour on desserts, ice cream, etc.
I was particularly interested in the Date Molasses, but I could not find it at all, only Date Syrup. I wonder if this is the same? (It was Basra brand.) I would love to try it in my Gingerbread Cake recipe in place of the black treacle.
http://hopeeternalcookbook.wordpress.com/2010/03/26/gingerbread-cake/
… and how about Fig Syrup? Is it available and/or is it the same as Syrup of Figs!!
hopeeternal
‘Meanderings through my Cookbook’
Hope, the date molasses is thinner than regular molasses, so maybe the syrup is similar? Pete thinks Harkola also had carob and grape molasses – will have to pick some up to try next time! I’ve never seen fig syrup though – will have to look out for it! Thanks.. :)
Thank you Celia – I will pick up some Date syrup and give it a try. I wonder if it might be a bit like Golden syrup. Please do update us on how you find the grape and particularly the carob syrups (chocolaty – yum!)
As for fig syrup (which I have never seen) … Syrup of Figs is usually used for medicinal purposes – in much the same way as prunes! It comes from the chemist/drugstore – I am not sure that it could be used for cooking but you never know!
h/e
‘Meanderings through my Cookbook’
Coincidence. Although I’d heard of pomegranate molasses, I’d never seen it or tried it – until I went on the mezze course. We used it there in a red pepper dip and it gave a fantastic flavour. I now need to get hold of some so I can try it in other things (although that was a great dip). I’m assuming the date molasses is the same as date syrup which I sometimes use as a sugar substitute in sweet dishes. It made a very nice chocolate icing with that and chocolate. the mulberry I’ve never heard of and it sounds most intriguing.
Syrup of figs was given to me by the spoonful as a small child by my gran. She thought all children should have it. It had a supposed laxative effect. I don’t remember one way or the other but watch out ;-)
That’s interesting about the syrup of figs – it’s not something I’d heard of over here. I adore figs – was the syrup pleasant tasting?
Choclette, the pom molasses is widely used in middle eastern cuisine, I believe, so I guess it’s not surprising you came across it on your mezze course!
I have been doing some snooping around and some other very likely contenders in Adelaide are:
Adelaide Lebanese Bakery, 7 Ann St Thebarton, just near the brickworks on South Road, they have a small range of Lebanese groceries.
While you are in the area you could also try Gaganis Bros
9-13 Bacon St, Hindmarsh and Omega Foods Pty Ltd, 33 Adam St Hindmarsh. All 3 are within 5 minutes of each other.
Cheers Moo
Cheers, Moo, thanks! :)
Being of Lebanese background, just wanted to share with you a few uses for Pomegranate Molasses.
We add it to the dressing of a popular lebanese salad called ‘Fatouche’ or ‘Fatoosh'(diced tomatoes, cucumber, radish, parsley, mint, shallot, onion, capsicum and fried lebanese bread), just a couple tablespoons to a lemon, olive oil, sumac and salt dressing.
You can also add a couple tablespoons (or to taste) to tomato based casseroles, it enriches the flavour. One example is kofta rissoles in tomato puree ( cook the rissoles first, add them to an oven proof dish and cover with tomato puree, some water, lebanese mix spice (baharat) and 2-3 tablespoons of the molasses. You then cook this in the oven until the sauce reduces (about 25mins).
My mum also adds it to stuffed cabbage rolls (not the filling, just the dressing with lots of crushed garlic, dried mint and water).
Hope this helps :)
Wasfieh, thank you! I love fatoosh but have never tried making it before, and how interesting that it’s such a good match with cooked tomatoes. Will definitely give it a go. Thanks.. :)
I know this is a very old topic now, but I’ve wanted to clear something up about molasses for a long time. When molasses is used in American recipes (for example, Peter Reinhart’s excellent bread recipes), what’s the closest substitute in Australia, as I’ve used the only one I could find – black-strap – and its flavour was much too strong I think… I even tried using 1/3 molasses and 2/3 honey, but it’s still very aniseedy. Any suggestions?
Hi Adrian…I don’t know what the Americans mean exactly by molasses, but I had a quick look at Wiki here, and it seems to suggest that blackstrap is actually what they commonly use in baking.
Over here (in Australia), I think we go golden syrup -> treacle -> molasses in terms of darkness and strength of flavour, so maybe you could sub treacle instead in your recipes? The date molasses I use is quite liquid, nothing near as viscous as the blackstrap. In fact, it’s not even as sticky as honey! But I use it in gingerbread and all sorts of other dishes now in place of molasses, and it seems to work fine as a substitute.
PS. I think we had a discussion about flour supply in Sydney previously? Wanted to let you know I’ve found a new supplier in Marrickville which has the Ben Furney Mills Premium bakers flour available over the counter for pick up (plus a whole stack of other flours as well) – I wrote it up here. Cheers!