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Pomegranate Molasses

Posted by Elise on Nov 18, 2006

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Liquid rubies

Ever since Pom Wonderful started marketing the health benefits of pomegranate juice, and selling them in those cool pom shaped bottles, more and more recipes calling for pomegranate molasses have been popping up. Pomegranate molasses is a traditional ingredient in Middle Eastern cooking and can be used in a variety of dishes, such as Bourbon-Pomegranate Molasses Beef Short Ribs, Pomegranate Cupcakes, or Eggplant Moussaka. You can also mix it with a little orange juice and club soda for a refreshing punch. Pomegranate molasses can be found at Middle Eastern markets, or you can easily make some yourself with some pomegranate juice, sugar, and lemon. (Find more pomegranate molasses recipes by searching food blogs.)

Pomegranate Molasses Recipe

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Ingredients

4 cups pomegranate juice
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice

Method

In a large, uncovered saucepan, heat pomegranate juice, sugar, and lemon juice on medium high until the sugar has dissolved and the juice simmers. Reduce heat just enough to maintain a simmer. Simmer for about an hour, or until the juice has a syrupy consistency, and has reduced to 1 to 1 1/4 cups. Pour out into a jar. Let cool. Store chilled in the refrigerator.

If you want your pomegranate molasses to be sweeter, add more sugar to taste, while you are cooking it.

Indexed: Pomegranate

24 Comments

How long will this keep in the fridge?

Posted by: lydia on November 18, 2006 7:28 AM

Hi Elise - I just cane across your blog, love the recipes and the photos, the molasses sure looks like liquid rubies, radiant and deep red!

Posted by: Monisha on November 18, 2006 8:10 AM

I love pomegranate juice. For those who don't want to spend the dough on the POM juices, Trader Joe's now has 100 percent pomegranate juice, as well as tasty blends (pom and blueberry, pom and cherry are my favorites).

Posted by: Karen on November 18, 2006 9:10 AM

I love the versatility of pomegranate juice. I found that they sell the molasses/glaze at Trader Joes though the last time I was there they were sold out. Surfas, here in L.A. also has a pomegranate glaze/molasses which is wonderful. Add some to BBQ sauce for a nice fruity flavor plus heightened red color.

Posted by: Sylvie on November 18, 2006 9:16 AM

Hi Lydia - from the research I've done online it looks like this will keep about a month in the refrigerator. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if it lasted longer than that.

Hi Monisha - welcome!

Hi Karen - We will buy pom juice from TJs too. I love the blueberry blend, yummmm.

Hi Sylvie - great idea to add it to a BBQ sauce, thanks!

Posted by: Elise on November 18, 2006 7:26 PM

Lemon juice when heated up tastes bitter. Do you think we should add it later to the molasses?

Posted by: Radha on November 19, 2006 3:24 AM

Do you think this would be good on vanilla ice cream? I like boysenberry syrup on ice cream

Posted by: laurie on November 19, 2006 12:11 PM

I had just begun searching for a pomegranate molasses recipe and yours popped on my reader. How simple can a recipe be for such a wonderful product?
Thanks Elise!

Posted by: Christine on November 19, 2006 12:55 PM

How cool is this? I was just looking for recipes for Thanksgiving appetizers and found one for Muhammara in Cooks' Illustrated. It gave a substitute for pomegranate molasses since it's so hard to find. While we do have middle eastern groceries here, I probably would have saved the time of looking for it. And now a recipe for the real deal just shows up in my email!

Posted by: Janey on November 19, 2006 2:07 PM

Hi Elise,

A lot of Malaysian food requires the use of artificial colorings, but I hate to go chemical with my food.

I don't know much about Pomegranate, but could I use it as a coloring agent? (It sure looks very red and natural to me!)

Kindly let me know. Thanks in advance. :)

Posted by: Rasa Malaysia on November 19, 2006 9:06 PM

I wonder if this could be bottled (or canned) and stored in a cellar... I want to try this now though, it would make a really unique holiday gift for my friends.

Posted by: Jaspenelle on November 19, 2006 9:52 PM

Elisa

Truly amazing are the recipes you post. I too think this would be a good recipe for gift giving this season. What a WOW factor it has!

Thanks all the goodies

Linda

Posted by: Linda on November 20, 2006 2:08 PM

I just reduce the juice and don't add suger or syrup. It is delicious.

Posted by: Gabriella on November 21, 2006 9:10 PM

A little late here, but I wanted to pop in and say that I used this as a glaze for my Thanksgiving Cornish hens and it was fantastic. It added just the right touch of sweetness without being too much and it browned up nicely on their skins.

Posted by: telesilla on November 23, 2006 11:12 PM

My Mom and I made Pomegranate jelly and didn't want to waist the remainer of the pulp on the seeds. So we put seeds and more of the cleaned pomegranate seeds into a blender, poured into a culander and to our amasement We got the pulp and made Jam too. The blender dosen't chop up the seeds, but just removes the fruit from the seed. Try it, Irma

Posted by: Irma on November 29, 2006 9:14 PM

Elise - I made pomegranate molasses recently myself, by simply slowly boiling a litre of good-quality pomegranate juice (from Azerbaijan), until there was just under 200 ml of thick, sweet-n-sour juice left. No sugar, no lemon (NB! the juice itself had no added sugar either!) Very nice, and I've been successfully using it in recipes asking for pomegranate molasses.

Posted by: Pille on December 6, 2006 1:16 AM

Thanks for this recipe. But what can I do with the molasses? I received a bottle of it, last Christmas, but had no idea, what to do with it.
I eventually made something with it, but not sure what, right now.

Posted by: John on December 15, 2006 6:36 PM

I took 5 chicken breasts and breaded them in bread crumbs then put grilled onions on top of them and added pineapple juice and pomegrate molasses. It was good, gave the chicken a new flavor.

Posted by: julie on June 20, 2007 2:12 PM

Thanks so much everyone for all of the tips. I have been looking for pomegranate molasses and thought I saw it at Trader Joe's but couldn't remember for sure. I went to a cooking class at Hip Cooks and we used some to glaze a pork tendorloin. I am also glad to know that they carry it at Surfas. Does anyone know if Whole Foods carries it? I will definately try to make it myself with Pomegranate juice from Trader Joes.

Posted by: Nique on July 19, 2007 4:51 PM

I made this today - only I cooked it for a little less time - and it turned out wonderfully - I could eat it with a spoon. :) Duck would be good with it too.

Posted by: M on August 28, 2007 7:46 PM

If you want to recommend anything for juicing pomegranates, THIS IS THE TOOL!

It is an antique/vintage Wear-Ever aluminum press. You can find them on E-Bay for around $5.00 to $10.00. Any other way to juice a quantity of pomegranates is just TOO hard. I can do about 3 Gallons per hour with this. After I collect the juice, I refrigerate and then carefully decant/strain through coffee filters. Wonderfully clear juice to make jelly, etc.

Jeff Denno

Note from Elise: Hi Jeff, we use a Wear-Ever press also, when we don't want to do the extra effort of deseeding the poms by hand. Great device.

Posted by: Jeff Denno on October 24, 2007 1:52 PM

Pommegranites have only just recently hit our
shelves here, I love the sharp/sweet taste and
just recently we were visiting Turkey where in a
lot of places we were served tomato halves,
sprinkled with a little sugar and then just before serving them they would drizzle over a
bit of the pommegranite sauce. My daughter said
they use it a lot over there, and I have now
managed to source some here in New Zealand.
I have also sprinkled some of the seeds over
shredded lamb along with chopped mint, a
Nigella Lawson recipe but lovely all the same.

Posted by: Diane Dwyer on November 28, 2007 7:33 PM

Hmmmm. I am in the process of making the pom. molasses. However, it's been cooking for two hours and it has not thicken at all; it has reduced to 2 cups from the original four but still runny. I thought maybe if I added some more sugar, it might thicken but no luck. I need this for a gourmet dinner tonight - help! Can anyone tell me how thick it is supposed to get. I don't see any comments about that in any of the posting. Thanks!

I would turn up the heat and boil it harder so it would reduce faster. ~Elise

Posted by: sharron on January 17, 2009 11:41 AM

For genuine homemade pomegranate molasses, simply reduce pure pomegranate juice to a syrupy conistency. As lemon juice can turn bitter whence boiled, adding zest at the end of the cook cycle offers a safer alternative.

For a spicier (albeit adulterated) pom molasses, add cinnamon and star anise.

We keep homemade pom molasses in our refigerator for months on end with only the color changing from reddish to brown, owing to oxidation.

Online there are many lovely and good recipes for using the pom molasses in dressings, marinades, beverages and more.

Posted by: HatTip on March 22, 2009 1:48 PM

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Pomegranate Molasses Recipe