Pomegranate Molasses

A beautiful looking glass of port, isn't it? If I had light shining behind it, you'd see the ruby red glow that hallmark of the special fruit that goes into this drink. If you're my dad you're already making that unique "pffft" sound that says, "who are you trying to kid by saying that that is wine?"  He's right too. This is pomegranate juice. This specific juice is made by POM, a company devoted to pomegranate juice. If you've been in the produce section of any grocery store, you've seen their funky barbell shaped bottles.

Personally, I'm very grateful to them for making this juice and saving me the trouble of seeding the fruit myself. When we were children, my father would split a pomegranate into six pieces, put a piece in each of six bowls and we'd have that for dessert. We all loved eating them, though removing the bitter pith was a hassle and should one fall out of the bowl and onto the floor, everything immediately stopped until the renegade berry was found before someone would step on it and stain our Persian rug.

We currently have a bottle of Armenian Pomegranate semi-sweet wine on our rack and enjoy drinking it very much, so pomegranate is well known and well liked by me. Unfortunately, our daughter, who's just four years-old, found the juice a bit too strong for her taste, so I decided I would have to come up with other ways of using it, which means transforming it from a drink to something else, hopefully something that the little tyke would enjoy too. Pomegranate Molasses seemed perfect.

Of course, my first thought was ice cream. Kids love ice cream. My husband must love it too because the brand new carton I had bought yesterday was already opened and taste-tested for me. I scoop in a bowl, pomegranate molasses drizzled over and fingers crossed as the young lady took a taste. No luck. She didn't like it. I, on the other hand finished the bowl and used my finger to lick up every little bit that I could.


Not being one to give up, I also used the molasses as pancake syrup the next morning. It was a pleasant change from the normal fake maple syrup that we had, but if I were to use it constantly as such, I'd need to add a bit more sugar to the mixture before I started the reduction. Even so, I did enjoy it. Our daughter, not so much.

Pomegranate molasses is my base from which to launch a few new recipes so I'll put it here now. I have already imagined a barbecue sauce using it as well the main part in a glaze for a pork loin. I think pomegranate and garlic would go very well together. We will see.

Pomegranate Molasses

4 cups pomegranate juice (I prefer POM)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup sugar

Add all ingredients to a medium saucepan and simmer, stirring occasionally, until reduced to 1 cup. Transfer the molasses to a container and refrigerate for up to 3 weeks.