Doshab

Ingredients

Fruit

• 3 kgmulberries or grapes

To clarify

• 1 tspbicarbonate of soda, or the traditional white earth

To serve

• pastries
• yoghurt
• tea

Directions

1. Wash the fruit and crush it thoroughly by hand or with a masher.
2. Strain the juice through a cloth, squeezing hard, and discard the skins and pips.
3. Traditionally the juice is clarified with a special white earth stirred in and left to settle, which takes the sharpness out of it. At home a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda achieves something similar.
4. Let the juice stand for several hours, then decant the clear liquid carefully off the sediment.
5. Pour it into a wide pan and bring it to the boil.
6. Skim the foam off constantly during the first 30 minutes. Everything you leave in makes the finished syrup cloudy and faintly bitter.
7. Simmer uncovered for 3 to 4 hours, until it has reduced to about a sixth of its volume and turned dark, thick and glossy.
8. A wide pan matters more than you would think. Reduction happens at the surface, and a deep pot takes twice as long and scorches at the base.
9. Test it on a cold plate. It should be about the thickness of honey once cool.
10. Pour it hot into sterilised jars, where it keeps for a year or more.
11. Spoon it over pastries or into yoghurt, or stir it into tea.
12. It was made in quantity before sugar was affordable, and mulberry doshab from the north is also taken as a folk remedy.

Technique

• Mulberry doshab is darker and more mineral; grape doshab is sweeter and rounder. Both are called doshab.
• There is no added sugar at any point. All the sweetness is concentrated out of the fruit.
• It crystallises slightly over a year, which is normal and does not mean it has spoiled.

Substitutions

• Bottled grape or mulberry juice with no additives, which shortens the process considerably.
• A mixture of both fruits, which is common.

Variations

• Stirred into tahini, as it is eaten across the region.
• Used to sweeten sujuk, the walnut and grape must sweet.
• Thinned with water and drunk hot in winter.

History

Fruit molasses made before sugar was affordable; mulberry doshab from the north is also taken as a folk remedy.

Frequently asked questions

What is Doshab?

Doshab is a sauce & condiment from Azerbaijan: dark syrup boiled down from mulberries or grapes, spooned over pastries. Fruit molasses made before sugar was affordable; mulberry doshab from the north is also taken as a folk remedy.

How long does Doshab take to make?

Doshab takes 45 min of preparation and 4 hr of cooking. The recipe makes about 500 ml. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Doshab?

Yes, within limits. Bottled grape or mulberry juice with no additives, which shortens the process considerably. A mixture of both fruits, which is common.