Molasses, treacle and the syrups

The thick dark syrups — molasses and treacle from sugar refining, golden syrup, maple syrup, date syrup, grape and carob molasses — the liquid sweeteners with flavour of their own, from the bitter depth of blackstrap in Boston baked beans to the tang of pomegranate molasses in a Persian stew.

Where it comes from

Molasses is what is left when sugar crystals are spun out of boiled cane juice, and each boiling leaves a darker, less sweet, more mineral syrup: light molasses from the first, dark from the second, and bitter blackstrap from the third. It was the cheap sweetener of colonial America and the Caribbean — the third leg of the triangular trade with rum and slaves — and it is the flavour of Boston baked beans, gingerbread, shoofly pie and dark rum. Britain’s black treacle is the same thing; golden syrup is a lighter, purer refinery by-product invented in 1883 and the taste of treacle tart, flapjack and the British childhood.

Other cultures boiled other things down. Maple syrup, from the sap of the sugar maple, is the sweetener of Quebec and New England and the only one made from a tree’s spring flow. Date syrup (dibs, silan) is the honey of Iraq and the Gulf; grape molasses (pekmez, petimezi, saba) sweetened the Mediterranean before cane; carob molasses is Lebanese and Cypriot; and pomegranate molasses, though named as one, is a souring agent and has its own page. Corn syrup and glucose syrup are industrial starch sugars with no flavour, used for texture in confectionery.

Varieties

• Light and dark molasses / black treacle — Cane refining syrups; dark and sweet-bitter. For gingerbread, baked beans, barbecue sauce, rye bread and pumpernickel.
• Blackstrap molasses — Third-boil; very dark, bitter, mineral, barely sweet. Used sparingly for colour and depth.
• Golden syrup — Light amber, buttery, purely sweet; British. For treacle tart, flapjack, steamed puddings and pouring.
• Maple syrup — Boiled maple sap, graded by colour; golden delicate to very dark strong. For pancakes, glazes, baking and baked beans.
• Date syrup (dibs, silan) and grape molasses (pekmez) — Fruit boiled to a syrup; deep, fruity, faintly tart. Over yoghurt, tahini and bread; in Persian and Turkish sweets.
• Corn / glucose syrup — Flavourless starch syrup; stops sugar crystallising in candy, ice cream and pecan pie.

In the kitchen

Molasses and treacle are strong: a tablespoon or two flavours a whole loaf or a pot of beans, and more turns bitter. They are acidic, so recipes that use them often carry bicarbonate of soda, which reacts with the acid to lift the crumb of gingerbread and the dark cakes. Warm the tin or jar and oil the spoon and the syrup slides off cleanly.

Golden syrup, maple and date syrup are sweeter and gentler and can replace honey or sugar syrup in most things — on porridge, in a glaze for ham or carrots, in a flapjack or a granola. Maple reduces to a caramel and is a classic glaze for bacon and salmon; a boiled-down maple and cream sauce is Quebec’s answer to butterscotch. Pekmez with tahini on bread is Turkey’s breakfast.

Choosing and keeping

All of these keep for a year or more in a cupboard; molasses and treacle indefinitely, though they thicken and crystallise a little. Maple syrup, once opened, should be refrigerated — it can mould — and keeps a year; it also freezes. Date and grape syrups keep in the cupboard.

Buy real maple syrup — the label should say 100% maple; ‘pancake syrup’ is corn syrup and flavouring. Grade is about colour and strength, not quality; dark maple has more flavour for cooking.

Molasses, treacle and the syrups is tagged on 127 dishes from 69 countries in the atlas. These notes are written from general knowledge and carry no per-fact citation — see About.