Narsharab

The Azerbaijani sour-pomegranate sauce: fresh juice reduced with salt and a breath of spice, for grilled fish and kebab

Origin: Azerbaijan (the Kura Valley and the Caspian coast)

From the journey of Pomegranate.

Narsharab is the great condiment of the Azerbaijani table, the pomegranate distilled to its essence. The name joins nar, the pomegranate, to sharab, wine, and the sauce is just that: the juice of sour pomegranates boiled slowly down to a thick, dark, glossy, winey syrup, seasoned with salt and, in the old way, a whisper of cinnamon, coriander seed, and bay. It is thicker and more savoury than the pomegranate molasses of the wider Near East, salted rather than sweetened, and where the Levantine molasses is a cooking ingredient, narsharab is above all a sauce of the table, spooned over and brushed onto grilled food. Its classic partner is fish: the grilled sturgeon and kutum of the Caspian, brushed with narsharab as they cook and served with more alongside, the deep sour-fruit tang cutting the richness of the oily fish. It dresses the lamb and chicken of the mangal, the Azerbaijani grill; it is stirred into stews and over the herb platter; and a bottle of it stands on every Azerbaijani table as ketchup stands on others. Made well, from genuinely sour fruit, it needs no sugar at all, the pomegranate's own concentrated sweetness emerging only as the juice reduces.

Ingredients

Sauce

1.5 litres fresh sour-pomegranate juice (from about 12–15 large sour pomegranates), or good unsweetened pomegranate juice
0.5 tsp salt

Optional aromatics

1 small cinnamon stick
0.5 tsp coriander seeds, lightly crushed
1 bay leaf
sugar, only if the juice is not sour-sweet enough (to taste)

Method

If pressing your own juice, halve the pomegranates and juice them on a citrus reamer, or seed them and crush the arils, then strain out the pith and pips through a fine sieve. You need about 1.5 litres of clear juice.
Pour the juice into a wide, non-reactive (stainless or enamelled) pan and add the salt and, if using, the cinnamon, coriander seeds, and bay leaf.
Bring to a gentle boil, then lower to a steady simmer. Reduce slowly, stirring occasionally and skimming any foam, for 50–60 minutes, until the juice has reduced by about three-quarters and coats the back of a spoon as a loose, glossy syrup.
Taste. If the sauce is too sharp for you, stir in a little sugar and dissolve it over the heat; a good sour juice usually needs none. Fish out the whole spices and bay.
Cool completely and pour into a clean bottle or jar. Serve spooned over grilled fish, lamb, or chicken, or stirred into stews.

Notes

Narsharab keeps for several months in a sealed bottle in the refrigerator and thickens as it ages. It is the traditional sauce for grilled Caspian fish (sturgeon, kutum, or any firm oily fish), brushed on during grilling and served alongside; it is equally good with lamb and chicken kebab, drizzled over roast aubergine, or stirred into a stew for depth. Commercial narsharab is sold in Azerbaijani and Russian grocers, but the home-reduced sauce is far superior. Do not confuse it with sweet grenadine syrup, which is the opposite in character.

The Gastrographer

Name: Narsharab
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 1 h
Total time: 1 h 15 min
Yield: 12
Cuisine: Azerbaijan
Ingredients: 1.5 litres fresh sour-pomegranate juice (from about 12–15 large sour pomegranates), or good unsweetened pomegranate juice; 0.5 tsp salt; 1 small cinnamon stick; 0.5 tsp coriander seeds, lightly crushed; 1 bay leaf; sugar, only if the juice is not sour-sweet enough (to taste)

Mapping Culinary History

To explore — select an ingredient below.

To explore — select an ingredient below · click any location dot on the map for recipes and stories · browse the information panel on the right · trace the full journey on the timeline.

Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control