Pekmez substitute

Best substitute

Date Syrup (silan)

Use the same amount as the pekmez you are replacing

Best for tahin pekmez

Close match

Date syrup is the closest widely available swap at 1:1, followed by Italian saba or vincotto, which is essentially the same product. Carob molasses also works 1:1. Do not reach for pomegranate molasses at 1:1, which is the guess most people make: it is far more sour and will make a dessert taste tart rather than sweet, so use half pomegranate molasses and half honey or sugar syrup if that is all you have.

Other pekmez substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Saba or Vincotto (cooked grape must)
Close match
Use the same amount
The same idea from Italy: grape juice or must boiled down to a syrup.
What changes
If you can find a bottle in a good deli, this is not a compromise at all.
Best for
everything pekmez is used for, drizzling, desserts, dressings, glazes for meat
Italian versions are usually a little more acidic and winey than Turkish pekmez, which is often cooked with an alkaline earth to soften its sourness, so a very sweet dessert may taste slightly sharper. Sold under several names including saba, sapa, mosto cotto and vincotto. Check the label: some vincotto is blended with vinegar, and that version is a condiment, not a sweetener.
3Carob Molasses (keciboynuzu or harnup pekmezi)
Different taste
Use the same amount
Another traditional Turkish and Levantine pekmez, made from carob pods rather than grapes, and used in exactly the same ways including with tahini.
What changes
Best for
tahin pekmez, spoon sweets and desserts, yogurt and bread, baking, iron-rich winter tonics
The texture is spot on, sometimes even thicker, but the flavour brings a distinct roasted, faintly cocoa-and-toffee note that grape pekmez does not have. In a chocolate or nut dessert this reads as an improvement; in a delicate grape or fruit dish it tastes off-piste. Warm it slightly before measuring, as it is stiff straight from the jar.
4Reduced Grape Juice (homemade)
Close match
See notes
If you have grape juice, you can make something very close to real pekmez in under an hour, because that is essentially all pekmez is.
What changes
Best for
when you want the real flavour, desserts, drizzling, glazes
Simmer 4 cups of unsweetened grape juice, ideally dark Concord or white grape, in a wide pan over medium heat until reduced to about 1 cup of syrup that coats a spoon, roughly 40-55 minutes. It will thicken further as it cools, so stop while it still pours. Add a pinch of salt. The result is a shade brighter and more acidic than commercial pekmez and keeps two to three weeks in the fridge.
5Dark Molasses or Black Treacle
Different taste
¾ the amount, thinned with a little water
A workable emergency swap because it hits the same dark, mineral, slightly bitter register and looks right on the plate.
What changes
Best for
baking, marinades and glazes, gingerbread-style cakes, colouring a batter
Much stronger and more bitter than pekmez, with a sulphurous edge, so at a straight 1:1 it dominates. Use three-quarters of the quantity, thin with a teaspoon of water per tablespoon, and add a little honey or sugar to bring back the fruit sweetness. Avoid blackstrap entirely, which is harshly bitter, and do not use this for tahin pekmez, where the flavour is too aggressive against plain tahini.
6Pomegranate Molasses plus a Sweetener
Different taste
½ pomegranate molasses + ½ honey or golden syrup
Only worth listing because it is the substitution nearly everybody tries, and it needs fixing to work.
What changes
Cut with an equal volume of a plain sweetener, it becomes usable.
Best for
marinades and meat glazes, salad dressings, savoury dishes
Undiluted pomegranate molasses is dramatically more sour than pekmez, tart enough to make your jaw ache, so a dessert made with it at 1:1 tastes like a mistake rather than a variation. Blended half and half with honey or golden syrup it lands in roughly the right sweet-tart place. Even then, keep it out of tahin pekmez, where the sourness fights the sesame.
7Maple Syrup or Honey
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount
The most likely thing to be in your cupboard, and fine when pekmez is being used purely as a liquid sweetener in a batter or a marinade.
What changes
Best for
cakes and quick breads, marinades, sweetening drinks, pancake-style drizzling
Both are much thinner than pekmez, so a drizzle runs off the plate instead of sitting in a glossy pool, and both are lighter in colour so the dish looks paler. Flavour-wise you lose all of the raisiny mineral depth: maple brings its own woody sweetness and honey brings a floral note. For a better match, simmer either one for two or three minutes to thicken it and stir in a quarter teaspoon of molasses per tablespoon.

What is Pekmez?

Pekmez is Pekmez, usually sold in English as grape molasses or grape syrup and known in Turkey as uzum pekmezi, is a thick dark syrup made by boiling down fresh grape juice until it is sweet, faintly mineral and only mildly tart.

Cooking tips

Pekmez does three jobs at once: it sweetens, it adds a dark mineral fruit depth that plain sugar cannot, and because it is a thick syrup it holds moisture in baked goods and clings to whatever you pour it over. If you swap in something thin like maple syrup, you keep the sweetness and lose the cling.
For tahin pekmez, use roughly two parts tahini to one part pekmez and stir until it turns from streaky to a smooth pale brown. This is the one use where the substitute really matters: date syrup and carob molasses both work beautifully, and pomegranate molasses does not work at all.
Pekmez is not very sour, which surprises people who expect it to behave like pomegranate molasses. Traditional production often uses pekmez topragi, a calcareous earth, to reduce the acidity of the grape must, which is why the finished syrup tastes rounded and sweet rather than sharp.
When you use pekmez in place of sugar in a cake, reduce the other liquid by about a quarter and expect a denser, moister, darker crumb. The same applies to date syrup and carob molasses.
Both pekmez and its substitutes brown and burn faster than sugar in a glaze, because they contain fruit sugars that caramelise early. Brush them onto roasting meat in the last ten minutes rather than at the start.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave pekmez out?

If it is a drizzle over yogurt, ice cream or bread, yes, and you simply have an unsweetened dish. If it is in a cake or cookie batter, do not omit it, because you remove both sweetness and liquid at once and the crumb will come out dry; replace it with an equal volume of any thick syrup on this list. In tahin pekmez there is nothing left without it, since the dish is only two ingredients.

Is pekmez the same as pomegranate molasses?

No, and confusing the two is the most common mistake with this ingredient. Pekmez is boiled-down grape juice: sweet, dark, mildly tart and used mainly as a sweetener. Pomegranate molasses is boiled-down pomegranate juice and is intensely sour, used the way you would use vinegar or lemon. Swapping pomegranate molasses in for pekmez one for one makes desserts taste sharp and unpleasant.

What is the best substitute for pekmez in tahini and pekmez?

Date syrup, and it is genuinely close. Carob molasses is the other authentic option and is used this way in Turkey and the Levant. Both have the right thickness to blend into tahini without going runny, and the right roundness to balance the bitterness of the sesame. Honey works and is common, but it makes a sweeter, thinner and more floral mixture that tastes more like halva spread than tahin pekmez.

Where can I buy pekmez, and does it need refrigerating?

Turkish and Middle Eastern grocers stock it, usually labelled grape molasses or uzum pekmezi, and it also appears in the international aisle of larger supermarkets alongside pomegranate molasses. Sealed, it keeps for a very long time at room temperature. Once open, a cool cupboard is fine; the fridge makes it stiff enough to be hard to pour. Crystals forming at the bottom of an old jar are normal grape sugar, and warming it gently dissolves them.

Can I use pekmez instead of sugar in a recipe?

Usually yes, using about three-quarters of a cup of pekmez for each cup of sugar and cutting the other liquid in the recipe by two to three tablespoons. Understand that you are also adding colour and a raisiny mineral flavour, so a delicate vanilla sponge will come out tan and grapey. It works best in things that already suit dark sugars, such as spice cakes, nut cakes, oat biscuits and marinades.

Related substitutes

More sweeteners substitutes

Pekmez substitute

Other pekmez substitutes

2Saba or Vincotto (cooked grape must)

3Carob Molasses (keciboynuzu or harnup pekmezi)

4Reduced Grape Juice (homemade)

5Dark Molasses or Black Treacle

6Pomegranate Molasses plus a Sweetener

7Maple Syrup or Honey