Pekmez substitutes

The best all-round substitute. It has the same heavy pouring consistency, the same dark brown-black colour and the same mineral, fruity sweetness that makes pekmez taste more interesting than plain sugar.

Best for

tahin pekmez, drizzling on yogurt or bread, cakes and cookies, marinades, sweetening winter drinks

Date syrup is a little sweeter and leans caramel and toffee where pekmez leans raisin and grape, and it has almost none of pekmez's faint tartness. In tahini and pekmez, the classic Turkish breakfast mixture, this is barely noticeable. In a savoury marinade, add a squeeze of lemon to restore the small amount of acidity you lost.

The same idea from Italy: grape juice or must boiled down to a syrup. 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.

Another traditional Turkish and Levantine pekmez, made from carob pods rather than grapes, and used in exactly the same ways including with tahini.

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.

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.

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.

A workable emergency swap because it hits the same dark, mineral, slightly bitter register and looks right on the plate.

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.

Only worth listing because it is the substitution nearly everybody tries, and it needs fixing to work. 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.

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.

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.