There are several types of molasses: molasses, black, caramel, maltose, beet, cane, etc. There are many varieties, but molasses recipes are similar to each other. Can I make molasses on my own? Despite the fact that this is a product of industrial production with sufficiently large volumes, there are recipes for molasses available for ordinary household conditions.
You can make molasses on your own from almost all types of berries.
Molasses recipes
1. Molasses watermelon (or honey watermelon). For cooking, only the most ripened fruits are selected. Cut the watermelon, clean the flesh. Squeeze the juice from the pulp of the watermelon, filter it through a dense tissue (preferably several times), pour it into a copper basin and cook continuously over low heat until we get the desired density. I must say that this process is long, it takes time from a day or more. If you need dark molasses, the boiling process is significantly delayed. The longer you cook, the darker the molasses.
If you want to achieve transparency, then you need to filter it while the juice is boiled (for the whole time at least three times), be sure to remove the foam that appears during boiling. From ten liters of juice you get only a liter of molasses.
2. Fruit and berry molasses. Again, we take only ripe berries with fruits. We shove them with a pest from a tree until we get pulp (gruel). We add the resulting pulp into a bag and send it under heavy oppression to squeeze the juice. Of course, you can use a conventional juicer, but the output will be much less.
3. Starch syrup (English recipe). In this option, you can do without chalk (lime), and the molasses themselves in the end get high-quality. The main highlight of the program is malt.
Previously, such molasses was prepared in furnaces. We do not have such an opportunity, so we will try to use a minimum fire and a divider, and ideally (for small volumes) - a water bath.
The essence of this method is as follows. Pour water into the boiler and heat it to about 40 degrees. Pour the crushed malt. We heat the liquid to 60 degrees (no more), pour in starch mixed with warm water (the amount needed to cook ordinary jelly), stir and leave to simmer for 8 hours, be sure to ensure that the temperature in the boiler (leave for control thermometer) did not skip the mark of 60 degrees. Do not be afraid of the cloudy solution - in a couple of hours it will brighten and begin to acquire transparency.
After 8 hours, we filter the liquid, mix with coal (bone) in the following proportions: coal spool (4 1/3 g) per pound of starch (410 g). This will help to remove the taste of malt. Stir, boil over high heat until slightly thickened. We defend. We merge, separating from the sediment. We filter and boil until the preferred density.
10 pounds of starch will require one and a half liters of water and one and a half pounds of malt. The output will be about 15 pounds of molasses.
To the resulting juice we add freshly slaked lime (so that the acid disappears from it). It is advisable to do this in the evening, leaving the juice with lime until the morning.
Then carefully drain the juice (transparent). We strain through dense tissue several times. Pour into the boiler and boil for at least three hours. During boiling, as in the previous recipe, remove the foam and filter at least three times. If you boil the juice three times, we get a liquid molasses (ekshi), very suitable for jam, if you cook longer and boil more (four to five times), we get a thicker molasses (backmez). Such molasses is stored much longer.
And now a little about what black molasses is. Another name is molasses. She has a bitter-sweet taste, and the characteristic aroma can be called heady. Remains after processing beets or reeds. As a sweetener, it is unsuitable, but indispensable in gingerbread dough, when smoking ham, in making puddings, in making rum ... The list is long.
If you decide to cook something with molasses, you need to consider a few points. For example, molasses black can be replaced with light, but vice versa - in no case! Molasses is quite sticky. If you need to measure its quantity with containers, grease these containers with vegetable oil. And further. Store molasses in the refrigerator. In a warm place, it can become moldy. Take it out of the refrigerator an hour before cooking to make it softer. After measuring the right amount, put it back in the cold.
Here are described the recipes for molasses, which are quite simple to prepare yourself. It takes only patience and time. Especially tasty is molasses from pears, by the way, it is especially appreciated.