Sirop de Liège


Sirop de Liège is a Belgian jam or jelly-like spread. Apple and pear are principally used, often with dates: other fruit such as apricot can be used as well. Sugar and other sweetners are not normally needed.
Cored fruit is cooked slowly until it falls apart, releasing the pectin from the skin. The compote is then pushed through a passoir, removing the skin, and breaking the fruit into mush. It's then reduced by slow cooking over several hours until the pectin sets, in the same way jam is, tested by dropping a test piece into cold water. Typically 6-8 kg of fruit produces 1 kg of syrup.
Sirop de Liège, as its name would suggest, comes from the Liège region of Belgium, which roughly corresponds to the modern province of Liège. Many syrup makers were historically found there, though today syrup makers are primarily concentrated in the land of Herve region in the north-east of the province. The best known syrup maker is Meurens in the Aubel municipality, which produces two thousand tonnes of it per year under the trademark Vrai Sirop de Liège/Echte Luikse stroop. The area is rich in smaller producers including Charlier in Henri-Chapelle, or Delvaux in Horion-Hozémont.

Culinary uses

Its primary use is as a spread, usually on a tartine. It is often accompanied by cheese, such as Herve cheese or, the latter making a dish called.
It is also used as a sauce or part of a sauce in numerous dishes, serving as pancake sauce on boûkète, or on lacquemant waffles, or sauce for the cooked pear dessert of. Sauces with sirop de Liège are even used in the meat dishes boulets à la Liégeoise and .

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