Sirop de Liège

Sirop de Liège on a slice of bread

Sirop de Liège (French for syrup from Liège, Luikse stroop in Dutch) is a Belgian jam or jelly-like spread made of evaporated fruit juices. Apple and pear juices are used, and date or other fruit juices can be used as well. It could be considered a form of apple butter, or a syrup, albeit a soft, solid syrup.

Sirop de Liège is created by reducing (boiling off the water from) the constituent fruit juices. After several hours, the resulting product is a soft brown paste that is just barely translucent.

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.[1] The area is rich in smaller producers including Charlier[2] in Henri-Chapelle, or Delvaux[3] in Horion-Hozémont.

Culinary uses

Sirop de Liège is used in the sauce of boulets à la liégeoise

Its primary use is as a spread, usually on a tartine. It is often accompanied by cheese, such as Herve cheese or maquée, the latter making a dish called stron d'Poye.

It is also used as a sauce or part of a sauce in numerous dishes, serving as pancake sauce on boûkète,[4] or on lacquemant waffles, or sauce for the cooked pear dessert of cûtès Peûres. Sauces with sirop de Liège are even used in the meat dishes Boulets à la Liégeoise (meatballs) and lapin à la liégeoise (rabbit).

Similar dishes

  • Apple butter - sirop de Liège could be considered a type of apple butter, though sirop de Liège always includes pears and often includes other fruits as well
  • Appelstroop - a similar Dutch spread, usually made without pears
  • Birnenhonig - a similar Swiss spread made of pear juice
  • Nièr beurre or black butter - a similar Jersey spread made from apples and spices
  • Vin cuit - a similar Swiss reduction

References

  1. ↑ "Sirop de Liège". Meurens. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
  2. ↑ "Page d'accueil". siropcharlier.be.
  3. ↑ "Bienvenue à la Siroperie Delvaux..." siroperiedelvaux.be (in French).
  4. ↑ (in French) Roger Pinon, « La boûkète liégeoise et les crêpes à la farine de sarrasin en Wallonie », in La Vie Wallonne, n° 52, 1978
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