Walnut Murabba

Walnut murabba is a preserve made by cooking young walnuts, picked before their shells harden, in sugar syrup. When you eat one of the dark, whole nuts, it has a texture and sweetness different from those of dried walnuts. It is one of the murabbas made in Armenia and the surrounding region.

Sweetening young nuts whole

The young nuts are peeled on the outside, soaked in water and prepared while the water is changed many times. In one Armenian household’s method, the nuts are left in water until they turn black, then soaked in limewater, washed well and pierced. A syrup is made with sugar, cardamom, cinnamon and cloves, and the nuts are added and cooked repeatedly. In some examples limewater is not used and the water-changing stage is extended instead, so there is more than one way to do the preparation.

Makers who wait for the harvest season

A 2014 account of a visit to Madeline Nersissian Shuherdemian, an Armenian maker in Anjar, Lebanon, describes the work: testing the firmness of the nuts with a needle before harvesting, peeling them, soaking them in water and changing the water every day to draw out the bitterness. After that, the nuts are cooked several times with sugar so that they absorb the sweetness. The nuts are selected and harvested during the short season before their shells harden. In this 2014 report, a cold winter affected the harvest, and the amount produced was also small.

At a harvest festival in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, a cooperative of rural families has also displayed walnut preserves alongside fruit syrups and other products.

Murabba is a broad name for preserves made by cooking fruits or nuts with sugar. Besides walnuts, some are made with quince, apricots and other fruits. This sweet, which keeps the shape of the young walnuts, differs from jam, in which the fruit is crushed and spread; here, the intact nuts are enjoyed together with the syrup.

Glossary