Sirop de Liège

Sirop de Liège 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. The area is rich in smaller producers including Charlier in Henri-Chapelle, or Delvaux in Horion-Hozémont.