Cypriot Grape Must Pudding (Palouzes)

Palouzes is what Cypriot villages made with the first of the grape must at harvest. The juice from the press is boiled, cleared, thickened with flour and stirred until it turns into a soft, wobbly pudding that tastes strongly of grapes. In Greece the same thing is called moustalevria.

Most of the must went to wine and zivania, and some was boiled down to epsima, the thick, dark reduced must. Palouzes was the share the household ate straight away, from small bowls, often while it was still warm. Some of it was kept back in the pot for dipping strings of almonds, which is how soutzoukos is made.

You do not need a vineyard to make it. Greek and Cypriot delis sell fresh must in the autumn, and a good unsweetened grape juice works the rest of the year. Aim for a pudding that is loose rather than stiff, so that it slides off the spoon.

Key preparation steps

1. Boil the must with a little baking soda and skim it.
2. Strain it, then whisk in flour mixed with cold must.
3. Stir over a low heat until it thickens and coats the spoon.
4. Pour into bowls and top with nuts and cinnamon.

Clearing the must

Fresh must is cloudy and sharp. Village cooks boiled it with a spoonful of fine white earth or wood ash, which pulls the sediment down and softens the acidity, then left it to settle overnight and poured the clear juice off the top. At home a little baking soda does the same job on the acidity. It foams up hard when it goes in, so use a big pan and add it slowly.

Bottled grape juice is already clear, so it only needs the baking soda if it tastes sharp. Taste it before you start.

Getting the thickness right

The flour has to be mixed into a little cold must first, or it will lump the moment it touches the hot pan. Pour it in through a sieve and keep whisking. As a guide, 90 g (3/4 cup) of flour sets a litre of must into a soft pudding. More flour gives a firmer set that can be cut into squares, but you lose the loose texture.

It is ready when it coats the back of a spoon and a line drawn through it with your finger holds its shape. It sets a little more as it cools.

Rose geranium

Cypriots call rose geranium kiouli or arbaroriza, and a few leaves boiled with the must give palouzes a faint floral smell. Take them out before you thicken it. If you cannot get rose geranium, a drop of vanilla stirred in at the end is the usual stand-in. Some cooks also rinse the bowls with orange blossom water before pouring the pudding in.

Palouzes and soutzoukos

Soutzoukos is made from almonds threaded on cotton string and dipped again and again in palouzes, then hung up to dry. If you make a double batch and keep half in the pan, you have the coating ready. The soutzoukos recipe covers the threading and dipping.

What matters in this dish