Murabba
Sweet fruit preserve
Murabba (from Arabic: مربى) is a sweet fruit preserve which is popular in many regions of South Caucasus, Central Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East. A similar dish to murabba (spoon sweets) is also popular in the Balkans. It is generally prepared with fruits, sugar, and spices.
01Etymology
The word murabba is of Arabic origin. Murabbā (مربّى) in Arabic literally means "something made into rubb (رُبّ)". Rubb is fruit juice that has been cooked and thickened (inspissated). The verb rabbā is used to refer to preserving fruit by cooking it with sugar or honey until it reduces and sets into a concentrated syrup.
In Hindi, murabba (Hindi: मुरब्बा) refers to preserved fruits or jams.
02History
The 10th-century Arabic cookbook kitab al-tabikh by Abbasid author Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq dedicates an entire chapter to making fruit conserves (murabbayat). Medieval cookbooks included recipes for rose petal murabba.
The 1867 dictionary Arabic-English Lexicon by Edward William Lane described murabba as "preserves, or confections" made with "inspissated juice" (رب). An 1895 translation by Socrates Spiro described مربى (mirabby) in English as "jam" or "marmalade".
03Regional varieties
India
In India, popular fruits that are candied and left in Its own syrup are apple, fig, cherry, pear, Indian gooseberry (amla), unripe mango, carrots, plum, quince, peach and winter melon.
Armenia
The most popular fruits and other ingredients turned into murabba (Armenian: մուրաբա) in Armenia/Armenian cuisine are watermelon, watermelon rind, quince, pumpkin, apricot, mulberry, raspberry, pear, cherry, cornelian cherry, plum, pomegranate, and walnut.
Arab world
In Lebanon and Syria, figs are traditionally made into anise-flavored murabba during the summer, often mixed with nuts. Mabroosha (Arabic: مبروشة, lit. 'brushed') is a Levantine pie filled with murabba.
Antebikh (Arabic: عنطبيخ) or ainabia (Arabic: عنبية) is a traditional grape murabba from Hebron flavored with anise seeds.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Murabba”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Shaftali murebbesi hazir e-citizen.jpg by Moonsun1981, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Armenian walnut and pumpkin murabba alongside tea.jpg by Grasshalm, CC0
- المبروشة .jpg by أطيب أكلة, CC BY-SA 4.0
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