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a taste of must

wednesdays and sunday evenings, the days of must and cheese and bread.

we hated it then but missed it if it was missing. in a cool supper hall

the girls smelled brown from sun and pool and slouching on the grass half a day,

tennis courts in the distance, nearly as far away as the mountains.

now i would do anything to taste that combination one more time

and feel how the black green peaks held me in their sun and shade, in their pines,

in shadows while grapevines held the wine and we weaved in (and out) of

our own daily lives that were so full of each other. feel how those huge windows

let in life; and ours, sometimes too much of it, often, would escape and we

could assemble some semblance of calm. on sundays after church, we thought

we knew it all and we shared our wisdom, so accepting of each others' clever talk

moskonfyt is a strange thing. it is very well known in the western cape and all the surrounding wine lands. it is made from grapes and has a very specific taste. tart and sweet at the same time and the moskonfyt i tasted, had the texture and clearness of syrup, but dark, dark brown, like the wood of an old barrel, and so thick. it also has a very strong smell. we used to eat it with cheese on brown bread. it must be my jam (and i don't really like jam) month, because i cannot stop thinking about it (or that tomato jam) and i may have to write something about marmalade and fig jam too!

oxford english dictionary moskonfyt ‖ moskonfyt s. afr.(ˈmɒskɒnˌfeɪt)[afrikaans, f. mos must + konfyt jam.] a thick syrup prepared from grapes. 1891 pall mall gaz. extra no. 58, oct. 13/2 it was mos-komfyt, I found, made with grape-juice. 1905 agric. jrnl. cape of good hope 483 (pettman), the first idea in planting vines is to provide mos confyt, a kind of grape sugar syrup, which is given as part of their rations to the coloured labourers. 1931 t. j. haarhoff vergil in experience s. afr. i. 3 'moskonfyt' is used, as it was by the romans, partly as a syrup and partly to break down the acidity of wines. 1953 cape times 10 mar. 2/4 a consignment of 600 110-gallon drums of moskonfyt, which will be processed into wine in britain. 1975 daily dispatch (east london, cape province) 20 sept. 5 a grape for raisins and also for the production of sweet wines, moskonfyt and even jam.

must (from the latin vinum mustum, "young wine") is freshly (usually ) that contains the skins, seeds, and stems of the fruit. the solid portion of the must is called pomace; it typically makes up 7%-23% of the total weight of the must. making must is the first step in wine making. because of its high content, typically between 10 and 15%, must is also used as a sweetener in a variety of cuisines. unlike commercially sold grape juice, which is filtered and pasteurized, must is thick with particulate matter, opaque, and comes in various shades of brown and/or purple.

saba a.k.a. sapa, vin cotto, mosto cotto

what is it?

saba is reduced grape must (unfermented grape juice) from italy. this brown, syrupy substance has a sweet, concentrated, almost prune-like flavor. depending on region, dialect, or translation, it can go by several names: saba is from sardinia, sapa is from emiglia romagna; in apulia, the syrup is called vin cotto, and in yet another italian region the same may be called mosto cotto. other countries with wine growing regions also have versions of this grape-must syrup-turkey's is called pekmez, and in palestine it's dibs. whatever its name, the syrup is terrific with roasted grapes or pears, drizzled on strong cheeses such as parmigiano-reggiano or gorgonzola, or brushed on roasted lamb or duck.

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