Sweet Sujukh

Known in Armenian as sharots or 'sweet sujukh' (kaghtsr sujukh), this walnut-and-grape-must confection is a traditional grape-harvest sweet of the South Caucasus. 'Sharots' derives from a root meaning 'to line up / lay in layers,' for the way the walnuts are threaded onto string; 'sujukh' shares its name with the Turkic word for sausage, after the candy's sausage-like shape — though unrelated to the savory fermented-meat sujuk. At the autumn grape pressing, households cooked down the grape syrup (doshab) and dipped strings of walnuts to make it, hanging the candy to dry so it kept all winter; the sweet-sharots tradition of the Ashtarak region is on Armenia's list of intangible cultural heritage. It belongs to the same Caucasian family as the Georgian churchkhela, which Georgian armies are said to have carried on campaign as a durable, calorie-dense ration — one of the world's earliest energy bars.

Chewy and faintly leathery on the outside, giving way to crunchy walnuts within. The grape coating is sweet but not cloying, with a fruity tang and warm hints of cinnamon and clove. Like nature's own nougat bar.

Fresh grape must is first strained through cheesecloth and clarified with bentonite clay (from Ashtarak, called 'doshab clay') to cut its acidity, then cooked down to doshab syrup. Thickening is starch gelatinization: starch granules in flour or cornstarch swell in the hot must from about 60°C, burst near 85°C to release starch into the liquid, and fully gelatinize around 96°C, so the syrup clings to the nuts. Repeated dipping and drying builds smooth, candle-like layers; air-drying then evaporates moisture so the high-sugar, low-water coating sets firm into a sliceable fruit-leather that stores for months. (In Georgia the thickened must is called tatara in the east, made with wheat flour, and pelamushi in the west, made with corn flour.)