Tagine lahlou — 'the sweet tagine' — is the overarching name for the Moroccan sweet-savory tagine tradition: meat slow-cooked with honey, cinnamon, dried fruit and toasted nuts until the sauce is glossy and syrupy. This sweet-savory genre is uniquely Moroccan in its intensity and ubiquity; no other Maghreb cuisine commits so fully to the marriage of meat and sugar. The dish is strongly associated with Ramadan, when it is served to break the fast, and with Eid celebrations. The technique predates refined sugar in Morocco: medieval manuscript cookbooks record meat cooked with date molasses and honey, and the growth of sugar production in the Saadian era (16th century), including the Souss valley, made the style more elaborate.
The meat is falling-apart tender in a thick, glossy, honeyed sauce studded with swollen dried fruit and crunchy almonds; the cinnamon is warm and pervasive. Over couscous, the sweet and savory melt together in a way that is uniquely Moroccan.
The honey is added late in the cook, not early, and for good reason: honey burns at a lower temperature than sugar, and if it goes in at the start of a 90-minute braise it caramelizes too far and turns bitter. Added in the last 20 minutes, it thickens the sauce by osmotic draw — pulling water out of the meat and into the sauce — and coats everything in a glossy sheen. The dried fruit goes in at the same time so it plumps in the sweetened broth rather than disintegrating. Cinnamon, the dominant spice, is fat-soluble and blooms in the rendered lamb fat that forms the sauce base.
Variations
Tagine aux pruneaux (prunes) and tagine zbib (raisins) are both specific forms of tagine lahlou. The fruit can be apricots, figs, dates, or a mix. Some use beef instead of lamb.
On the Palate
Where Tagine Lahlou sits in the Moroccan flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6
How it's made
5 steps · 30 min
- 18 min
Brown 1 kg lamb chunks in 3 tbsp olive oil; add 2 sliced onions, 1 tbsp ginger, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp saffron, salt; cook 5 min.
Watch outBloom the cinnamon in the rendered lamb fat as you brown — it's fat-soluble, so this is what carries its warmth through the whole dish.
- 220 min
Add water to nearly cover; simmer covered 50 min until nearly tender.
- 35 min
Soak 200 g mixed dried fruit (apricots, prunes, raisins) in warm water 10 min; drain.
- 410 min
Add the fruit, 3 tbsp honey, and 100 g toasted almonds to the tagine; simmer uncovered 20 min until the sauce is thick and glossy.
Watch outHoney goes in only for the last twenty minutes — add it early over the long braise and it caramelises too far and turns bitter.
- 55 min
Dust with cinnamon and sesame seeds; serve with couscous or bread.
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