Tart plums (cherry plums)
Cherry plums (Prunus cerasifera) are small, malic-acid-rich plums, red, yellow or green, that give Georgian tkemali sauce its sharp, fruity sourness.
Tkemali
ტყემალი · T'q'emali · Tqemali · Georgian plum sauce · Sour plum sauce
A Georgian sour plum sauce of cherry plums cooked with garlic, coriander, dill-family herbs and chilli. Its sourness comes from the fruit, and it is served as a condiment with grilled meat, poultry and potatoes.
A Georgian sour plum sauce
Tkemali is a sauce from Georgia made mainly from cherry plum. Wikipedia describes it as a condiment with a role in Georgian cooking similar to ketchup in the United States. Its flavour is tart and comes from the fruit, and it is most often served with fried or grilled meat, poultry and potato dishes.
The sauce is also popular in Russian cuisine, where many manufacturers make it.
Sources for this section
Plums and variation
Cherry plum (Prunus cerasifera) is the main fruit. Alucha and red-leaf plums are also common in Georgia. Red sauces use ripe plums and green sauces unripe ones; the article notes that both colours are made. Sweeter plums are sometimes mixed in to reduce the tartness.
Herbs and seasoning are the second axis of variation. The traditional set is garlic, pennyroyal, coriander, dill, chilli and salt, and the infobox adds cumin. The home recipe used here makes the red version with anise and dried hot red pepper, and it leaves out dill.
Sources for this section
A home method
The recipe cooks the plums in water until soft, presses the pulp through a sieve, and adds the cooking liquid back until the sauce is smooth. Garlic, coriander, pennyroyal and salt are mixed in, the herb bundles and hot pepper are pushed under the surface, and the pot is heated very low for 40 minutes. Sugar is an option for very sour plums and the recipe does not say when to add it.
The recipe names no temperature for the cooking and gives no pH or acidity figure.
Sources for this section
Keeping the sauce
The recipe describes cooling the sauce and refrigerating it for short-term use. For longer keeping it describes washing and drying bottles, heating them in water, filling them hot with the sauce and sealing them, then storing them in a cool, dark place.
This bottling is one home method. Neither source gives a validated process, pH or shelf life, so keeping time is not stated here.
Sources for this section
What the sources do not establish
The sources read give no history of the sauce before the modern period, no dated first record, and no commercial recipe. Green tkemali is listed as a variant, but this page sets out only the red home recipe. The dill and cumin variants are listed from Wikipedia without a method.
Sources for this section
History
Wikipedia names Georgia as the place of origin and gives no historical background. Tkemali is also made in Russia, where manufacturers produce it commercially. No dated source for the sauce is read.
Ingredients
Scaling: stated batch only
Ripe red cherry plums (tkemali plums)Washed; cooked whole in water, then pressed through a sieve. Green plums are also used in other versions.
10 kg
Quantity from the recipe's own batch.WaterFor cooking the plums; the cooking liquid is kept and added back to adjust consistency.
3 L
AniseTied in a cotton bundle and left in the pot.
50 g
Fresh pennyroyalFlowers and tiny leaves crushed; stalks tied in a bundle with the anise.
20 g
Green flowering corianderTied in a cotton bundle and left in the pot.
200 g
GarlicPeeled and ground finely in a meat grinder.
1 kg
200 g
Mixed with the garlic and herbs before they go into the pot.Dried coriander, or fresh coriander leavesMixed with the crushed pennyroyal and garlic.
100 g
Either form, per the recipe.Dried hot red pepperTied in a bundle or added to the pot.
50 g
Sugar (optional)
Amount not stated
Up to 100 g, only if the plums are very sour.Method
Risks and precautions · Elevated risk
Home bottling of a low-acid or variable-acid sauce
The sauce's acidity depends on the plums, and the recipe adds salt and herbs without a measured pH. The source's hot-fill method is not a validated preservation process.
Hazard sourceRefrigerate the short-term batch; do not rely on the long-term bottling without process validation.
Control source- Wash the plums, put them in a deep pot with the water, and bring to a boil on high heat. Simmer 10 to 15 minutes until soft.
- Remove the plums to a bowl and keep the cooking liquid.
- Set a sieve over a clean pot and press the plums through it with a wooden spoon, adding the saved cooking liquid gradually until the sauce is smooth. Discard the stones.
- Peel the garlic and grind it finely.
- Crush the pennyroyal flowers and tiny leaves; keep the stalks. Mix the crushed pennyroyal, coriander, ground garlic and salt in a bowl.
- Add the garlic mixture to the sieved plum pulp and mix well.
- Tie the green flowering coriander, anis and pennyroyal stalks into bundles. Add them and the dried hot red pepper to the pot, pushing the bundles under the surface.
- Heat on very low for 40 minutes. Add sugar only if the plums are very sour; the recipe does not say when.
- Remove the bundles before bottling. Cool the sauce, then refrigerate for short-term use. For longer keeping, the source describes hot-filling clean bottles and sealing them, then storing in a cool dark place.
Places
Georgia
Traditional preparation · Country evidenceWikipedia gives Georgia as the sauce's origin. The recipe source is a Georgian home recipe. Neither gives a locality.
Russia
Documented use · Country evidenceWikipedia says tkemali is popular in Russian cuisine and that many Russian manufacturers make it. It is a documented use, not an origin.
Related
Made from
Read more
The Condiment Table: Ketchup, Mayonnaise, Mustard and the Sauces of the World
Ketchup, mayonnaise and mustard are three kinds of kitchen engineering. This guide shows how each works, compares real bottles instead of national clichés, then follows the sauces of Asia, the Caucasus, Europe, the Americas and Africa.
More from Georgia
Bazhe (walnut sauce base)
A Georgian walnut sauce of ground walnuts, garlic, vinegar and spices, thinned with water or broth. It is served with poultry, vegetables and bread, and is the sauce of the dish satsivi.
Megrelian ajika
A documented Megrelian red pepper, garlic and herb paste with salt and ground spices. This preparation is mixed, not fermented; its source gives no validated preservation method or shelf life.
Tkemali-inspired tart-plum sauce
An untested refrigerator sauce inspired by Georgian tkemali. This version uses ordinary mint in place of pennyroyal (ombalo), changing its aroma; it is not a tested preserve.
Wine-infused salt
Wine-infused salt is coarse food salt carrying wine colour and aroma after a wine-and-salt mixture is reduced and dried. This version follows a Missouri Wines method at a one-to-three salt-to-wine ratio.
Gunda's pan-fried Imeretian khachapuri
Closed round cheese breads made with sour-cream dough and cooked in a frying pan. This named Gunda version has no added yeast or proofing stage.
Matsoni with a countertop culture
A commercial countertop-culture version of matsoni, a Georgian cultured milk. Its room-temperature method differs from the warmer Georgian production process.
Mchadi: Georgian pan-cooked cornbread
Unleavened cornmeal cakes mixed with cold water and cooked on both sides in a covered-then-uncovered pan. Cheese is served alongside rather than mixed into this dough.
Megrelian chvishtari
Megrelian chvishtari uses a maize dough with sulguni wrapped around a cheese piece, then cooks covered over low heat in a skillet.
Related in the family
Ajvar
Ajvar is a cooked Balkan pepper preserve built around roasted red peppers, peeled, drained, ground and slowly fried with oil and seasoning. Leskovac’s protected version is a pepper specialty; regional versions vary.
Amlou
Amlou is a nutty, lightly sweet Moroccan spread of roasted almonds, culinary argan oil and honey. The almonds are ground first, then loosened with oil and sweetened; the balance can range from a thick spread to a dip.
Apple sauce for goose and pork
Apple sauce for goose and pork is a plain English accompaniment: cooked apples pulped with water, then sweetened with sugar and finished with a little butter.
Bagna cauda
A warm dip of garlic, anchovy and olive oil, often enriched with butter, that Piedmont serves over a flame with raw and cooked vegetables and bread.
Banana ketchup in a Filipino-inspired direction
A sweet-hot table sauce of ripe banana simmered with vinegar, sugar, onion, garlic and fresh chilli, in the manner of Philippine banana ketchup. An untested development batch of about 500 g.
Butterscotch sauce
A pourable dessert sauce of brown sugar, butter and cream, with a little corn syrup and salt. It is the sauce form of the butterscotch confection and is made without water, unlike caramel.
Byzantine murrī
Byzantine murrī is a cooked imitation of murrī from the medieval Arabic repertoire, made from scorched honey, toasted bread, walnuts, quince, carob and spices rather than from a long grain fermentation.
Caribbean browning (burnt-sugar seasoning)
Caribbean browning is a dark liquid of deeply caramelised sugar, used in small amounts for colour and a smoky, bitter-sweet flavour in stews and black cake.
Community
No community contributions have been published for this entry yet.
Share what you made
Sign in to contribute. Published comments and photos are free to read.
Sources
WikipediaIngredients · Uses · Regional variation · History
TkemaliSauce from Georgia made mainly from cherry plum, with alucha and red-leaf plums; red and green versions; pungently tart; sweeter plums sometimes added
Traditional ingredients: plum, garlic, pennyroyal, coriander, dill, chilli pepper, salt; infobox lists cumin
Served with fried or grilled meat, poultry and potatoes; popular in Russian cuisine; mass-produced in Georgia and Russia
Cited in: A Georgian sour plum sauce; Plums and variation; What the sources do not establish
Georgian RecipesMethod · Ingredients · Safety
Red Tkemali SauceQuantities for a 10 kg batch: plums, 3 litres water, 50 g anis, 20 g pennyroyal, 200 g green flowering coriander, 1 kg garlic, 200 g salt, 100 g coriander, 50 g dried hot red pepper, up to 100 g sugar
Method: boil and simmer plums, sieve, add garlic and herbs, bundles, heat on very low for 40 minutes
Storage: refrigerate short-term; long-term hot-fill bottling described without validation figures
Cited in: Plums and variation; A home method; Keeping the sauce