The Best Dates for Moroccan Cooking

Guide

For eating fresh, stuffing and serving with tea or after a meal, you want large, plump, glossy dates with soft, caramel-rich flesh. Medjool is the famous premium choice — big, sweet and fudgy, ideal for stuffing with almond paste or walnuts. Morocco grows many prized varieties in its southern palm oases around the Draa and Tafilalet valleys; Mejhoul (the Moroccan Medjool) and the smaller, drier, honey-flavoured Boufeggous are among the best regarded.

For cooking into tagines and pastes, a softer, cheaper date that melts down is often more practical than premium Medjool. In a lamb or beef tagine, dates dissolve into the sauce to add a dark, sticky sweetness that balances the spice, so you don't need the showpiece fruit — a soft, moist cooking date does the job. For date paste, syrup or filling, again choose soft, sticky dates that blend smoothly.

Whatever you buy, look for dates that are plump and slightly moist, not rock-hard, shrivelled or sugar-crusted (a heavy white bloom of crystallised sugar means they are drying out, though it is harmless). Store them in an airtight container; they keep for months at room temperature and even longer in the fridge. At Ramadan, a couple of dates and a glass of milk or water is the traditional first thing eaten at sunset, following the practice of the Prophet — gentle on an empty stomach and a fast source of energy.