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Traditional Dairy Delicacies Of Bengal
A Report
Biswajit Mondal
Scientist, Central Soil & Water Conservation Research & Training Institute
Research Centre, Bellary – 583 104, Karnataka
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Introduction
Since time immemorial, a significant proportion of total milk produced has been used in India for preparing a wide variety of dairy delicacies – an unending array of sweets and other specialities from different regions of the country that are a gourmet’s delight. In the process the basic limitation of milk – its’ perishable nature – has been tastefully overcome, because its processing also aims to extend the shelf life of milk and convert it into mouth-watering delicacies. Thus, diverse methods to prepare as well as preserve milk products have been developed.
The variety of ways in which milk is used for the preparation of indigenous products has developed more or less as an Indian expertise. The manufacturing process of different indigenous milk products has been essentially utilizing small scale technology in India. An estimated 50 to 55 percent of the milk produced in India is converted into a variety of traditional milk products (Parthasarathy, 1991), using process such as coagulation (heat and/or acid), desiccation and fermentation. Over the millennia, these processes have largely remained unchanged, being in the hands of halwais, the traditional sweetmeat makers, who form the core of this cottage industry. Many of the products also provide great export opportunities. But there is no recorded information available on the technology used for the preparation of many of these indigenous products. An effort has been made in the present article to provide technical specifications on preparations of various chhana based milk sweets – the eastern India’s delicacies.
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Description of sweet making units
Burdwan, the largest milk producing district of West Bengal (Anonymous, 1997) has been purposively selected for collecting the technical details regarding the method of preparation of indigenous dairy sweets considering the wide assortment of such kind of sweets produced by the manufacturing units in the area. Majority of the selected enterprises were running their business in their own building while some were operating in the rented shops. In the district, the sweet making units diverted a higher percentage (57%) of milk towards chhana based sweets (Mondal and Kalra, 2004) with the view of diversifying their products line and attracting a broad spectrum of buyers with better tastes and purchasing powers.
Technical specifications of various sweets
1. Rasogolla
The Rasogolla is one of the most popular chhana based sweets. Rasogollas are in the form of small round balls usually 30 mm in diameter with a typical sponge body and smooth texture.
Ingredients: The main ingredients of the Rasogolla are chhana (soft) 200 gm, sugar 600 gm, maida 10 gm, suji 10 gm and arrowroot 10 gm.
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Method of preparation: Chhana is broken up and thoroughly kneaded. There should be no oozing of fat during this operation. A small quantity of maida and suji is added to avoid cracks in the finished products. The consistency of the kneaded mass should be such that when made into small balls, it has a smooth surface without signs of cracks. Meanwhile, the sugar is dissolved in water and boiled. During the process two tablespoon full milk is added to the sugar syrup to
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68
Dairy Year Book 2008 |
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