Stirred into tea, baked into desserts and used to balance fiery-tasting dishes, jaggery is one of India's most versatile kitchen staples — and it is gaining global attention.
Jaggery is an unrefined sugar made from sugar cane and frequently used in both savory and sweet dishes prepared throughout southwest Asia — particularly in India, Afghanistan and Iran — as well as parts of Africa. India, which produces about 60 percent of the world's jaggery, is the largest global consumer of jaggery. In Hindi, jaggery is known as gur.
Essentially, jaggery is concentrated sugar cane liquid. Sugar cane, which grows in leafy stalks, is about 13 feet (4 meters) in height. To make jaggery, the sugar cane stalk is cut low to the ground, then shredded and pressed through a series of rollers to burst its cells and release a sugary liquid. The liquid is then boiled; through this heating process, impurities float to the surface and are skimmed off. As the increasingly purified liquid continues to boil, the moisture content is reduced, which results in a higher concentration of sugar. This thickened liquid is then placed into a container or mold. The amber- to ocher-colored liquid thickens even more as its temperature drops, and when it reaches a nearly solid state, it is cut into blocks and packaged. Alternatively, jaggery can be grated and sold as crystals.
Often, jaggery is referred to as evaporated cane sugar, a nod to its extraction process. However, there are varieties of jaggery that...
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