Jaggery

What is Jaggery?

Jaggery is a type of sugar made without machines. It comes from the juice of sugar cane, and sometimes from date or palm sap. Unlike regular sugar, jaggery keeps the molasses and crystals together, giving it a rich, dark brown color.

Where is Jaggery Used?

People in many parts of the world enjoy jaggery. It is popular in the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, North America, Central America, Brazil, and Africa. It is used in cooking and as a natural sweetener in many recipes.

What is in Jaggery?

Jaggery contains a good amount of sucrose, invert sugars, and moisture. It also has natural materials like wood ash, proteins, and fibers from the sugar cane. It is very similar to muscovado, a type of sugar used in Portuguese, British, and French cuisine.

Etymology

The word "jaggery" comes from old Portuguese words like jágara and jagra. These words came from Malayalam and Tamil languages, where they also mean sugar. It is also related to an ancient Sanskrit word for sugar. This shows how the name moved between different cultures over time. Jaggery is a special form of the word "sugar."

Origins and production

Jaggery is made from the products of sugarcane and the toddy palm tree. Sugar from the sap of the date palm is special but less common outside the areas where it is produced. The toddy palm is used for making jaggery in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka.

In Sri Lanka, syrup from kithul (Caryota urens) trees is often used for jaggery production. All types of jaggery come in blocks or pastes of solidified concentrated sugar syrup, heated to about 200 °C (392 °F). Traditionally, the syrup is made by boiling raw sugarcane juice or palm sap in large, shallow, round-bottomed vessels. The juice is heated until it thickens, then poured into a shallow pan to cool and solidify into jaggery.

Uses

Jaggery is a sweet ingredient used in many dishes in South Asia. In countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and Iran, jaggery adds sweetness to both sweet and savory foods. It is often added to soups like sambar and rasam, and lentil dishes such as dāl, especially in Gujarati cuisine.

In Sri Lanka, jaggery is made from palm or coconut syrup.

Jaggery preparation by heating juice in the vessel on furnace

In Maharashtra, jaggery is known as "gul" and is used in dishes like tilgul during Makar Sankranti. It is also used in festivals like Ugadi in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, where it helps balance spicy flavors. In Kerala, jaggery is used in sweet dishes like payasam.

In Myanmar, jaggery called htanyet is made from toddy palm syrup and enjoyed as a sweet treat, often with tea. Jaggery is also used to make toffees and cakes, and it can even flavor foods and fabrics in some places.

Nutrition

Nomenclature

Jaggery has many names around the world because it has been used for a long time. In the Indian subcontinent, it is called guṛ in Hindi, Bengali, and Bhojpuri, and vellam in Tamil and Malayalam. It is also known as śarkkara, cakkara, or sakkarai in local languages.

Making jaggery (gur) in Punjab

In Southeast Asia, jaggery has different names too. In Cambodia, it is called Skor tnaot. Myanmar uses Htanyet for toddy palm jaggery and Kyan Tha Kar for sugarcane jaggery. Malaysia calls it Gula melaka or Gula merah, while Indonesia uses Gula jawa and Gula merah. The Philippines has names like Koya-Koya and Panocha in Philippine Spanish. Thailand refers to it as namtan tanot or namtan oi. In Vietnam, it is known as Đường thốt nốt.

Elsewhere, jaggery is called Raspadura in Cuba and Panama, Rapadura in Brazil, and Panela in Central and South America. In Mexico, it is known as Piloncillo, and in Peru as Chancaca. Japan calls it Kokuto, and in Chinese it is Hóng táng or hēi táng.