Sugar Syrup Procedure

Six types of tastes are described in the Bhaga Shastra – salt, sweet, sour, hot, bitter and pungent. It states that every meal should include all these tastes, so that the appetite is satisfied and the tongue is neutralized by all the tastes being together. As per the instructions in Bhaga Shastra, in order for all parts of the body, mind and brain to function properly, a balanced diet of all these tastes is a must.

Further, the purpose of having all six tastes is to balance the tridoshas in the body, namely vaata (acidic), pitta (alkaline) and kapha (phlegm). Every ingredient used in Hindu cooking is classified as per their dosha properties. For e.g. too much of vata foods such as flat beans, corn, jackfruit, Bengal grams, will lead to belching, itchiness or prickliness on the skin. Excess of pitta foods results in giddiness, acidity and imbalance in the brain and mood disorders. Excess kapha food leads to chills and cold.

Bhaga Shastra further classifies foods into rajasik, tamasik and sattvik types. Rajasik food makes one feel agitated, aggressive, lustful and egoistic. Tamasik food makes a person lazy, sleepy and depressed. Satvik food gives clarity to the person and brings him peace of mind leading to bhakti (devotion), tripti (fulfillment) and ananda (bliss). It is therefore not surprising that the Bhagashastra has a huge variety of sweet dishes made from rice, broken wheat, flattened rice, millets, maize, lentils (both split and whole). Many of these sweets are made during festive occasions – with certain sweets made specifically on a particular festival. For e.g. pongal in the Tamil New Year festival of Thai Pongal, kolukattai or modak for Ganesh Chaturthi, saffron sweet rice for Basant Panchami in Punjab, sandesh for Durga Puja in Bengal, karah prasad in celebrating festival of Sikh Gurus, kheer and laddoo in almost all Hindu festivals, payasam in South Indian festivals, especially Onam, and the list just goes on. In fact, India has the largest variety of sweet dishes in the world.

1. Boil water and brown sugar together in a rust-free pan. After it boils, remove from fire. Take another vessel and tie a cloth to the mouth of the vessel. Distil the sugar syrup by pouring it on top of the cloth. Wash the rust -free pan used to make the syrup and place it beneath the vessel. The sugar water will fall into the pan. Boil the syrup again.

2. Mix milk and water and sprinkle some milk into the boiling syrup. Remove with a ladle, the black dirt which comes as a froth on top of the syrup. Put this dirt into another vessel.

3. Continue to sprinkle milk and remove all the dirt from the sugar syrup.

4. Dissolve saffron in little milk and pour it in the clean sugar syrup. Boil the syrup again. Test the consistency of the syrup. Once in 5 or 10 minutes, take the spoon full of the syrup, touch it with your forefinger and keep it on your thumb. When your finger and thumb are able to separate, the syrup should come up like a wire. That is called tender sugar syrup. This type of syrup can be used for jalebi, mango, gooseberry sweet pickles.

5. If you boil the syrup for some more time and check it after 5 or 6 minutes, by dropping a drop of the syrup on the floor, the syrup should not spread on the floor. This is called aged syrup.

6. This type of sugar syrup is used for many varieties of sweet rice and laddu etc. This syrup can be done without using saffron also. But it is best done with saffron. How turmeric powder is added to salty, sour and bitter items, the same way saffron is added to the snack items.Saffron adds flavour, gives it a presentable look and is good for your health.

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