Jalebi

Thin strands of batter loop around in ring after ring, and syrup glistens on the fried surface. Jalebi is a sweet made by piping a pourable batter based mainly on wheat flour into oil, frying it, and then soaking it in sugar syrup. There are gaps between the rings, and when you bite into the thin strands one at a time, you taste the crispness of the thin surface together with the sweet liquid held inside. It has taken root not only in the sweet shops of North India but in many parts of South Asia.

A batter that can draw spirals, and frying that lets it take up syrup

Maida, used for the batter, is refined wheat flour. Instead of being made stiff enough to hold its shape by hand like bread dough, the batter is brought to a state in which it falls from a narrow opening without breaking and can draw lines on the surface of the oil. The opening of the container or cloth bag, the piping speed and the way the batter flows determine the thickness of the rings and how they connect. The circular shape is not cut out with a mold; it is drawn in the oil.

Fermentation is also important. In the recipe (ingredient proportions and method) of the chef Sanjeev Kapoor, flour and water are mixed thoroughly and left in a warm place for 24 hours, and the next day a little more flour is added and mixed in again. Fermentation time and formulation vary from shop to shop. A study of a different formulation that adds fermented milk confirmed that the amount added and the fermentation time change the acidity of the batter, and that the moisture content affects how it flows. Adjusting the viscosity is also part of the preparation for drawing lines in the oil that do not break partway. The batter and the syrup, which is reduced by boiling, are prepared in separate steps, and the fried batter is then combined with the syrup.

The syrup is not left as thin water with sugar simply dissolved in it; it is reduced by boiling to adjust its concentration. Kapoor uses as a guide the stage at which it pulls a thin thread between the fingers, adds saffron and keeps it lukewarm. The fried rings are drained of oil before soaking, then lifted out so that excess liquid drips off. This order—frying the surface first and then letting it absorb syrup—is a major difference from sweets that simply fry a sweet batter. A shape made of thin lines has surfaces where the syrup can reach both the inner and the outer rings.

Besides saffron, other aromas are also added to the syrup that jalebi absorbs. The Chennai sweet shop The Grand Sweets & Snacks explained in a 2017 interview that it uses a syrup combining sugar with fruit acidity and the aroma of rose. Even the liquid that finishes the sweet rings has a flavor particular to each shop.

Places where sweets are part of breakfast

Jalebi also appears at breakfast. In Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, it is eaten with rabri, a sweet milk product made by reducing milk, as well as with poha, a light dish of rice cooked with spices, and with savory kachori. Indore’s poha jalebi is another example of combining sweet and savory in a single meal.

In North and West India, meanwhile, it is also a sweet fried on the spot at wedding venues. Occasions where it is served warm and freshly fried coexist with occasions where it is bought at a sweet shop and taken home. Some versions add milk, and some are finished in a pale color. Shops in each region adjust both the batter and the syrup, creating differences in thickness, color and aroma.

Versions with milk added, versions wrapped in bread, and large versions to share

In Burhanpur in central India, mawa jalebi, which adds concentrated milk solids called mawa to the batter, is a local specialty. Dairy is added to the basic batter of wheat flour mixed with water, changing the color, flavor and mouthfeel. A fermented batter is used here as well, and it is also served at breakfast with milk or rabri. Adding concentrated milk is a change made at the production stage, distinct from the practice of serving milk alongside the finished rings.

In Nepal it is called jeri and is eaten wrapped in swari, a thin fried bread. Jeri swari bought at sweet shops in the Kathmandu Valley is a breakfast paired with hot tea. Among the long-established shops of Patan is one that packs and delivers assortments of sweets for weddings and festivals and also sells jeri swari every day. Whereas Indian breakfasts set the sweet rings alongside savory dishes, here the soft bread wraps around the rings to make a single bite.

Bangladesh’s jilapi includes thin versions, thick versions scattered with sesame, versions made with chhena, and versions that use gur syrup instead of sugar syrup. At Chawk Bazar in Old Dhaka, families share large shahi jilapi. It is a sweet people seek out at the iftar markets after sunset during Ramadan, where the fast is broken. Even with the same spiral, the scale changes from a light ring for one person to a single large piece shared among many.

In Islamabad, Pakistan, doodh jalebi, combined with warm milk, cardamom and nuts, is a sweet for winter nights. Jalebi is neither only a morning food nor only a festival food; it has ways of being eaten that suit the meals and climate of each place.

Medieval net-like fried sweets

The cookbook compiled by Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq in Baghdad in the late 10th century includes several sweets called zalabiya. For the net-like one among them, a fermented, pourable batter is poured into oil through a coconut shell with holes, fried, and then soaked in scented honey. The step of letting it absorb honey after frying mattered more than the sweetness of the batter.

The food historian Randy K. Schwartz has compared translations of medieval cookbooks and discussed the connection between this net-like sweet and South Asian jalebi. In South Asia, jalebi served at a banquet is said to appear in a Jain text by Jinasura from around 1450. The medieval West Asian records and the South Asian records are clues that sweets made by similar methods have been made across a wide area.

The Sanskrit culinary text Gunyagunabodhini, dating from before 1600, also preserves a description of the ingredients and method. The Indologist P. K. Gode’s research into the texts shows that, beyond the stage of the name being mentioned at banquets, the procedure for making it had been incorporated into cookbooks. Today, there are local methods that add milk to the batter or change the syrup, layering each region’s ingredients and food customs onto the technique of the old net-like fried sweet.

Similar names, and whether it is the same sweet

One explanation holds that the name jalebi derives from Persian zolbiya and Arabic zalabiya. The 1903 edition of the Anglo-Indian glossary Hobson-Jobson cites this relationship under the headword “Jelaubee” and describes it as a sweet with an intricate, net-like shape. Schwartz, on the other hand, links it to julāb, the name for rose water that also refers broadly to sugar syrup. This view explains the name from the sweet liquid absorbed at the finishing stage.

West Asia also has related sweets that are fried in oil and soaked in syrup. However, the name zalabiya also covers round lumps and doughs of other formulations, and it is not always identical to the thin spirals of South Asia. Names from the same lineage are used for different shapes and doughs depending on the place.

Bamieh, a related Iranian fried sweet, is a finger-length piece of dough coated in syrup. Besides being served as a tea sweet for guests, it also appears on the table after sunset during Ramadan. In contrast to jalebi’s thin rings that hold syrup, bamieh is formed into a finger-like shape.

Imarti is a similar ring-shaped sweet. Jaunpur imarti from Uttar Pradesh is made by soaking urad dal in water, grinding it with a small amount of water, putting the batter into a cloth bag, piping it in a flower pattern, frying it in ghee and soaking it in warm syrup. A batter of ground beans and a batter of maida mixed with water rely on techniques based on different ingredients, even in sweets that are fried and soaked in syrup in the same way. There is also chhena jalebi, which uses chhena. Within the outward form of a spiral lie different techniques based on grains and on milk.

Glossary