Kharvas

Kharvas is a milk sweet from Maharashtra made by sweetening and steaming colostrum, the milk that cows and other animals secrete after giving birth. Although it sets firmly enough to be cut into pieces, it is soft in the mouth and looks like an egg pudding. It is flavored with cardamom, nutmeg, saffron and other spices, and sweetened with sugar or jaggery.

Milk that sets without eggs

Colostrum differs in composition from the drinking milk normally sold, and it tends to set when heated. Kharvas makes use of this property: the colostrum is steamed until it sets, without any eggs being added.

Research on bovine colostrum has shown that whey proteins, which are present in larger amounts than in ordinary milk, change with heat and bind to one another to form a soft network. Among the proteins in colostrum, β-lactoglobulin also takes part in this network. The liquid becomes a soft mass because heating builds a structure within the milk.

Locally, colostrum is also called chik. Because the way it sets varies with when it is collected and the condition of the milk, some methods adjust it by mixing in ordinary milk. The ratio of colostrum to ordinary milk is not a fixed figure that works for every batch.

Steamed, then cooled and cut

Milk mixed with sugar and spices is placed in a metal vessel or similar container and cooked with steam. In some examples, saffron is scattered over the surface and the vessel is covered while it heats. Once the milk has been poured into the vessel, it sets in that shape.

How soft it is just after steaming differs from how easily it cuts once cooled. When it has cooled somewhat, the edges are loosened and it is cut into squares or other shapes. Using jaggery gives a brownish finish, with a color and flavor that differ from versions made with sugar.

The season of the ingredient becomes the season of the sweet

Kharvas is not a sweet that can be made just by boiling down milk any day. It requires an ingredient tied to a cow giving birth, and it is also a household sweet made from milk that is shared. It is also known as pos in Konkani-speaking areas and as ginnu in Kannada-speaking areas. There is also a milk sweet called soi pos, which adds grated coconut, so each locality makes its own sweets from the same colostrum. For ginnu in Kannada-speaking areas, some households vary the ratio of colostrum to ordinary milk to make anything from versions firm enough to cut to versions as soft as porridge. In some cases it is cooked in a pan while being stirred and eaten with puri or chapati.

Ginnu made in a household in Kolar district, Karnataka (2020, Suresh babu N / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0). A downscaled version from the source is used; content not changed after retrieval.

When colostrum is not available, some households make it by combining ordinary milk with sweetened condensed milk and eggs and steaming the mixture. Even if it looks similar, the ingredient that makes it set is different. In this method, the eggs allow it to set when steamed even though ordinary milk is used.

Glossary