Mysore Pak

Mysore Pak (ಮೈಸೂರು ಪಾಕ್) is a South Indian sweet made mainly from chickpea flour, sugar and ghee. It is best known cut into squares, and its yellow-to-brown cross-section may show fine holes or be densely packed and smooth. Chickpea flour, sugar syrup and fat are cooked together in a pan, then transferred to a mold to be shaped.

In what order to combine the three ingredients

The main ingredient, besan, is flour ground from chickpeas. Ghee, milk fat with water and milk solids removed, adds a rich flavor of fat to the chickpea flour. The sugar syrup provides sweetness and also helps hold the sweet together once it is taken out of the pan.

Methods differ in their order. In a recipe (ingredient proportions and method) published by an international pulse-industry association, melted ghee and besan are first mixed until free of lumps. Sugar and water are boiled in a separate pan to a consistency that forms a thin thread between the fingers, and the chickpea flour and ghee mixture is added to it little by little. It is cooked with constant stirring until the whole mass puffs up and pulls away from the sides of the pan.

On the other hand, a Karnataka state cuisine guide also includes a method in which sifted chickpea flour is combined with the syrup and warmed oil and ghee are added. Whether the flour and fat are mixed in advance or combined in the pan, the work is repeated so that no lumps of flour remain and the flour is blended evenly into the syrup and fat.

The cooked mixture is transferred to a greased plate or mold. One method is to score it while it is still hot and then cut it apart along those lines once it has cooled completely. This is because its firmness differs between when it is poured into the mold and when it has cooled enough to be removed. Cutting it into neat, square-cornered pieces without breaking the crumbly edges is also part of finishing this sweet.

Versions with fine holes, and dense, smooth versions

Mysore Pak comes in a crumbly, porous form and a smooth, dense form that melts in the mouth. Each differs in how it breaks apart when bitten and in how the fat spreads across the palate. The state cuisine guide also lists both as varieties of the same sweet.

Precisely because there are only three ingredients, differences in proportions and heating show clearly. The amount of ghee, how far the syrup is reduced and at what point the mixture is taken off the heat after mixing all affect the state of the product. Each shop’s proportions and degree of cooking create a range of firmness and mouthfeel. At Guru Sweets in Mysuru, at the time of an interview with the family in 2021, the shop offered a grainy, firmer version made with a solid vegetable fat called vanaspati, and a soft, smooth version made with ghee. The choice of fat, too, creates different textures within the same shop.

The counter at Guru Sweets displayed six varieties: ghee, ghee and milk, jaggery, almond, dried fruit and cashew. Beyond the fat, customers can also choose flavors that vary the sweetener or the nuts. Jaggery is a minimally refined brown sweetener and offers an option that adds a flavor different from sugar.

Some versions add cardamom, and some methods use oil together with ghee, but the basic principle of cooking besan, sugar or another sweetener, and fat is shared.

A story tied to the Mysuru court

Mysore, in the name, is the city in Karnataka now written as Mysuru, Mysūru and in other forms. The sweet’s origin is tied to the kitchens of the palace there. According to legend, the court cook Kakasura Madappa created a new sweet from chickpea flour, sugar and ghee and served it to the king.

The court best known in this story is that of Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV. One telling says that when the king asked the sweet’s name, it was named after the city, but accounts differ on who gave it the name on that occasion. This story is a family origin account handed down around the palace kitchen and the name of the craftsman.

Pak, or paaka, is a word used in connection with sugar syrup and cooking. In the sweet’s name, it is joined to the name of the city to mark a local specialty. At Guru Sweets, which carries on that lineage, fourth-generation brothers have made sweets in a kitchen near their home and sold them at a shopfront in the market. Visitors come both to eat the warm sweets on the spot and to have them boxed as souvenirs. Today, the sweets of a shop that carries the story of a court origin can be eaten at the market or taken home.

Smooth Mysurpa, developed in Coimbatore

In Coimbatore, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, Sri Krishna Sweets developed a smooth, melt-in-the-mouth Mysurpa into its signature product. According to the history told by the family’s second generation, this Mysurpa is a product the founder created through repeated trials while expanding the business from a small eatery started in 1948. It is known as this shop’s product, one that puts the flavor of milk fat and a texture that melts away at the forefront.

In 1996 the shop also opened in Chennai, expanding sales to gifts brought on visits and to festival sweet boxes. Packaging that holds the sweets neatly was refined again and again, and the sweet’s use expanded from something eaten at the shop to the contents of boxes given to others. Today it is made not only within Karnataka but throughout South India, and it is served at weddings, festivals and celebrations for expectant mothers. The sweet bearing the city’s name has spread to many places, and items with different textures have come to be made within each shop’s business.

Glossary