Sandesh

Sandesh (Sandesh / সন্দেশ) is one of the most representative milk sweets of the Bengal region. The word sandesh also means “news” or “message.” A soft mass of milk curd is combined with sugar or a sugar called gur, then rolled into small balls or pressed into molds to give it a pattern. Besides white sandesh, there are brown ones made with non-centrifugal sugar and ones with syrup inside, so sweets of the same name vary in firmness and finish.

The main ingredient best known today is chhana, made by curdling warmed milk with acid and removing the whey. Roshogolla, which is cooked in sugar syrup, also uses chhana, but sandesh is distinguished by kneading the milk curd and heating it with sugar to give it shape.

Smoothing the grains, and not cooking it all the same way

Fresh chhana is made up of small milk curds clustered together. These are kneaded or ground into a uniform paste. How much moisture is left and the state of the grains affect how well the mixture holds together when it is later put into a mold. Kneading chhana that still retains moisture until smooth produces a sweet that holds together softly.

For heating, a shallow pan is used, and the mixture is stirred constantly, with anything sticking to the pan scraped back in. In one technical example, the chhana is divided in two, and one portion is mixed with sugar and heated to 75°C. When it begins to come together, the remaining chhana is added, the whole is brought to 60°C, and it is then cooled and shaped. In this method, the portion cooked first and the portion added later are kept separate in order to adjust the final consistency.

Soft naram-pak is finished with relatively more moisture left in, for a smooth mouthfeel. Kara-pak is cooked to a drier state. What is called kachagola is distinguished as a soft round sweet that retains the flavor of milk. However, the “raw” in its name does not mean that freshly drawn milk is used as is, without heating. The milk has already been warmed at the stage of making chhana, the main ingredient.

The whiteness of sugar, and the color of nolen gur

For sweetening, not only white sugar but also sugar made from date palm sap is used. In nolen gur sandesh, the color and aroma of that sugar are added to the pale color of the chhana. The brown appearance reflects not only the heating of the milk but also the color of the added sugar.

Differences in sugar are also part of the history of sweet shops. The old-style confectionery described by Prabir Kumar Modak, a confectioner in Krishnanagar, features a semi-refined sugar called dolo chini. It was refined by covering hot cane sugar with algae, and it was used in kneaded makha sandesh and other sweets. Before and after refined factory-made sugar became widespread, the sweeteners confectioners used, and the sweets that were easy to make, were different.

Even with the same “milk and sugar,” the sweet changes depending on whether a milk concentrate or chhana is used and which sugar is chosen. Bengal also has lineages of sweets that use kheer, which is milk boiled down; khoa, which is milk concentrated until dry; and sar, the cream from the surface of milk. Sandesh has been handed down within a culture of milk-and-sugar sweets that existed before chhana sweets developed.

Those who carve the molds, those who handle the pans, and those who finish the shapes

The patterns on sandesh involve the work of artisans who carve molds of wood or terracotta. Confectioners use those molds, pressing cooked chhana at the right consistency to shape it. By pressing a suitably cohesive mass of milk into the fine details of the mold, the carved lines are transferred onto the surface of the sweet.

Ishita Dey, a researcher who studied sweet-making in Bengal, recorded that confectioners in shops divide their work between pak-type sweets, which are kneaded and cooked over the fire, and sweets cooked in syrup. The confectioner who gives the final shape on a wooden board called a pata needs the skill to judge when the cooking is done and to shape the sweet. The work of those who curdle the milk, those who cook in the pans and those who carve the molds all leads to the finished product.

Mold carver Jayanta Kumar Das planes teak or other wood flat, cuts out the outline, hollows out the inside and smooths it with a file before carving fine patterns. He says that fine lines can be transferred to smooth chhana sweets, but coarse coconut sweets call for patterns that are deep and not too fine. Even the way a mold is carved changes to suit the sweet’s mixture.

For large wedding gifts, designs such as fish, seashells and brides and grooms have been handed down. In a 2017 interview, Das also presented molds of his own design that combined Howrah Bridge, the streets of Kolkata and a bride and groom riding in a taxi. The surface of the sweets reflects both old celebratory motifs and the town life of the day.

Jalbhara is a sandesh in which scented water or gur is held inside a shape modeled on the kernel of a palmyra palm fruit. Beyond patterning the surface, it is made with a distinct milk shell and liquid filling. It is known as a confectioner’s innovation associated with the name Surjo Moira, and it is counted among the specialties of Chandannagar. Because syrup forms the core and the outside is finished firm enough to hold its shape, a single bite reveals the contrast between the liquid inside and the shell.

How a sweet of the same name changed from concentrated milk to chhana

The name sandesh appears in medieval texts, but not all of the recipes of that time can be identified. Regarding the sweets offered to the religious leader Chaitanya and his contemporaries, the food historian Chitrita Banerji explains that they were made by solidifying sweetened kheer. In this example, the milk was processed differently from today’s chhana sweets. Boiling milk down to drive off moisture and curdling milk with acid to remove the whey differ both in how the milk is concentrated and in the milk structure that remains. The history of the name sandesh therefore includes sweets made with different milk ingredients.

The time when the name sandesh came to refer mainly to chhana sweets cannot be fixed to a single year. It is thought that by the late 19th century, it had become usual for the name to refer to sweets made with chhana. The old kheer sweets and the newer chhana sweets are connected within the history of the same name.

Bengali sweets that use chhana are said to be linked to the milk processing of the Portuguese who lived in Bandel. According to this theory, local artisans learned to handle chhana through the work of supplying food to ships. It is an account of technical exchange in which milk processing was passed on in workplaces where different peoples came into contact.

In the 18th century, urban life and an elite consumer culture developed in Murshidabad, Krishnanagar, Dhaka, Natore and other places. In 19th-century Kolkata, people who had grown wealthy through trade and the urban middle class became customers and patrons of sweet shops. Confectioners competed with new flavors and shapes, and each shop launched sweets under names of its own. Urban consumption and commercial ingenuity came together with the adoption of milk processing.

Local character in Guptipara, Dhaka and Natore

Guptipara, in Hooghly district of West Bengal, has Gupo Sandesh, made with chhana from cow’s milk. As a sweet known early on in Bengal by its own distinctive name, it is also called “the first branded sweet.” It has gained a wide reputation through the link between the place and the name of the product. Chandannagar’s jalbhara is another example of a place name linked to the structure of a sweet.

Among the soft sweets called pranhara in Dhaka, Bangladesh, some combine chhana with mawa, made by boiling milk down. Mawa is a concentrated milk also called khoa. It adds the flavor and fine texture of concentrated milk to a sweet that would otherwise be made by kneading chhana alone. In one recipe introduced locally, half of the chhana is cooked with sugar and cooled, then mixed with the remaining chhana, milk powder, cream and ghee, and the rolled balls are also coated on the outside with mawa. Beyond differences in sweetener, the method of combining two milk ingredients also shows the range of local sweets.

Natore’s kachagola is a specialty that makes the most of the aroma of freshly made cow’s milk chhana. According to an origin story handed down in the district, Madhusudan, a sweet shop owner in Lalbazar, was left with a large amount of chhana one day when his confectioners did not come to work. To keep it from spoiling, he added syrup and cooked it over low heat until it became sticky, and the result was a delicious sweet. The exact date of its creation is not known, and the story is a local legend. This story, too, depicts chhana being cooked with sugar over heat, even though the sweet’s name means “raw.”

Carrying news, delivering sweets to celebrations

Sandesh is not only eaten after meals or at teatime but is also given as a gift when visiting people and as an offering to the gods. The old kheer sweets were relatively dry and kept well, and there is said to have been a custom of taking them along on visits. The name meaning “news” has also been explained in connection with a way of life in which news and sweets were delivered together.

In Bengal, there are customs in which the bride’s side serves sweets on visits leading up to an engagement, and before the wedding the groom’s side sends sweets along with clothing and fish. These gifts include sandesh shaped like fish. The shapes made with molds are decorations, and at the same time they give character to the items delivered to celebrations. Sweets also accompany the announcement of a birth and a child’s first-rice ceremony, and from everyday treats to life’s milestones, small sweets of milk and sugar pass between people.

White sandesh rolled into small balls with a dent on top. An example finished with nuts and other decorations. Photo: Miansari66. Image source / CC0.

Glossary