Gulab jamun is a sweet confectionery or dessert, originating in the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

, and a type of mithai popular in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

, the

Maldives The Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives, and historically known as the Maldive Islands, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in South Asia located in the Indian Ocean. The Maldives is southwest of Sri Lanka and India, abou ...

and

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

, as well as

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

. It is also common in nations with substantial populations of people with South Asian heritage, such as

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Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

, Gulf states, the

Malay Peninsula The Malay Peninsula is located in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area contains Peninsular Malaysia, Southern Tha ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

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, and the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

(

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago, officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean, comprising the main islands of Trinidad and Tobago, along with several List of islands of Trinidad and Tobago, smaller i ...

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). It is made mainly from milk solids, traditionally from '' khoya'', which is milk reduced to the consistency of a soft dough. Modern recipes call for dried or powdered milk instead of ''khoya''. It is often garnished with dried nuts, such as

almond The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', Synonym (taxonomy)#Botany, syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree from the genus ''Prunus''. Along with the peach, it is classified in the subgenus ''Amygdalus'', distinguished from the other subgenera ...

s and

cashew Cashew is the common name of a tropical evergreen tree ''Anacardium occidentale'', in the family Anacardiaceae. It is native to South America and is the source of the cashew nut and the cashew apple, an accessory fruit. The tree can grow as t ...

s, to enhance flavour.

Preparation

In the Indian subcontinent, milk and cheese solids are prepared by heating milk over a low flame until the water content has evaporated and only the milk solids, known as ''khoya'', remain. The solids are kneaded with flour (maida), and small balls of this dough are deep-fried in oil or

ghee Ghee is a type of clarified butter, originating from South Asia. It is commonly used for cooking, as a Traditional medicine of India, traditional medicine, and for Hinduism, Hindu religious rituals. Description Ghee is typically prepared by ...

(clarified butter) at a low temperature, then soaked in a light sugar syrup flavored with green

cardamom Cardamom (), sometimes cardamon or cardamum, is a spice made from the seeds of several plants in the genus (biology), genera ''Elettaria'' and ''Amomum'' in the family Zingiberaceae. Both genera are native to the Indian subcontinent and Indon ...

and

rose water Rose water, or rosewater, is a flavoured water created by steeping rose petals in water. It is typically made as a by-product during the distillation of rose petals to create rose oil for perfumes. Rose water is widely utilized to flavour cu ...

kewra Kewra, keora or kewda (, , , ਕੇਵੜਾ ) is an essential oil distilled from the male flower of the fragrant screwpine. The plant is native to Tropical Asia, Southeast Asia and Australasia, and the oil is used as a flavoring agent throug ...

saffron Saffron () is a spice derived from the flower of '' Crocus sativus'', commonly known as the "saffron crocus". The vivid crimson stigma and styles, called threads, are collected and dried for use mainly as a seasoning and colouring agent ...

. Hot gulab jamun is often served with vanilla ice cream, or kulfi.

Origins

According to culinary historian Michael Krondl, 12th century

Manasollasa The ' also known as ''Abhilashitartha Chintamani'', is an early 12th-century Sanskrit text composed by the Kalyani Chalukya king Someshvara III, who ruled in present-day Karnataka. It is an encyclopedic work covering topics such as polity, gove ...

mentions a recipe for fried fritter balls made of ''chenna'' cheese and rice flour and was soaked in cardamom-scented syrup, but this recipe did not use rosewater (gulab) syrup. The 13th century Arab dessert '' luqmat al-qadi'' is similar in appearance to gulab jamun, although it is made of entirely different batter than gulab jamun but was soaked in rosewater-scented (gulab) syrup, the only Persian connection may be the common use of rosewater syrup. Gulab Jamun emerged in medieval India during the

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an Early modern period, early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to ...

, blending Persianate influence with local influences that eventually became gulab jamun. The word "gulab" is derived from the Persian words ''gul'' (flower) and ''āb'' (water), referring to the

-scented syrup, and "Jamun" or "jaman" is the

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

word for '' Syzygium jambolanum'', an Indian fruit with a similar size and shape, commonly known as black plum. Jamun is also defined as a fried delicacy in sugar syrup.

Special occasions

''Gulab jamun'' is often eaten at festivals, birthdays or major celebrations such as marriages, the Muslim celebrations of

Eid ul-Fitr Eid al-Fitr () is the first of the two main festivals in Islam, the other being Eid al-Adha. It falls on the first day of Shawwal, the tenth month of the Islamic calendar. Eid al-Fitr is celebrated by Muslims worldwide because it marks the ...

and

Eid al-Adha Eid al-Adha () is the second of the two main festivals in Islam alongside Eid al-Fitr. It falls on the 10th of Dhu al-Hijja, the twelfth and final month of the Islamic calendar. Celebrations and observances are generally carried forward to the ...

, and the Hindu festivals of

Diwali Diwali (), also called Deepavali (IAST: ''Dīpāvalī'') or Deepawali (IAST: ''Dīpāwalī''), is the Hindu festival of lights, with variations celebrated in other Indian religions such as Jainism and Sikhism. It symbolises the spiritual v ...

and Ganesh Chaturthi. There are various types of ''gulab jamun''. File:Gulab jamun , chenna payesh.jpg, Gulab jamun in a glass File:Gulab jamuns at an Indian Party.jpg , Gulab jamun with almond pieces File:Gulab Jamun2.jpg, Gulab jamun often comes with chashni syrup File:GulaabJamun.JPG, Served with ''

'' File:Gulab Jamun Delhi.JPG, With '' vark'' File:Gulaab Jamoon.jpg, Two pieces of Gulab jamun File:Mini Gulab Jamun.jpg, Mini Gulab Jamun

Variants

India

''Gulab jamun'' gets its brownish red colour because of the sugar content in the milk powder (''khoya''). In other types of ''gulab jamun'',

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...

is added in the batter, and after frying, the sugar

caramelization Caramelization (or caramelisation) is a process of browning of sugar used extensively in cooking for the resulting butter-like flavor and brown color. The brown colors are produced by three groups of polymers: (C24H36O18), (C36H50O25), and ...

gives it its dark, almost

black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

colour, which is then called ''kala jamun'' or "black jamun". The sugar syrup may be replaced with (slightly) diluted

maple syrup Maple syrup is a sweet syrup made from the sap of maple trees. In cold climates, these trees store starch in their trunks and roots before winter; the starch is then converted to sugar that rises in the sap in late winter and early spring. Ma ...

for a ''gulab jamun''. Homemade ''gulab jamun'' is usually made up of khoya, a pinch of all-purpose flour/refined wheat flour/ wheat flour (optional), baking powder and clarified butter (

); milk kneaded to form a dough, moulded into balls, deep fried and dropped into simmering sugar syrup. In Bengali, Gulab Jamun is known as Kalo Jam or Pantua, which is similar to ''gulab jamun'', and could be called a Bengali variant of that dish. Ledikeni, a variation of Pantua, is another variant of ''gulab jamun''. It is said to have been invented by Bhim Chandra Nag on the occasion of a visit by Lady Canning, the wife of Charles Canning, the Governor-General of India during 1856–62. Katangi, a town near Jabalpur is famous for "Jhurre Ka Rasgulla", which has been made there for the past 100 years. It is several times the size of normal gulab jamuns and is prepared in local desi ghee. In

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; Literal translation, lit. 'Land of Kings') is a States and union territories of India, state in northwestern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the List of states and union territories of ...

, instead of soaking gulab jamun balls in sugar syrup, they are cooked in gravy made from spices, nuts and tomato to make popular Gulab Jamun ki Sabzi. In Western Madhya Pradesh and

Malwa Malwa () is a historical region, historical list of regions in India, region of west-central India occupying a plateau of volcanic origin. Geologically, the Malwa Plateau generally refers to the volcanic plateau, volcanic upland north of the ...

, Mawa Bati is popular as local version of Gulab Jamun. It is different from Gulab jamun by size, fillings and amount of sweetness, Mawa bati is usually not immersed in Sugar syrup and slightly larger than Gulab Jamun.

Bangladesh

, Pantua is available almost everywhere throughout the country, which can be referred to a

Bengal Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...

i variation of Gulab jamun. Also there are two kinds of jamuns that are famous. They are Golap Jam () and Kalo Jam ().

Nepal

The sweet is known as Lal Mohan () in Nepali language and is available at almost every sweet shop. The sale of the sweet usually increases significantly during festivals such as Tihar, Dashain, etc.

References

External links

{{Doughnuts Indian desserts Uttar Pradeshi cuisine Bihari cuisine Sri Lankan cuisine Pakistani desserts Nepalese cuisine Punjabi cuisine Sindhi cuisine Pashtun cuisine Balochi cuisine Kashmiri cuisine Mauritian cuisine Bangladeshi desserts Bengali desserts Fijian desserts Burmese desserts and snacks Deep fried foods Doughnuts Indian doughnuts Trinidad and Tobago cuisine Holiday foods Nut desserts