Friday 9 July 2010

Jaggery (molasses)


English: Jaggery (molasses)

Common Indian Name (Hindi): Gur / Gud

  • Jaggery is a traditional unrefined sugar used throughout South and South East Asia. It is normally manufactured from either sugar cane or date palms, but recent trends in its manufacture have resulted in jaggery made from the sap of coconut and sago palms.
  • It contains the natural goodness of minerals and vitamins inherently present in sugarcane juice & this crowns it as one of the most wholesome and healthy sugars in the world. In Mexico & South America, it is also known as panela.
  • In traditional Indian medicine, called Ayurveda, this sugar has several purposes. It may be prescribed for use for people with sore throats. It has some use in the treatment of bronchial or lung infections, and in fact in research has shown to possibly offset some of the lung damage caused by silicosis, a disease of the lungs that occurs when people are exposed for a long time to silica powder.
  • In taste this unrefined sugar has been compared to brown sugar, and to other forms of raw sugar.
  • It is high in simple carbohydrates. It is rich in magnesium, iron, & potassium.

2 comments:

Spoon and Chopsticks said...

Hi Nidhi,

You have such an informative blog. I'm going to follow you.

I have a few questions. Hope you can help.

1) Are jaggery and molasses the same thing or are they slightly different?

2) How is palm sugar different from jaggery and/or molasses?

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Regards
Spoon and Chopsticks
http://spoon-and-chopsticks.blogspot.com

Arnav said...

Thanks for summing up details about Jaggery. Very Informative.

But just want to point out, since you have put Molasses in braces with Jaggery, which might give incorrect impression to readers that these ar just two names of same thing - Molasses & Jaggery are prepared by different methods & hence are not the same.

In fact, light colored jaggery is preferred over darker ones because of taste and nutrition, while its opposite with molasses - darker is sweeter and healthier compared to light colored molasses. This is because of their different method of preparation.