Have you ever wondered how some of our favourite mithais get their gulabi flavour? Take the instance of gulab jamun, one of the most beloved mithais among Indians is named after the rose itself! The word 'gulab' is derived from the Persian words gul (flower) and ab(water), referring to the rose-scented sugar syrup the fried khoya balls are soaked in. The scent of the rose comes from the use of rosewater or gulab jal. This powerful essence can make a dish more flavourful just by adding a few drops of it! But do you know how it is made? A viral video shared by Instagram food blogger @foodie_incarnate gives a glimpse of how this flower's essence is created. The video has more than 4.8 million views and over 349k likes.
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How Gulab Jal Is Prepared | How Rose Water Is Prepared
This mind-blowing process uses simple mechanics to give this flavourful essence. To start with, 40-50 kilograms of best quality roses are freshly plucked from the farms. The flowers are added to man-sized pots, also known as degh in Hindi. The pots are filled to the top till it is brimming with flowers. Highly concentrated gulab jal and some water are added to the pots. Next, the pots are sealed shut so that the essence doesn't escape the container. Now, fire is started under the pots using cow dung cakes. A special contraption is attached to a hole within the sealed pot so that the rose-infused steam is captured in another tiny container, this second container is kept floating in the water during the cooking process. The flowers are boiled for at least 4-5 hours.
After this, the tiny container is detached from the degh and let in the water so that the condensation can take place and the rose steam turns into rose water. Once it is cooled, the rose water is ready! It is then packed into bottles and sold commercially.
From each 40-50 kilograms, one only gets a few grams of the purest form of rose essence (rooh gulab) which costs up to 15-20 lakhs per kilogram! Rosewater is a byproduct of rooh gulab.
People were astonished to see this process, here's what they mentioned in the comments:
"Wow this is awesome"
"Ye toh bhut jaada shandar hai"
"It's similar to khuss making process"
"Woah!"
"Fantastic"
What did you think of this process? Do tell us in the comments section below!