Jaggery

Jaggery is a traditional non-centrifugal cane sugar consumed in Asia and Africa. It varies from Golden brown to brown colour. It contains up to 50% sucrose, up to 20% invert sugars, and up to 20% moisture, with the remainder made up of other insoluble matter, such as wood ash, proteins, and bagasse fibers.

Preparation of Jaggery

The sugar cane cultivators use crushers which are ox-driven and are located in fields near the sugar crop. The cut and cleaned sugar cane is put into this crusher. The extracted sugar cane juice is collected in a big vessel. A certain quantity of the juice is transferred to a smaller vessel for heating on a furnace.

The vessel is heated for about one hour. Dried wood pulp from the crushed sugar cane is used as fuel for the furnace. While boiling the juice, some lime is added to it so that all the wood particles are collected on top of the juice in a froth during boiling which is skimmed off. Finally the juice is thickened and reduced to nearly one- third of the original volume. This hot liquid is golden in color. It is stirred continuously and lifted with a spatula to observe whether it forms a thread or drips dropwise while falling. If it forms many threads, it has completely thickened. Now it is poured into a shallow flat bottomed concrete tank to cool and solidify. The tank is large enough to allow only a thin coat of this hot liquid to form at its bottom, so as to increase the surface area for quick evaporation and cooling.

Uses of Jaggery

1. Jaggery is used in toffee and cake made from pumpkin.
2. Jaggery may be used in the creation of alcoholic beverages such as palm wine.
3. Jaggery will be  mixed in an emulsion with buttermilk and mustard oil, to season the inside of tandoor ovens
4.  It is also used in many Ayurvedic preparations.
5. Jaggery is also used in natural dying of fabric.