Jaggery is a sweetener that is made from sugarcane; it is also known as unrefined sugar, which is prepared without the separation of molasses and crystals and is mostly produced in India and Africa. The colour of the gur ranges from golden brown to dark brown in colour. It is used to make several Indian desserts and is known as a healthy replacement of sugar,
How is jaggery (gur) made?Jaggery is commonly made from sugarcane, the process follows only three steps to prepare it.
These are extraction, clarification and concentration. We give you a detailed explanation of how it is produced -
The sugarcanes are pressed through machines in order to extract all the sweet juice or sap from them and this process is known as extraction.
Now, the juice is allowed to stand in large containers so that any residue or sediment is settled at the bottom of the containers. The juice is then strained to produce a clear liquid. This process followed is known as clarification.
The juice is now placed in huge flat bottomed pans and boiled for hours; this process is known as concentration. During this process the juice is stirred constantly.
While stirring, impurities are skimmed off the top until only a yellow, dough-like thick paste remains in the pan.
This paste is then transferred in huge moulds where it is left to cool, until it becomes hard and becomes what is eventually called jaggery. The colour of the jaggery may vary from light to dark brown, depending on the quality of sugarcane and the juice it produced.
White sugar, on the other hand, is processed many times to form tiny crystals. The process includes crushing sugarcane to produce juice, partial purifying of the juice, melting and filtering to remove impurities, crystallizing sugar from syrup and finally drying of sugar crystals further making them edible.
