Rasgulla’s Bengali Origins Are a Fact. Here Are Some Stories Around the World Famous Sweet Dish.

The legends and folklore around rasgullas are testament to their widespread appeal. Here are some interesting stories about the celebrated dessert.

All over India, the rasgulla is a beloved dessert, and is one of the country’s favorite sweet inventions. Depending on where you are, it’s also called rosogolla, roshogollah or rasbari. For a long time, the Bengalis and Odias have fought over who founded it. On 14 November 2017, the Geographical Identification (GI) tag for rasgulla was awarded to West Bengal.

Bengal compiled much historical evidence about how the rasgulla was founded. Their main argument, as food historian K.T. Achaya explains, is that Bengalis learnt the art of making chenna from the Portuguese. They were also the first to experiment with it, since elsewhere in India, separating the chenna from the milk was considered sacrilege, because the milk was offered to gods.

But before we get into its history in Bengal, it's worth looking at the story behind why Odias fought for it. One of the biggest festivals in Puri, Odisha, is the Rath Yatra, where Krishna and his siblings are taken out for the chariot ride. The story goes that rasgullas were invented in Puri, and offered by Lord Jagannath to his consort Lakshmi, as an apology for not taking her along during the Rath Yatra. Following that, since the 11th century, it's also been known as khira mohana for its white appearance, and it is customary to serve it to Goddess Mahalakshmi as prasadam during the last day of the Rath Yatra. While it should have been a secret recipe of the temple, folklore indicates that one of the priests, seeing villagers throwing away excess milk, taught them how to curdle the milk and make rasgullas. The village Pahala, where there were more cows than humans, eagerly learnt how to make chenna and emerged as Odisha’s rasgulla hub.

Now, West Bengal has many of its own origin stories. The Bengalis claim that it was created by Nabin Chandra Das in 1868, and then popularized by the following generations of his family. His great-great grandson Dhiman Das tells the story thus

“Nabin Chandra Das first established a sweet shop in Jorashanko in 1864. But he went out of business soon and after two years, he opened another establishment in Bagbazar. Determined that he would not peddle run-of-the-mill sweets, he wanted to invent a sweet that would solely be his creation. Das tried to boil chenna balls in sugar syrup, but they would just disintegrate. He finally resolved the problem by using reetha and creating bubbles that would lend a sponginess to the chenna balls. After sustained effort, he was able to master the art of holding the balls together, and thus was born rasgulla. His customers loved it.”

One more story around rasgullas is related to Willaim Harold, a reputed British chef, sent to India. His cooking impressed a high ranking official who made Harold his personal cook. One day, the official asked for the local dish rasgulla. Writing recipes weren’t the norm at the time, so Harold had to walk to each house and inquire about teh recipe. But every home gave him a different recipe and technique. This is the ghastly fashion he then used to describe rasgullas: “a bowl of sweet, syrupy, soft cheese balls.”

Here’s a simple rasgulla recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 l whole milk
• 3 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 l water
• 1 tbsp milk
• 1 tsp sooji or all purpose flour
• 2 tbsp rose water

Directions:

• Put the milk in a pan and let it come to a boil while stirring continuously so it doesn’t froth.
• Add the lemon juice once it boils.
• Once the milk curdles, turn off the heat. Pour it into a muslin cloth, which is placed on a bowl. Remove any water and hang the chenna for 30 minutes.
• Then open the chenna and add sooji or flour. Knead until the chenna starts to become greasy.
• Make small balls from the mixture and set aside.
• In a pan, add the sugar and water and stir until the sugar dissolves completely. Divide into three parts.
• Bring the rest of the solution to a boil and add the rasgulla into it. Cover with a lid and let it cook.
• Then open and add one part of the reserved sugar solution. Cover again and let it cook.
• After 5 minutes, add the rest of the solution. Cover and let it cook again.
• To check if the rasgulla is cooked, press its side. If it bounces back to its round shape, it's ready.
• Put each rasgulla in the sugar syrup. Add rosewater. Let it soak the mixture for at least 30 minutes.
• Serve chilled.