Jaggery is the concentrated essence of millennia-old tradition

It's more than an indigenous medicinal food or a delectable dessert

- BY AYSHA IMTIAZ

A staunch follower of the unwritten manifesto of South Asian mothers and grandmothers everywhere, my mother thinks there are few ailments she can’t treat at home with food.

One ingredient in particular features regularly in her remedy arsenal. And unlike many of the peculiar poultices she applies and acrid concoctions she brews, this one is an easy pill or lump - to swallow.

The first time I tasted jaggery, I dubiously watched the slowly liquifying lump of molten-gold cane sugar ooze into flaky crevices of a layered paratha. It had been "prescribed" to me by my mother in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province because I had a bone-chilling cold. Against the rugged landscape of imposing mountains fencing the Karakoram Highway, I wondered how something that looked so decadent could be considered healthy. But soon after I bit into the complex sweetness, I felt a rush of energy and warmth. As I would soon find out, this was more than an indigenous medicinal food or a delectable dessert. It was the concentrated essence of millennia-old tradition.

Jaggery (called gud in Pakistan) is an unrefined sugar that’s made by evaporating freshly pressed sugarcane juice (and, in some regions, Palmyrah palm, coconut-palm or date-palm sap extracted via tapping techniques) and cooling the thickened liquid in moulds. Its many monikers across South Asia and close parallels beyond, such as panela in Colombia and much of the Caribbean, kokuto in Japan and rapadura in Brazil - just to name a few - attest to its ubiquity.